Democracy is a multigenerational project, a haven carved out of tyranny by the liberal and diligent application of the sharp-edge of social networks. Purgatory between Kentucky and Canada: African Americans in Ohio presents the work of several scholars who have researched the micro-tactics of ordinary people who attempted to create a little space of peace in a place that was less heavenly than some might suppose. We present histories of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ohio African American individuals who fought for higher education, voting rights, the right to live where they chose and the...

African Americans carved spaces of freedom in Ohio for more than two hundred years and their work is still incomplete. Generations before the US Civil War, free African Americans owned farms and businesses in Ohio. Social networking, education and dignity were tools used in multigenerational efforts to demand the benefits of liberty and citizenship as free and equal citizens. African Americans carved several havens of democracy in Ohio despite the tyranny of racial oppression in Antebellum and post-Civil War American culture. Purgatory between Kentucky and Canada: African Americans in Ohio...