Keith P. Giffler is assistant professor of African American history at the University of Cincinnati.
" Frontline of Freedom is a valuable contribution to the growing
field of Underground Railroad studies, and one hopes the field will
continue in this vein. It is not a simplistic triumphal history of
black involvements and interracial cooperation. It is a stirring
reminder of the high price of freedom, and of what ordinary men and
women, black and white, were willing to risk and endure to pay that
price." -- Civil War History
"A well-researched book that explores closely the dynamics of the
operation; exactly who helped whom, the logistics involved, the
problems encountered, and black settlements in the North." --
Kentucky Monthly
"An important work that makes explicit the role African Americans
performed in liberating themselves and fellow bondsmen during the
antebellum era." -- Journal of Illinois History
"Bold, imaginative, and important, Griffler's short masterpiece
will join the front line of classics on the antislavery movement."
-- H-Net Reviews
"Both refreshing and compelling, highlighting the major role that
African-Americans in Ohio, individually and communally, played in
the ferrying of freedom seekers from Kentucky, Virginia, and other
slave states to freedom in the North." -- Civil War Book Review
"Finalist for the Governor's Award given by the Kentucky Historical
Society." --
"Griffler delves into this little-understood topic to give us a
mountain of information." -- Northern Kentucky Heritage
"Griffler has done a fine job rescuing lost stories. His objective
to create a more racially balanced history of the Underground
Railroad is timely and eminently sensible." -- American Historical
Review
"Griffler has made a significant contribution to our understanding
of the role of African Americans in the early formation of the
system as well as identified a number of previously underutilized
sources." -- West Virginia History
"Griffler has made an important scholarly contribution to the
historiography of the Underground Railroad by focusing on the
'front line' of this emancipation network-the African Americans who
led so many bonds people across the Ohio River.... Highly
recommended." -- Choice
"Griffler has provided the reader with names of largely unheralded
white and black heroes and heroines normally neglected in any
studies of this subject." -- Bowling Green (KY) Daily News
"Griffler makes his case well, and in doing so not only offers a
necessary corrective to earlier Underground Railroad history but
also reminds us that black activity of this sort could not have
occurred in a vacuum, the isolated acts of a heroic few." --
Journal of Southern History
"Griffler's book introduces so many vibrant lives and events,
transformations and telling details, that by book's end the reader
is eager for more, rather than less-again, a welcome change, and an
accomplishment of which the author can be proud." -- Journal of
American History
"Griffler's important, well-written account... is part of welcome
recent efforts to focus on the role of African Americans in the
UGRR." -- Indiana Magazine of History
"Griffler's volume excels in presenting an original and extremely
useful... interpretation of the origins, character, and growth of
the Underground Railroad in this vital region." -- The
Historian
"Highly informative and engaging.... A must read for all scholars
of antebellum America who surely will come away from it with a
fresh new perspective on this important aspect of United States
history." -- Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
"I easily rank this as my #1 book of the year, for general readers
and academics alike." -- AfroAmericanHeritage.com
"Introduces readers to a host of Ohio River Valley black
abolitionists whose involvement in the Underground Railroad was
previously unknown." -- Register of the Kentucky Historical
Society
"Redeems a shamefully neglected part of our collective memory.
Collecting new and extant oral histories, Dr. Griffler shows that
the actual relationship between the races was far richer and more
textured than the written record alone would suggest." -- Rita
Kohn
"This innovative examination of the Underground Railroad explores
the often neglected and overlooked roles African Americans
played.... Griffler introduces a variety of African American voices
and viewpoints. An important contribution." -- Booklist
"Well researched and well written. An excellent account of the role
of African Americans in the aid given fugitive slaves, as well as
the major contribution made by the fugitives themselves in their
own liberation." -- Larry Gara, Professor Emeritus of History,
Wilmington College and author of The
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