Mixing It Up

Mixing It Up Early African-American Settlements in Northwestern Ohio

Journal of Black Studies Volume XX Number XX Month XXXX XX-XX © Sage Publications 10.1177/0021934707305432 http://jbs.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com

Jill E. Rowe Virginia Commonwealth University

Prior to the 19th century, African-American settlers founded a number of productive communities in Northwestern Ohio. During this time period, there were a number of intermarriages and couplings between indigenous people, European explorers, ethnically diverse shipmates, and free and enslaved Africans in this section of the country. Descendents of these unions were dubbed Melungeon, mulatto, or colored, depending on the discretion of oftilliterate census takers. Though much is written about the hostilities free people of color faced in the South, descriptive documentation of their experiences in Northwestern Ohio is scarce. An examination of primary and secondary sources offers evidence of their agency as they struggled with structural barriers that lead to disenfranchisement and descent into the racially identifiable category of African American. White resistance to these diverse settlements and settlers challenges America’s collective memory of a racially tolerant North. Keywords: African American; Melungeon; mulatto; free persons of color; Northwestern Ohio; early African-American settlements We seldom study the condition of the Negro today honestly and carefully. It is so much easier to assume that we know it all. Or perhaps, having already reached conclusions in our own minds we are loath to have them disturbed by facts. And yet how little we really know of these millions—of their daily lives and longings. W.E.B. DuBois, 1903/1989, p.101

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ery little is written about free African Americans and people of color who settled in Northwestern Ohio prior to and during the 19th century. A host of freed and escaped enslaved Africans from plantations in Kentucky and Virginia and disenfranchised Native Americans migrated to the frontier. Primary source materials divulge intermarriages between early 1

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settlers of diverse ethnicities (Selfridge, 1981). At their whim, early census takers and record keepers imposed a label on their offspring, a practice some have termed pencil genocide, as they arbitrarily erased genetic linkages. It was not unusual for those of mixed heritage to be categorized as Negro, thereby condemning them to a life of servitude and second-class citizenship. People mixed with European, Native American, African, or any combination of the three were labeled mulattos, free persons, or Melungeon, a process that served to disenfranchise them. Pure-blooded Europeans were given priority in court hearings involving land entitlements, resulting in lost inheritances for those hailing from mixed parentages. Many of the latter left or were systematically forced off their land, whereas others stayed on and fought for their rights, eventually acquiring possession of their land and leaving a legacy for future generations. In Northwestern Ohio, these pioneers founded self-sustaining and fully functioning towns, including Rumley, Carthegena, and Wren. Through an archival methodology, firstperson accounts, papers, and primary and secondary sources, a multifaceted story emerges of bonding, shared struggle, and determination not traditionally associated with diverse groups. Some racially mixed early settlers migrated from the Southeastern United States to Northwestern Ohio. Their origin is uncertain, and scholars have argued a range of theories regarding the relationship between early conquests and indigenous people. Three are highlighted here: (a) the Spanish Inquisition theory, (b) the Carthaginian theory and (3) the Mulatto theory. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish ships explored the Southeastern corner of North America. Their geographical span encompassed Northern North Carolina, Southern and Western Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, Southern West Virginia, Southern Ohio, Western Louisiana, the eastern edge of Texas, and the panhandle of Florida (Netanyahou, 1995). The crews of these Spanish fleets included Marrano Jews and Moriscos (both proclaimed adherence to Christianity to avoid the cruelties imposed by the Inquisition), Portuguese, Catalans, and Muslim prisoners captured from Moorish and Ottoman ships, as well as slaves from their colonies. Current scholarship explores the cultural politics of Spanish colonialism during this period and characterizes it as deeply rooted in the construction of new social beings or a racialized triad comprised of Spanish, Indigenous, and African blood (Silverblatt, 2006). As the Spanish withdrew from North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia, they left a legacy of ethnically diverse children who later intermarried with indigenous people, runaway and freed African American slaves, and indentured servants of Western European origin (Bible, 1975). The terms

