SOUTHERN SEED, NORTHERN SOIL
Southern Seed, Northern Soil captures the exceptional history of the Beech and Roberts settlements, two African-American and mixed-race farming communities on the Indiana frontier in the 1830s. Author Stephen A. Vincent analyzes the founders’ backgrounds as a distinctive free people of color from the Old South. He traces the migration that culminated in the founding of the two communities. He follows the settlements’ transformations through the pioneer and Civil War eras, and their gradual transition to commercial farming in the late nineteenth century.
The Beech and Roberts stories are at once part of and distinct from mainstream African-American history. Like other black Americans, the residents of these two communities had to struggle constantly to achieve freedom, autonomy, and economic well-being, yet they were able to defy the odds and thrive over several generations. Building on their advantages as late-eighteenth-century landowners, they took root on the frontier and ultimately paved the way for their descendants’ climb into the urban middle class.
The Beech and Roberts stories are at once part of and distinct from mainstream African-American history. Like other black Americans, the residents of these two communities had to struggle constantly to achieve freedom, autonomy, and economic well-being, yet they were able to defy the odds and thrive over several generations. Building on their advantages as late-eighteenth-century landowners, they took root on the frontier and ultimately paved the way for their descendants’ climb into the urban middle class.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen A. Vincent was an Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater prior to his retirement in 2008. A Hamilton County, Indiana, native, Dr. Vincent’s book was the culmination of twenty years of research. His current research focuses on the overall origins of the 50,000 African-Americans residing in the rural Midwest before the Civil War.
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Listed on the National Registry of Historical Places by the Department of Interior.