From Publishers Weekly
Though the Underground Railroad is one of the touchstones of American collective memory, there's been no comprehensive, accessible history of the secret movement that delivered more than 100,000 runaway slaves to freedom in the Northern states and Canada. Journalist Bordewich (Killing the White Man's Indian) fills this gap with a clear, utterly compelling survey of the Railroad from its earliest days in Revolution-era America through the Civil War and the extension of the vote to African Americans in 1870. Using an impressive array of archival and contemporary sources (letters, autobiographies, tax records and slave narratives, as well as new scholarship), Bordewich reveals the Railroad to be much more complicated--and much more remarkable--than is usually understood. As a progressive movement that integrated people across races and was underwritten by secular political theories but carried out by fervently religious citizens in the midst of a national spiritual awakening, the clandestine network was among the most fascinatingly diverse groups ever to unite behind a common American cause. What makes Bordewich's work transcend the confines of detached social history is his emphasis on the real lives and stories of the Railroad's participants. Religious extremists, left-wing radicals and virulent racists all emerge as fully realized characters, flawed but determined people doing what they believed was right, and every chapter has at least one moment--a detail, a vignette, a description--that will transport readers to the world Bordewich describes. The men and women of this remarkable account will remain with readers for a long time to come. Illus. not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The Underground Railroad was, in effect, the nation's first civil rights movement. Reflecting on the commitment and sacrifice of both blacks and whites to transport slaves to freedom, Bordewich brings to life the drama and extraordinary personalities involved in the Underground Railroad, challenging the mistaken assumption that it was run exclusively by high-minded whites with blacks playing a dependent role. Bordewich follows the routes from the upper South through Canada, crediting the abolitionist movement with fueling American feminism. But he is most compelling in describing the lives and heroic deeds of those with unfamiliar names associated with the Underground Railroad--George DeBaptiste, Jermain Loguen, Isaac Hopper, and numerous others. Exploring the personalities and motivations of those who helped escaped slaves, Bordewich examines the interplay between the various players--slaves, free blacks, and white abolitionists--who fostered a movement that had significant political and moral consequences on black-white relationships in America. Readers interested in learning about historical figures in the Underground Railroad other than Harriet Tubman will enjoy this work. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the two-volume life of W. E. B. Du Bois
"Bound for Canaan recaptures this grand history with the insightfulness, comprehensiveness, and narrative vigor the subject demands."
Black Issues Book Review
"Rich in detail, [and] its ability to evoke the emotions, sights and sounds of these clandestine ventures."
St. Petersburg Times on Killing the White Man's Indian
"Stunning and well-documented insight."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"An important addition to our history, brilliantly told."
O magazine
"Dramatizes a shining moment in American history-- a book filled with unsung heroes and revolutionary acts of trust."
"Bound For Canaan reveals in stunning detail and beautiful prose the inner workings of this clandestine system."
"This fast-paced narrative is the best account we have of the network known as the Underground Railroad."
Wall Street Journal
"An excellent book . . .as close to a definitive history as we’re likely to see."
USA Today
"A profoundly American tale."
School Library Journal (starred review)
"A rich, spellbinding, and readable narrative."
Book Description
An important book of epic scope on America's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for change The civil war brought to a climax the country's bitter division. But the beginnings of slavery's denouement can be traced to a courageous band of ordinary Americans, black and white, slave and free, who joined forces to create what would come to be known as the Underground Railroad, a movement that occupies as romantic a place in the nation's imagination as the Lewis and Clark expedition. The true story of the Underground Railroad is much more morally complex and politically divisive than even the myths suggest. Against a backdrop of the country's westward expansion arose a fierce clash of values that was nothing less than a war for the country's soul. Not since the American Revolution had the country engaged in an act of such vast and profound civil disobedience that not only challenged prevailing mores but also subverted federal law. BOUND FOR CANAAN tells the stories of men and women like David Ruggles, who invented the black underground in New York City; bold Quakers like Isaac Hopper and Levi Coffin, who risked their lives to build the Underground Railroad; and the inimitable Harriet Tubman. Interweaving thrilling personal stories with the politics of slavery and abolition, BOUND FOR CANAAN shows how the Underground Railroad gave birth to this country's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for social change.
Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The Civil War brought to a climax the country's bitter division. But the beginnings of slavery's denouement can be traced to a courageous band of ordinary Americans, black and white, slave and free, who joined forces to create what would come to be known as the Underground Railroad, a movement that occupies as romantic a place in the nation's imagination as the Lewis and Clark expedition. The true story of the Underground Railroad is much more morally complex and politically divisive than even the myths suggest. Against a backdrop of the country's westward expansion arose a fierce clash of values that was nothing less than a war for the country's soul. Not since the American Revolution had the country engaged in an act of such vast and profound civil disobedience that not only challenged prevailing mores but also subverted federal law." Bound for Canaan tells the stories of men and women like David Ruggles, who invented the black underground in New York City; bold Quakers like Isaac Hopper and Levi Coffin, who risked their lives to build the Underground Railroad; and the inimitable Harriet Tubman. Interweaving personal stories with the politics of slavery and abolition, Bound for Canaan shows how the Underground Railroad gave birth to this country's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for social change.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Countless black and white Americans operated the Underground Railroad, defying slaveholders and the federal government to escort fugitive slaves over land or by sea to freedom-and risking severe punishment if captured. Bordewich (Killing the White Man's Indian) covers six decades of the Underground Railroad, from its inchoate beginnings to its height, when it boasted a complex network of individuals determined to eliminate slavery from a nation proclaiming to be the land of liberty. Similar in scope to David W. Blight's Passages to Freedom, this work takes into account the many parties involved at all levels of the Underground Railroad. Bordewich draws mainly from primary sources to craft a rich, spellbinding, and readable narrative for lay readers, praising Underground Railroad men and women for setting in motion "far-reaching political and moral consequences that changed [race] relations in ways more radical than any since the American Revolution" and long before the modern Civil Rights Movement. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/04.]-Charles L. Lumpkins, Pennsylvania State Univ., State College Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A vivid reconstruction of abolitionism's most daring act of rebellion, "an epic of high drama, moral courage, religious inspiration, and unexpected personal transformations played out by a cast of extraordinary personalities."The abolitionist movement, Bordewich (My Mother's Ghost, 2000, etc.) notes, began not long after the Revolutionary War ended, and it began in the revolutionary hotbed of Philadelphia. Its earliest members were religious activists, though as the 19th century progressed, the Underground Railroad-the term refers to an interlocking system of routes and way stations by which slaves were afforded escape-became hydra-headed, with very little central direction, a great deal of individual initiative, and no set ideology save for one overarching goal: "to provide aid to any fugitive slave who asked for it." In those early days, Bordewich writes, utmost secrecy was of the essence, for slavery was allowed and practiced everywhere in the US but Vermont; gradually, however, the North shed the "peculiar institution," while Thomas Jefferson hazarded that the South would soon follow. Thus turn-of-the-century law required that fugitive slaves be returned to their owners, one reason that the Underground Railroad's favored terminus was enlightened Canada, where fugitives found work as skilled construction workers, "as shoemakers, tailors, barbers, cooks, and agricultural laborers," and even as some of the first tourist guides at Niagara Falls. Things became more complicated when slave states and free states butted heads: for instance, when free blacks in Cincinnati surrounded slaves on the way to Kentucky and urged them not to go any farther, and when a Philadelphia court ruled that theslave of a South Carolina senator resident in the city was a free man, having lived in Pennsylvania long enough to establish legal residency. It might have shocked some of the pacifist founders of the Underground Railroad, Bordewich ventures, to learn that their actions would in time help spark the Civil War-and perhaps even to know that abolitionism would directly beget feminism. Rich in detail and solid storytelling: sure to awaken interest in the peculiar anti-institution.
Art & Photography
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