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most often used in the literature to describe them are Melungeon or mulatto. However, during the pre–Civil War period, primary and secondary literature customarily applies the term free person to anyone who is not White. The Carthaginian theory links the origins of the people now identified as Melungeon, with a Portuguese migration following the American Revolution (Allen, 1999). Accounts attesting to this premise place emphasis on separation from linkages between themselves and those identified as African American. The stigma attached to possessing African blood is evident early on. Price (1971) explains the genesis and sentiments of those claiming Portuguese heritage in the following: Phoenicians who, after Carthage fell to the Romans, emigrated across the Straits of Gibraltar and settled in Portugal. They lived there for many years and became quite numerous on the Southern coast of Portugal until the time of the American Revolution. During that time a colony of them crossed the Atlantic and settled on the coast of South Carolina near the present North Carolina line. From there they moved into the mountains of southwest Virginia and East Tennessee to escape ill treatment from the White settlers and the per capita tax levied on free Negroes. (p. 3)

The Mulatto theory contends the naissance of Melungeons results from an unresolved dispute between the colonies of Virginia and North Carolina over a strip of land given to them by the British Royal Crown (Kessler & Ball, 2001). Claimed by both colonies but administered by neither, it became a no man’s land, attracting people who did not want to be governed or supervised and was mostly comprised of mixed-race and indigenous people at odds with the dominant culture. Virginia’s colonial records offer a glimpse of the diverse ethnic origins of the area’s inhabitants, listing them as free Mulattos, free Negroes, African and Native mixtures, European and Native mixtures, and the children of indentured Irish women servants and African slave men. Kessler and Ball contend that the history of Melungeons started with the free Mulattos who inhabited this area and later migrated further north to border states perceived as slightly more tolerant. Historical records indicate that many of the inhabitants were social outcasts from Virginian, Kentuckian, North Carolinian, and indigenous communities that intermarried, migrated north, and established or joined newly formed settlements (Heinegg, 1997). Before 1830, some benevolent slave owners in the South could not in good conscience participate in the institution of slavery and were willing to emancipate their slaves. In most states, however, manumission was coupled

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with the requirement that freed slaves leave the state within a designated time period, as it was commonly believed that their presence would be disruptive and therefore challenge the dominant culture’s system of social control (Franklin & Moss, 2000). Ohio was a natural destination for some of these newly manumitted slaves. They came for a variety of reasons; its 375-mile common border with the slave states of Virginia and Kentucky and its status as a free state made it a haven for fugitive and free slaves and other free people of color. For others, Ohio’s proximity to Canada made it attractive. Prior to the Civil War, Ohio never supported any significant proslavery sentiment; however, there was wide-spread discrimination against free African Americans and mulattos, which grew in proportion to their numbers. Early Ohioans were particularly unwilling to receive free African Americans who emigrated from the South and Appalachia, often describing them as exhibiting the same behavior and values of the redneck society, which disturbed respectable people (Sowell, 2005). Although Ohio was considered a free state that forbade slavery, it passed a series of Black Laws in 1804, 1807, 1829, and 1830, which eroded the civil and legal rights of its free African American and mulatto population and aided in discouraging settling in the state (McGee, 1980). Examples of these laws were the following: 1. Unless they could produce freedom papers issued from some court in the United States, Negroes and mulattos were not allowed to settle in the state. 2. Negroes already living in the state had to register with the county clerk. 3. Newly freed Negroes were forbidden to enter the state, unless they could provide a $500 bond signed by two White men guaranteeing their good behavior and support. 4. Negroes were not to be counted when determining the number of elected seats to be filled in the general assembly. 5. Negroes could not benefit from the law providing for the maintenance of the poor in the state because the law applied only to legal residents and they were not considered legal residents. 6. Negroes were denied admission to the state common school system and prohibited from sharing the state common school fund. (Sheeler, 1946, pp. 208-226)

The Black Laws, plus the state’s constitution, demonstrate Ohio’s official attitude toward free African Americans: prohibit slavery, keep free African Americans out, degrade free African Americans in the state, and allow slavery to continue outside of Ohio. The Black Laws were undoubtedly

