Black Slavery, Native Nations, and the Path to Reconciliation

This podcast is based on Roberts' recent book, I've Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land. We explore questions around Black freedom and Native American relationships. The trail of tears runs through NWA and Native Americans moved though the area with their enslaved Africans. Furthermore, with westward expansion onto Native land, the question of black citizenship would be co-mingled with the issue. As Black, white, and Native people recreated concepts of race, belonging, and national identity, Indian Territory became a space where Black people could flee to escape the ravishes of Jim Crow, as well as finally become landowners and while also exercising political rights. But Blacks have had to sue Native Nations for citizenship rights in recent years. Now with increasing calls for reparations and demands for land, Black and Native relationships are necessary to understand.

Alaina Roberts, Associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh.

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