Thursday, November 03, 2005
Bigham’s book examines Ohio River valley after Emancipation
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In 1860, a few miles across the Ohio River from USI, 41 percent of the population of Henderson County was enslaved. “That’s one of the highest percentages in the state of Kentucky. It’s very high compared with the south generally,” said Darrel Bigham, professor of history and director of Historic Southern Indiana. In his new book, “On Jordan’s Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley,” Bigham examines the lives of African Americans in communities on both sides of the Ohio River before and after the Civil War. He describes how communities in 25 counties along 665 miles of the Ohio were shaped by the presence or absence of slavery, including Kentucky’s entire Ohio River boundary to the south, and parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the north. “In terms of the amount of territory and time, it was a pretty ambitious effort, but I think it helps to look at an issue regionally rather than state by state,” Bigham said. “My main concern was to see the Ohio River not just as a dividing line but also as a uniter. I tried to transcend political boundaries and look at what people had in common as well as where they differed. “There have been a lot of studies of African Americans in towns and cities along the Ohio, and there have been studies of people in the various states, but not an effort to compare and contrast where you essentially transcend state boundaries and look at the river as a common boundary. It was America’s first interstate highway, one could argue.” Thomas L. Owen, archivist for local history at the University of Louisville, said Bigham’s book “expands our understanding of a complex topic, as it rejects the Ohio River as a divide but instead makes it the center of a vast region for examining black/white relationships.” Bigham said that while he doesn’t want to overstress the similarities between communities north and south of the river, “I do want to point out there is a lot of continuity, because the people on the north side were of the same backgrounds as those on the south side. In terms of racial values, they were not at all receptive to being around black people. “In public interaction with white people, the informal rule was black people would stay out of areas white people frequented. The chief difference was that in Kentucky, there were more formal restrictions, laws, and ordinances, and on the north side there were such restrictions on paper, but they tended to be more unwritten. Separation by residents on the north side tends to be by custom rather than by ordinance.” “On Jordan’s Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley” is published by The University Press of Kentucky and will be available at the USI Bookstore. Official publication date is November 15. |
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