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engineered to keep free African Americans in a subservient position when they succeeded in entering the state, but ignored by enforcement officials and flouted by free African Americans, Mulattos, and runaway slaves alike, they failed to discourage migration. In Ohio’s southern counties, such as Brown and Hamilton, located closer to the slave states of Virginia and Kentucky, free African Americans encountered greater hostility marked by race riots of 1829, 1836, and 1841 (Litwack, 1961). Attracted by the Ohio River, whose boat traffic provided menial jobs in the late 1820s, free African Americans’ migration into Southern Ohio increased alarmingly, provoking White resistance. John Malvin, a Southern free African American whose wandering brought him to Southern Ohio said, “I thought upon coming to a free state like Ohio, that I would find every door thrown open to receive me, but from the treatment I received by the people generally, I found it little better than Virginia” (Peskin, 1966, p. 39). Before long, Malvin saw the condition of free African Americans in this part of Ohio, read some of Ohio’s Black Laws responsible for the condition, and made the following observation about the limited options and process of institutionalization there: “Thus I found every door closed against the colored man in a free state, except the jails and penitentiaries, the doors of which were thrown wide open to receive him” (Peskin, 1966, p. 40). In Northwestern Ohio, where few free African Americans lived, conditions were very different and racial prejudices rare. Mercer, Van Wert, Auglaize, Allen, Paulding, Defiance, and Shelby counties, traversed by the Erie Canal and where they could purchase land, attracted not only free African Americans but also free people of mixed heritage (Hipp, 1971). These groups intermarried and intermingled with indigenous people and indentured servants who hailed primarily from Western Europe (Selfridge, 1981). An account from the oral history narrative of Furl Williams illustrates the dissimilarity in conditions for free African Americans between locations In the year 1867, Charles Williams was born the son of John Williams, one-half a mile of West Mandale, Ohio. Dad often told me of his early life in Paulding County while we were sitting on the banks of Dog Creek, Little Auglaize, Big Auglaize, or Middle Creek, fishing. He told me that his father and my grandfather was a runaway slave from the Hughes Plantation somewhere in Kentucky. Coming from the Hughes Plantation our names would have been Hughes instead of Williams, but when granddad arrived in Ohio by the way of the Underground Railroad, he changed his name to Williams to keep from being detected. My granddad brought

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a small acreage of land in Washington Township, Paulding County and built a small cabin on it, and began farming with his white wife Susan, my grandmother. (Rowe-Adjibogoun, 2004)

A number of accounts attest to the contrast in treatment of African Americans in Northwestern Ohio versus Southern Ohio. Factors attributed to the phenomenon include the type of employment available in each location, the number of free African Americans in the area (whose increase sparked racial tension), and the effect of the abolition movement, which was much stronger in the Northwest. The attitude of the White population toward free African Americans in Ohio in part reflected the background of the White migrants in that area. The largest group of settlers was the Scottish Irish from Pennsylvania and southern lands such as Virginia and Kentucky (Chaddock, 1908). They located along the Ohio River counties, especially in the Symmes Purchase near Cincinnati (Chaddock, 1908). They opposed slavery on economic grounds; that is, they saw slavery as profitable to a relatively small number of large-scale plantation owners. To them, slavery was economically stifling to the vastly predominant non-slave-holding Whites and to the South in general. However, they also opposed free African Americans, whom they saw as a competitive threat to the free labor market (Hale, 1998). Because of their predominately Southern flavor and the pervasive stereotype of African Americans as lazy, shiftless, ignorant, and immoral persons, they staunchly resisted free African Americans as well as other free people of color. Influenced by their puritan values, the New England contingent who settled in the Western Reserve Region of Northern Ohio or in Marietta opposed slavery on moral grounds (Chaddock, 1908). They could accept free African Americans as long as they were an idealistic image in their minds. But when the people of the Marietta area came into contact with free African Americans, the image became tarnished, and they generally went along with the severe Southern Ohio methods of dealing with them. Quakers hailing from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas made up the third significant group of European Americans (Randall & Ryan, 1912). They settled in the Central and Southeastern counties and resolutely maintained their humanitarian idealisms and their strong religious beliefs, enabling them to fight for better treatment of African Americans (Feather, 1998). They played an essential role in the Ohio abolition movement in the 1830s and 1840s. Government documents confirm a number of early settlements of African American and free persons of color throughout the state of Ohio.

