Landscapes of Freedom

"Rebecca Capobianco Toy's extensive research and effective use of available source material have combined to produce a work that contributes not only to the scholarship on post-emancipation Virginia and the development of vibrant Black communities across the postwar South but also to broader understandings of the extent to which preservation of certain historical narratives and landscapes can actively contribute to the erasure of others."—Jill Ogiline Titus, Civil War Institute, Gettysburg College, author of Gettysburg 1963

"A timely demonstration of the active role that Black Southerners played in shaping the world that emerged after emancipation."—Daniel B. Thorp, Virginia Tech, author of Facing Freedom

"Rebecca Capobianco Toy's Landscapes of Freedom reminds us why so many of the very best works of history focus on particular geographies, finding the complexity of the world in a tightly bound area, in this case York County, Virginia, and the community of 'Slabtown.' A truly fine study that should be read by all nineteenth-century scholars."—Gregory P. Downs, University of California, Davis, author of After Appomattox