Authors: Betty DeRamus
Connor, James. “The Antislavery Movement in Iowa.”
Annals of Iowa,
Series 3, Vol. 40 (Fall 1970), pp. 450–79.
Cooper, Arnie. “A Stony Road: Black Education in Iowa, 1838–1860.”
Annals of Iowa,
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Curtis, Nancy, Ph.D.
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New York: The New Press, 1996, pp. 68–72.
Dahl, Linda.
Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen.
Orig. pub. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984; second Limelight Edition, December 1992,
pp. 53–57.
Day, Beth.
The Little Professor of Piney Woods.
New York: Julian Messner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1955.
Dykstra, Robert. “Dr. Emerson’s Sam: Black Iowans Before the Civil War.”
The Palimpsest
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Ellerbe, Alma, and Paul Ellerbe. “Inchin’ Along: The Story of the Piney Woods School
in the Black Belt of Mississippi.”
McClure’s Magazine,
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Erickson, Lori.
Iowa Off the Beaten Track.
Chester, Conn: The Globe Pequot Press, 1990.
Fort Madison Plain Dealer,
May 27, 1857. An editorial noting that “To the disgrace of the County and State,
Denmark has the name of being the rendezvous of men, who occasionally engage in negro-stealing,
at the same time professing the religion of the gospel. Men of less shrewdness have
been hanged—have received their just desserts—for engaging in practices of which respectable
citizens of Denmark had been accused.”
Garrison, Ramond.
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Hamilton, Ill.: Hamilton Press, 1959, p. 76.
The Gate City,
Keokuk, Iowa, February 25, 1869. Item about Frederick Douglass’s visit to the city.
Gibson, Robert A. “The Negro Holocaust: Lynching and Race Riots in the United States,
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Gorden, Thomas. Letter to author, Boston, Massachusetts, February 15, 2004, “…The
Rev. Joel and William…kidnapped Benjamin to literally sell him ‘down the river’ in
a slave market that had dollar-inflated by triple between the 1830s and 50s,” according
to Thomas C. Gorden, the great-great-great-great-grandson of the Reverend Joel Gordon.
(There is no evidence that Hugh Gordon could read or write and in his various court,
tax and census papers his name is most often spelled Gordon, but also is written as
Gorden, Gordan or Gordin. His sons who could sign their name used the spelling Gorden.)
———. Letter to author, Boston, Massachusetts, February 21, 2004.
———. Letter to author, Boston, Massachusetts, February 22, 2004.
———. Letter to author, Boston, Massachusetts, February 23, 2004.
Grinnell, Josiah Bushnell.
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the Underground Railroad.”
Iowan
22 (Summer 1974), pp. 45–50.
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Iowan
4 (June/July 1956), pp. 20–23, 44, 47.
Hawley, Charles Arthur. “For Peace and Freedom.”
The Palimpsest
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Hine, Darlene Clark, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, eds.
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Inventory and appraisement of Hugh Gordon Estate,
1834, Book F, p. 4424. Lists twenty slaves, including “Sharlet.”
Iowa Census, 1856, Lee County: “ ‘Julyiannn Piles,’ 36, William, 15; George, 10, Ruan,
5; Josephus, 7, all born in Kentucky, J.W. Piles, 8, Daniel, 7, James, 4, Frances
Gordon, 83; Walker Catline?, 24, husband of Emily; ‘Henry Pills,’ 70; ‘Charlotte Piles,’
57, Barnun, 27, Ellen, 24, Pelina, 19; Elisabeth, 13, Henry, 10, Mary A., 8, Emily,
32.”
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Essence,
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Little Journeys to Piney Woods.
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on page 32.
Jones, Mrs. Laurence C. “The Desire for Freedom.”
The Palimpsest
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Keokuk City Directory, 1887. Lists Barney Pyles, driver, residing at 1426 Bank.
Keokuk Public Library, information on deaths and burial places of Charlotta and Harry
Pyles.
Lee County, Iowa, GenWeb Project, 1879. Keokuk, Iowa, Biographies, Index of Names.
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Lopez, Barry Holstun.
Of Wolves and Men.
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Lucas, Marion B.
A History of Blacks in Kentucky,
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The Kentucky Historical Society, 1992, p. 4. Description of hemp farming.
Lustig, Lillie S., S. Claire Sondheim, and Sarah Rensel, eds.
The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes.
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Matlack, Lucius C.
The History of American Slavery and Methodism from 1780 to 1849; and History of the
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McLeister, Ira Ford, and Roy Stephen Nicholson.
History of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America,
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Mid-American Frontier, Gazetteer of the State of Missouri.
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Missouri: A Guide to the Show Me State,
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of the New Purchase: Embracing Much Practical Advice and Useful Information to Intending
Emigrants. Also, the New State Constitution,
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Notes from National Public Radio tribute to the International Sweethearts of Rhythm,
broadcast on public radio stations nationwide on March 25, 2004, and including an
interview with Helen Jones Woods.
Parkman, Francis.
The Oregon Trail.
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Pierson, Dudley. “A Home Away from Home.”
African American Family Magazine
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The Pine Torch
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Purcell, Leslie Harper.
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Redford, The Reverend A. H.
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Sernett, Milton C.
North Star County, Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom.
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Outside In: African-American History in Iowa, 1838–2000.
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for the State of Kentucky. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996.
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museum home in Louisville, Kentucky, owned and operated by Historic Homes Foundation,
Inc.
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One Hundred Ten Years of Public Education in Keokuk.
Keokuk: Keokuk Community School District, 1961.
Smith, Warren Thomas.
John Wesley and Slavery.
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Staples, Brent. “The Black Seminole Indians Keep Fighting for Equality in the American
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Styron, William.
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Early Settlement and Growth of Western Iowa; or Reminiscences.
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Turton, Cecil Marie.
The Underground Railroad in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.
Columbus: Ohio State University, 1935.
Van Ek, Jacob. “Underground Railroad in Iowa.”
The Palimpsest
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Varhola, Michael J.
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Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books, 1999, pp. 10, 11.
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K. Gorden, Boston, Massachusetts, 2000.
Washington County (Kentucky) Court records of the seizure of Frances Gordon’s slaves
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Washington County Court records by Willis Gorden, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Washington County, Kentucky, Bicentennial History, 1792–1992.
Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing Company, p. 282. Contained in the archives of the
Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Washington County, Kentucky, tax list, 1819.
Williams, Ora. “Underground Railroad Signals.”
Annals of Iowa,
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Wubben, Hubert H.
Civil War Iowa and the Copperhead Movement.
Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1980.
Wundram, Bill, Tricia DeWall, Jeffrey Bruner, Tom Thoma, and Bill Zahren.
Iowa Celebrating the Sesquicentennial.
American & World Geographic Publishing, 1995.
Yanak, Ted, and Pam Cornelison.
The Great American History Fact-Finder.
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993, p. 49.
Bolden, Tonya.
Strong Men Keep Coming: The Book of African American Men.
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Drew, Benjamin.
A North-Side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in
Canada. Related by Themselves, with an account of the History and Conditions of the
Colored Population of Upper Canada.
Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1856.
Hill, Daniel G.
The Freedom-Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada.
Toronto: Stoddart Publishing Co., Ltd., 1992.