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Three of the most extensive in Northwestern Ohio were Rumley, located in Shelby County, Washington Township; Carthegena, located in Mercer County, Wilshire Township; and Wren, located in Van Wert County (Hipp, 1971). The village of Rumley is historically recognized as an early AfricanAmerican settlement. This is problemitized by family records, oral history accounts, and county records, which describe its founders as brothers Joel and Wesley Goings, members of the Wappoo Tribe, Cusabo Nation, originating in what is now South Carolina (Hipp, 1971). County land rights records document that the brothers purchased 400 acres of land in 1830. Seeing the need for a settlement, they platted the Village of Rumley in 1837 on the Indian Trail, the main road between Piqua and Lima (McGhee, 1980; Selfridge, 1981). Various groups of free African-American settlers from as far away as Baltimore traveled westward to join the new community. Oral tradition holds that Rumley was a part of the Underground Railroad, which added to its attraction. It was also a natural rest stop for the stagecoach, leading to the construction of an inn, livery stable and the establishment of stores, a saloon and industries, including a brick factory, a sawmill, and a gristmill. Free African Americans Solomon Lott and John Robinson received land grants of 120 acres each from President Martin Van Buren in 1837 and settled there (Selfridge, 1981). The Rumley community also supported three African American churches, the African Methodist Episcopal, the Elm Grove Baptist, and the Middle Creek Zion Baptist (Hipp, 1971). The population of Rumley grew to more than 500 people and continued to flourish until 1865, when a broadside warning African Americans appeared throughout Shelby County: WARNING!!! To Negroes in Shelby County At a meeting of the I.O.O.N.A. it was resolved that in consequence of the late influx of Negroes to some parts of this county, especially near Romley [sic], Daysville, and vicinity, and in consequence of their bad conduct, insolence, and competition with white labor and other numerous causes it was resolved to give you WARNING!!! That you must arrange your business and depart within sixty days from this date, or by the 20th of November 1865, or measures, already adopted, will be taken to make this location unhealthy for you. Our means are adequate, and it is a duty we owe our families, ourselves and society to use them promptly. September 15, 1865 By Order of I.O.O.N.A. (McGhee, 1980)

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The poster documents structural methods, outside of the Black Laws, used by the dominant culture to terrorize free African Americans in Northwestern Ohio. Some Rumley settlers left for other Northwestern Ohio towns including Lima, Dayton, and Toledo, apparently in response to the warning. Careful review of local historical documents, newspaper accounts, and local literature offers no other explanation for the drastic decline of African American and free settlers of color in the Rumley area after 1865. The sign failed to intimidate others and they held their own in Rumley. Joel Goings is an example of a free person of color who persevered. In 1837, he married Elizabeth (Cole) Goings, who was of Irish descent (Hipp, 1971). They stayed on in Rumley and parented nine children, one of whom was D.C. Goings, born on May 19, 1839. The legacy of Dr. D.C. Goings is still kept alive in the oral histories of family members. He is buried in the Middle Creek Zion Baptist Church Cemetery (the Negro Cemetery) in Washington Township. Dr Goings’ burial is significant as it illustrates the practice of categorizing free people of color into a single group—African American. Oral traditions identify D.C. Goings as the village shaman. He is reported to have commenced his calling at the age of 12, pursuing a college education in medicine until the age of 22 (Hipp, 1971). In 1900, Goings published The Faith Cure to the Invalids, a pamphlet that spells out how the spirits imparted him with the healing power that he possessed and successfully administered to the faithful. Local legend attests to his reputation as an exceptional healer, drawing patients from many of the neighboring villages. On March 15, 1860, he married Rebecca Fox, the daughter of Archibald Fox, a full-blooded Indian (there is no record of Archibald Fox’s tribal affiliation). Their children were Joseph, Wesley, Lavenia, Isabella, Balaam, Craig, Charles, Julia, and Louella (Hipp, 1971). Louella Goings married Charles Williams in 1885. Charles Williams was the son of John Williams (Hughes)—previously mentioned in this document. He arrived in Northwestern Ohio via the Underground Railroad from the Hughes Plantation in Kentucky. Williams and his offspring were free African Americans, a finding that documents the racialized mixing in the area, a practice that was not as common in Southern Ohio. The original farm is still in the family, although Rumley as a town no longer exists. The current address of the farm is Plain City, Ohio. Members of the family still live there, and it is the site of the annual combined Goings-Williams Pow Wow and Family Reunion, a tradition since 1919. Family reunions are a primary source when compiling histories of African Americans in the United States. They are essentially yearly gatherings of kin from all over the country and consist of participants bringing and sharing a favorite food dish with other family

