Freedom by Any Means: Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love and Lawsuits on the Underground Railroad [Hardcover]

Betty DeRamus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2009

Freedom by Any Means explains how African Americans resorted to using extraordinary methods to maintain their seemingly impossible personal relationships during the antebellum period. Besides running away together or raising money to buy their freedom, loved ones filed successful lawsuits, became military spies or counterspies, and used rumors of voodoo to create bluffs and tricks in order to survive.

Riveting and surprising, Betty DeRamus captures the tumultuous lives of the humans in inhumane situations who were able to salvage their families and marriages and achieve freedom together against tremendous odds. Freedom by Any Means also features the return of many of the beloved figures from her previous book Forbidden Fruit, including Lucy Nichols, Al and Margaret Wood, and Sylvia and Louis Stark.

This inspiring account, steeped in rich historical research, attests to the resolve of the human spirit and reveals how men and women were willing to risk it all to escape the slavery.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arnold Gragston ferried slaves across the Ohio River, freeing other people while remaining enslaved himself; Nelson Gant was tried for attempting to steal his wife from slavery; Althea Lynch, cook and escaped slave, set off a crisis that involved one military governor, two posses and a U.S. Marshal. That's just a sampling of the stories of former slaves and freedmen who were agile enough to... sneak through holes in the system and take what seemed like very little and turn it into more than enough in award-winning journalist DeRamus's salute to the daring and the inventiveness of those who made history, while not making it into history books. DeRamus's touch is light and journalistic, close in tone to Sunday supplement pieces, and a bit jazzy (It was love bubbling on a stove, love shouting at the low-slung midnight moon). Entertaining and easy reading it is, but as DeRamus reaches beyond the famously heroic figures into the lives of the little known, she enriches and alters our perspective on 19th-century African-American daily life. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

As with so many other aspects of American slavery, achieving freedom carried far more variations than is widely known or understood. Journalist DeRamus follows up Forbidden Fruit (2005) with accounts of the myriad ways that slaves ran away. Her first section reprises some of the love stories from her earlier book, telling of escapes by married couples who faced the threat of separation when one was freed and the other not. She recounts the case of Nelson Gant, a freed Virginia slave, whose offer to buy his wife was refused. Gant’s attempt to steal her resulted in a court trial that eventually upheld their marriage, the first case in Virginia to recognize a marriage involving slaves. The second part of the book features stories of deceptions escaping slaves faced, including fake safe-house operators and tricksters who sometimes ensnared freed blacks. The final section is devoted to California, the destination for many escaped slaves though it had its own dubious policies, and to Mary Ellen Pleasant, a wealthy, powerful black woman who worked for the antislavery cause. --Vanessa Bush

