Between Freedom and Equality: The History of an African American Family in Washington, DC
Barbara Boyle Torrey · Clara Myrick Green
Jun 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by L. Malaika Cooper
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7 hr 39 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Between Freedom and Equality begins with the life of Capt. George Pointer, an enslaved African who purchased his freedom in 1793 while working for George Washington's Potomac Company. It follows the lives of six generations of his descendants as they lived and worked on the banks of the Potomac, in the port of Georgetown, and in a rural corner of the nation's capital. Between Freedom and Equality offers a moving and inspiring look at the challenges that free African Americans have faced in Washington, DC, since the district's founding. The story begins with an 1829 letter from Pointer that is preserved today in the National Archives. Inspired by Pointer's letter, authors Barbara Boyle Torrey and Clara Myrick Green began researching this remarkable man who was a boat captain and supervisory engineer for the Potomac canal system. The Pointer family faced many challenges-the fragility of freedom in a slaveholding society, racism, wars, floods, and epidemics-but their refuge was the small farm they purchased in what is now Chevy Chase. However, in the early twentieth century, the DC government used eminent domain to force the sale of their farm and replaced it with an all-white school. Between Freedom and Equality grants Pointer and his descendants their long-overdue place in American history.
About the author
Barbara Boyle Torrey is the former executive director of the Division of the Behavioral and Social Sciences at the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. She has authored two local histories and edited three books.
Clara Myrick Green has written a local history on a Potomac River community and coauthored two historical articles on George Pointer.
L. Malaika Cooper is a writer, travel professional, and occasional comic. A journalist by vocation, she has written for major publications. Her short stories have also been published in various anthologies, and she is working on an urban fantasy trilogy. A Washington DC native, she currently lives in Houston, Texas.
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