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members. These events are rich sources of family history and genealogies passed down via oral traditions. Carthegena (the connection between the place name of Carthegena and Carthaginian theory is unknown), located in Mercer County, was another significant early African-American community in Northwestern Ohio. As early as 1835, August Wattles, a Quaker from Connecticut, founded a manual training school in the area (McGhee, 1980). Charles Moore, a free African American, is credited with developing and planning the Village of Carthegena in 1840 (McGhee, 1980). Moore’s initial development consisted of 64 lots, and the town continued to grow and flourish until European-American settlers began to move in. Complaining that the residents of Carthegena sheltered runaway slaves, they encircled AfricanAmerican homes. Pressure continued to build between the two groups, and it increased considerably when a group of freed African Americans from the Randolph Plantation in Roanoke, Virginia attempted to settle there. The historical document From Greenwood to Wren (Wren Historical Publication, 1837) details the conditions of Randolph’s will and its significance to Carthegena: Randolph’s will provided for the emancipation of his 318 slaves and also funds for their support. Between 30 and 40 ex-slaves were granted deeds from 40 to 60 acres of land in Mercer County, Wilshire Township. The administers [sic] of the estate sent two agents to Mercer County to assist freed slaves in settling. Eventually the size of the community had grown to 125 Negro male voters. (pp. 13)

John Randolph’s benevolence is widely reported in a number of historical sources (Bouldin, 1878; Cabell, 1922/1970; Garland, 1851). In all accounts, he is described as a brilliant but eccentric slaveholding member of a Virginia dynasty, a former United States congressman, and a political adviser to several presidents. In 1832, he manumitted his slaves through his will. Manumission by a will was a practice not uncommon in the South at this time. Freedom was to be followed by compliance with state law, which required emigration from the state within a designated time period. But in Randolph’s case, problems over court litigation, land purchases, and estate executors delayed emigration until 1846. Even before the will of John Randolph directed his 318 emancipated slaves to be settled on purchased land in Mercer county, the White people of that county—through the efforts of August Wattles—had already seen the growth of a rural African American community in their midst (May, 1968).

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The reception given these ex-slaves served to underline Ohio’s continued hostility toward free African Americans. Upon receiving news of their impending arrival, a group of Mercer and Auglaize County German American settlers passed several resolutions on African-American colonization in the area: 1. Resolved: That we will not live among Negroes, as we have settled here first, we have fully determined that we will resist the settlements of Negroes and mulattos in this county to the full extent of our means, the bayonet not excepted. 2. Resolved: That the Negroes of this county be and are hereby respectfully requested to leave the county on or before the first day of March, 1847, and in the case of their neglect or refusal to comply with this request, we pledge ourselves to remove them, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must. 3. Resolved: That we who are assembled pledge ourselves not to employ or trade with any Negro or Mulatto person in any manner whatever or permit them to have any grindings done at our mills after the first day of March next. (May, 1968)