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416551107
• ISBN-13: 978-1416551102
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #546,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A passion for the troubles and triumphs of ordinary people led journalist Betty DeRamus to write two nonfiction books, Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad and Freedom by Any Means: True Stories of Cunning and Courage on the Underground Railroad.
Forbidden Fruit is a collection of love stories about slavery-era couples, some enslaved, some free, most black but a few interracial, who fought mobs, wolves, bloodhounds, bounty hunters, bullets and social tboos to preserve their relationships. Characters in these largely untold tales include a free black man who became a slave to remain with his wife and a young slave girl who is delivered to her fiance inside a wooden chest.
Freedom by Any Means bring to life little-known heroes and heroines of the slavery and post-slavery era who did everything from build their own towns to successfully sue for their freedom in court. Slavery-era black capitalists are among the many clever characters in Freedom and, according to the author, these true stories contain lessons for Americans dealing right now with record unemployment, foreclosures and other economic ills.
"In nearly every case, these 19th century black success stories--many of them freed or runaway slaves--followed the same pattern," says DeRamus. "They took what little they had and turned it into something valuable.
"They became successful by cooking oysters, growing a different kind of cantaloupe, doing magic tricks and even making cheese. One man turned a shopping cart into a department store on wheels. These people recognized the value of whatever skills they happened to have, no matter how humble. "
In one memorable story, a former slave named Clara Brown persuaded a group of Colorado-bound gold seekers to hire her as a cook and laundress. The 59-year-old woman then traveled with a caravan of covered wagons to Denver. In gold-rich Central City, Colorado, she boiled and scrubbed shirts and nursed the sick. By 1866, she had earned $10,000, including her investments in mining claims. She eventually found 34 relatives and brought them West.
Mary Ellen Pleasant was a black 19th century boarding house owner who pretended she was the servant of her white business partner, a vice president of Bank of America. Meanwhile, she led several lives, hiding runaway slaves, challenging discrimination on San Francisco's streetcars and using the knowledge gained from mingling with the wealthy to make the investments that earned her millions.
Nelson Gant, was a freed Virginian who managed to escape punishment for trying to steal his enslaved wife. After moving to Zanesville, Ohio, he bought and sold land, became famous for his specialty fruits and vegetables and owned a coal mine. When he died, the Zanesville Daily News called him "probably the wealthiest colored citizen in Ohio," DeRamus said.
An enslaved North Carolina woman named Sally Williams eventually lost the small fortune she accumulated from selling home-brewed beer, coffee and gingerbread. But in her heyday, the hired-out slave earned enough to pay a girl to help her around the house. Other slaves and freedmen that DeRamus depicts were equally savvy. Charles Shearer, a former slave rescued by Union troops, used his hunting and fishing skills to feed his rescuers and later used those same talents to run a popular summer inn. Richard Potter earned a fortune by performing magic tricks, becoming the first black and the first American-born magician.
And once he reached Michigan, Mississippi-born James H. Cole used his history of working with horses to begin building a fortune : he stabled the horses of local Union regiments. When he died in 1901, Cole's wealth was estimated at $200,000, which would make him a multi-millionaire in today's dollars.
Freedom by Any Means doesn't only document the material success of some former slaves, DeRamus stresses. It also salutes people who successfully sued for their freedom in court or who liberated themselves through complicated con games and bluffs. "They were black people who did what seemed impossible in their time," she says. "They literally showed us the way."
Betty DeRamus has been an eyewitness to much contemporary history. She wrote about the old Soviet Union before it collapsed, spent time in West Berlin before its wall fell and toured Central African refugee camps with representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 10 years before the Rwandan massacres. For her coverage of Nelson Mandela's release from prison, she received an award for international reporting from the National Association of Black Journalists. A former columnist for several publications including the Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press, the Associated Press and the British Broadcasting Corporation, Betty DeRamus was a 1993 finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in commentary. For more information go to www.bettyderamus.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How To become Free, March 1, 2009

By 

Lolita M. Hernandez "Lolita Hernandez" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Freedom by Any Means: Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love and Lawsuits on the Underground Railroad (Hardcover)

This collection of historically accurate tales describes the many paths to freedom undertaken by black slaves through previously unheard of "Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love and Law Suits on the Underground Railroad." They will strike you as clever, at times harrowing, and at other times flat out dangerous, but always full of heart, intelligence and love. The people in these historical renderings were guided by much more than the North Star. They were inspired by a deep and abiding faith in their humanity. No, these are not just stories of yesteryear, long ago days when slavery existed; these are not just stories to trot out righteously every February. These are stories to read for present-day guidance on how to escape the morass of war, poverty, hate, racism, and all the other isms that keep us isolated, insulated and thoroughly oblivious to our global kinship - except when our pocketbooks are empty and we are looking for someone to blame. Betty DeRamus masterfully wove these stories into one long proscription for modern times. They are a look back for a hope forward. Or should I say a hop? Or a row on the Ohio River, one of the routes of the Underground Railroad? Until this book I never knew Michigan, my home state, had such a progressive role in the Railroad. I'm not talking about Detroit. I'm talking about Cassopolis, Cass County, Michigan where one wouldn't ordinarily think of help for escapees from slavery. So these stories represent a portion of American history that every single person in this country needs to read as a path to understanding the heroism and heart of true patriots. These stories are well researched. DeRamus now has established a network of the families, white and black, whose ancestors played a role in the thumping of feet, the rustling of brush and the soft rippling of waves on the way to freedom.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This Book, March 29, 2009

By 

A. Hodari (Birmingham, AL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Freedom by Any Means: Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love and Lawsuits on the Underground Railroad (Hardcover)

"Freedom was supposed to taste like sweet potatoes simmered in cinnamon or pecan pies baptized with rum." However, former slave Sally Williams found the taste of actual freedom bittersweet at first. Like other people in Betty DeRamus's "Freedom by Any Means," though, Williams quickly embraced the life she and her son took extraordinary steps to create.


