TITLE: Sweet Freedom's Plains: African Americans on the Overland
Trails 1841-1869 Dr. Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, Professor of
History at California State University, Sacramento, worked with
the National Park Service, National Trails Intermountain Region
to create this groundbreaking study about the African American
emigrant experience on the Oregon, California and Mormon Pioneer
national historic trails. Read her engaging study on this little
known component of American history. "African American men,
women and children were western pioneers too. Enslaved or free,
they were an integral part of the human tide that undertook the
long journey across the continent." "Black people, like their
white counterparts, crossed the plains for myriad personal,
economic, social, and political reasons. The lure of free land,
new business opportunities, and individual autonomy were
aspirations shared by both groups." "Clearly, the lives, hopes,
and expectations of nineteenth century black people differed in
critical ways from