As they came up the Miami-Erie Canal, the Randolph freed slaves encountered angry resistance. Some of the Cincinnati and Dayton newspapers seemed to forecast doom if the freed African Americans were allowed to settle. They arrived in the village of Carthegena one Sunday in July of 1846, and within 1 week, armed German American citizens escorted them to the county line. Judge Leigh, executor of John Randolph’s estate, took personal charge of the freed African Americans and took them by boat to Piqua, Ohio. Many stayed there and in Sidney, and it was supposed that the rest would disperse themselves between Piqua and Cincinnati (May, 1968). Some freed Randolph slaves went to areas other than Mercer County. Historical publications and family documentation disclose that Godfrey Brown, a former slave of John Randolph, also settled in Northwestern Ohio. According to family records, Brown, the son of slave parents, was granted freedom from the John Randolph Plantation on March 7, 1820, when he was 52 years old. Brown reportedly purchased release for his family from Randolph’s plantation and moved them to freedom in Van Wert County in 1830. There, Brown, a minister, founded Middle Run Baptist Church, now the oldest African-American church in the state of Ohio (Wren Historical Publication, 1837) and is reported to have established the Middle Run Baptist Cemetery, the final resting place of many free African Americans that moved to Ohio for freedom from Virginia slave owners.

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From Greenwood to Wren (Wren Historical Publication, 1837) verifies that slaves freed from the Randolph estate began arriving in the Wren area of Van Wert County in 1837. Historical documentation is contradicted by oral tradition, which argues that not Godfrey Brown but his grandsons, William Harvey Brown and James Brown, settled in Van Wert County. They are reported to be the sons of Godfrey Brown’s son Samuel, also a minister. William and James are reported to have left the Xenia area to move to Van Wert County to join an already flourishing African American community in the area. An account from an unpublished paper from the Spring Quarter History Class of Ohio State University Lima Campus (1971) describes Godfrey Brown’s connection to the area under question: Godfrey Brown, a runaway slave, joined the Revolutionary Army where he became renowned for bravery. His former owner, hearing of his valor, gave him his freedom at the close of the war. Somehow, Godfrey Brown made his way to Van Wert County where in 1780-85, he is reputed to have purchased for 25 cents per acre over one-eighth of the county. His family held title to this land (intact) until the Civil War. One of his descendents is still the owner of a large farm in the county. Mr. E. Elmer Brown and Mr. Bert King of Lima are descendents of that pioneer. (p. 7)

The dates given for Godfrey Brown’s arrival to the Ohio area conflict with the dates given for the execution of John Randolph’s will. However, it is widely documented that Randolph did manumit some of his slaves prior to his final will and testament. The Brown family has maintained residence on the land purchased in Wren since 1837, providing further testament to the legacy of landownership by freed African Americans in this vicinity. Little is known regarding racial mixing between people in Carthegena, but information compiled from the federal census, and the mention of mulattos in the German Resolution, indicate the presence of mixed-race persons, mixed-race marriages, and African Americans who took in EuropeanAmerican boarders (Selfridge, 1981). Area oral history accounts detail the evolving Diaspora: According to my information we’ve gathered through my Black friends, there was a colony of Black settlers over around Van Wert in the early 1800’s, 1827 or 1847, I’m not sure. They were given 750 acres of land by their owners down south that freed them. They brought this land and turning free they settled up on it. I think there was another colony down by Anna, I don’t know if land was involved there, there was another one in Shelby County, I believe, I think there were three groups settled in the general area, and there’s one

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family I understand that still owns 157 acres of land around Van Wert County, the original ranch that they had. These folks, many of them came in to Lima and worked as domestics and stable hands and gardeners, many of them chauffeurs and carriage drivers and so forth for the well to do. (Gales, 1978)

These accounts speak volumes and depict a diverse sampling of settlements in Northwestern Ohio. History books would do well to add the voices and experiences of free African Americans and other free persons of color to narratives concerning the pre– and post–Civil War settling of Ohio. Accounts emphasizing the constant mixing between people of all ethnicities illustrate a shared sense of identity among groups. Individual responses to terror tactics used by European American settlers over land rights demonstrate how free people of color reacted to the attacks, a point not often discussed in historical accounts. Unfortunately, the towns of Rumley and Carthegena no longer exist, but descendents of the Goings-Williams’s and the Browns’ continue to pass down their heritage during yearly gatherings on the original settlements. Official county records and census takers have successfully erased the Melungeon or mulatto heritages of some of the locals by reclassification to African American. Genetic ties remain vividly alive through oral traditions. Racial tolerance, as exhibited by the large number of intermarriages, was a practice not replicated in Southern Ohio. Early African-American settlements in Northwestern Ohio are unique and challenge the pre–Civil War national image of a racially tolerant, nonviolent North and the notion that free people of color succumbed to the violence thrust on them. Details of life for these early pioneers provide evidence of their mixed heritages, humanize their experiences, attest to their strengths, and account for structural constraints leading to their demise and resilience.

References Allen, S. D. (1999). More on the free Black population of the Southern Appalachian Mountains: speculations on the North African continent. Journal of Black Studies, 25(6), 651-671. Bible, J. (1975). Melungeons: Yesterday and today. Rogersville: East Tennessee Printing. Bouldin, P. (1878). Home reminiscences of John Randolph of Roanoke. Richmond: Clemmitt & Johns. Cabell, B. W. (1970). John Randolph of Roanoke, 1773-1833. New York: Octagon. (Original work published 1922) Chaddock, C. (1908). Ohio before 1850. New York: Columbia University Press. DuBois, W.E.B. (1989). The souls of Black folk. New York: Bantam. (Original work published 1903)

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Feather, C. (1998). Mountain people in a flat land. Athens: Ohio University Press. Franklin, J. H., & Moss, A. (2000). From slavery to freedom: A history of African Americans. New York: Knopf. Gales, V. (1978). Spedy historical project. Unpublished paper donated to the Allen County Historical Society, Lima, Ohio. Garland, H. (1851). The life of John Randolph of Roanoke. New York: D. Appleton. Goings, D.C. (1900). The faith cure to the invalids. Grover Hill, OH: Lonelm Printing. Hale, E. (1998). Making Whiteness: The culture of segregation in the South, 1890-1940. New York: Vintage. Heinegg, P. (1997). Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia: Including the family histories of 80% of those counted as “all other free persons” in the 1790 and 1800 census. Baltimore, MD: Clearfield. Hipp, L. (1971). History of Grover Hill. Grover Hill, OH: Grover Hill Press. Kessler, J. S., & Ball, D. (2001). North from the mountains: A folk history of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. Litwack, L. (1961). North of slavery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. May, A. (1968). The Negro and Mercer County. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Dayton, Ohio. McGhee, E. (1980). Black history. Unpublished paper presented to the Allen County Historical Society, Lima, Ohio. Netanyahou, B. (1995). The origins of the inquisition in fifteenth century Spain. New York: Random House. Peskin, A. (Ed.). (1966). North to freedom: The autobiography of John Malvin, free Negro, 1795-1880. Cleveland, OH: Western Reserve University. Price, H. R. (1971). Melungeons: The vanishing colony on Newman’s Ridge. Sneedville, OH: Hancock County Drama Association. Randall, E., & Ryan, D. J. (1912). History of Ohio IV. New York: Century History. Rowe-Adjibogoun, J. (2004). The impact of structural constraints on the quality of life for African American males in Lima, Ohio: A community history. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Selfridge, A. (1981). A directory of Blacks in Allen County prior to 1883. Unpublished report prepared for the Allen County Historical Society, Lima, Ohio. Sheeler, R. (1946). The struggle of the Negro in Ohio for freedom. Journal of Negro History, 31, 208-26. Silverblatt, I. (2006). Colonial conspiracies. Ethnohistory, 53(2), 259-267. Sowell, T. (2005). Black rednecks and White liberals. San Francisco: Encounter. Spring Quarter History Class of Ohio State University. (1971). Black history of Lima. Unpublished paper donated to the Allen County Historical Society, Lima, Ohio. Wren Historical Publication. (1837). From Greenwood to Wren. Wren, Ohio: Greenwood County Historical Archives, Greenwood County Museum.

Jill E. Rowe, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth. Her research interests are African American culture, health disparities in African American culture, medicalization, and health literacy. She has recently been published in Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research.