There are history books that spew facts. Then, there are history books that are written. With "Freedom by Any Means," journalist Betty DeRamus has written a factual book about stories from the Underground Railroad with an authentic, friendly, relevant voice.

Take for example, the beginning to Chapter Fourteen, "Let's pretend the academy of Motion Pictures was around in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, handing out shiny trophies to people on both sides of the antislavery movement..." This statement serves as an introduction to a chapter highlighting the acting and performance skills that often helped Blacks gain their freedom. There are quite a few examples like this in this book- where DeRamus uses timely, modern images to explain historical events.

Indeed, the narrator voice is engaging, guiding, instructive, yet unobtrusive. Challenging enough for scholars, but accessible enough for younger, or less seasoned audiences. Further, the author does not assume history is a bland subject for the classroom, or "historiophiles." Rather, this book includes quotes, poetry and even recipes. DeRamus uses several devices to share stories of the Underground Railroad with readers.

The stories and anecdotes contained in "Freedom by Any Means" travel ground that have not been adequately covered previously. And, happily, the work is equitable with regard to gender. In addition to males, who tend to be overrepresented in history, we learn about Tempe, a Missouri woman, who successfully sued for her freedom in court. And, we gain more insight into some of my favorites-- women like Mary Ellen Pleasant and the never too familiar Ms. Harriet Tubman. By the way, it isn't easy to teach me something new about Harriet Tubman.

I posit that when it comes to an oppressive, overarching institution such as slavery, there cannot truly be voluntary relationships between an oppressor, and the oppressed. Still, DeRamus' research offers an alternative to the standard, hostile, abusive and exploitative relationships that, more often than not, existed between Blacks and whites with stories about John L. Brown, and others. One of the best aspects of this book is that it can bear the weight of critical analysis and is worthy of inspiring intellectual and scholarly debate.

As a professor of Black Studies, what I appreciate most about this book is the profound attention to the seven principle areas of Black Studies. This text addresses history, politics, spirituality, psychology, sociology, economics, and creative production, as it relates to freedom. Indeed, the biggest problem with this text was not being able to identify a favorite section, because all the sections are significant, educational and contributory to the unfolding of Black Studies as a necessary academic discipline. The bibliography has been used intelligently, and enhances the text.

This book takes an important, urgent and needed step toward abolishing the myth of the "happy slave" and documenting our people's resistance. In a just world, a people would not have been held in inhumane bondage. But, if you want to know the many ways our people gained freedom, then, read this book!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MASTERPIECE BY ALL MEANS!!!, September 19, 2009

By 

Michele Wright - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Freedom by Any Means: Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love and Lawsuits on the Underground Railroad (Hardcover)

FREEDOM BY ANY MEANS is an ingeniously crafted historical book BY ALL MEANS!!! I was more than intrigued to discover the other side of the story as it relates to African American history as I ventured into the world of the fifteen luminously untold stories uniquely documented by author Betty DeRamus.

I was instantly mesmerized with this book the moment I began reading the opening story of John Bowley, a skillful ship carpenter and freed slave, who daringly and cunningly showed up at a Maryland Slave auction in the mid-1800's with nothing more than some bold guts and a clever plan in a successful attempt to secure the freedom of his wife Kessiah (the niece of Harriet Tubman - The "Moses of Her People") and their two children who were all scheduled to be sold at auction to another slave-owner.

And I remained awestruck as I continued to read one untold historical event after another. And being a native of Tuskegee, Alabama, I was also intrigued with Tuskegee Institute's founder Booker T. Washington's description of the "grapevine telegram" - the invisible communication wire for slaves and freed blacks. Additionally, I was pleased to read an excerpt from a 1901 letter of Robert W. Taylor, financial secretary of Tuskegee Institute, to a newspaper editor concerning Harriet Tubman which reads, "She told me that when she found her mother unwilling to leave behind her feather bed tick, and her father his broad axe and other tools, she bundled up feather bed, broad axe, mother, father - all and landed them in Canada".

This expertly compiled masterpiece of "untold" historical events brings a whole new but most tasteful depiction to the accounts of African American freedom and history. As opposed to viewing slaves as a people who secured freedom through fear and avoidance, you now can appreciate an enduring account of slaves as strong people with a large vision who strategically and cleverly devised an effective and commendable plan of action for freedom. This took not only gutsy creativity but brilliant implementation.

And likewise, Author Betty DeRamus displays both gutsy creativity and brilliant implementation in her compilation of these remarkably documented untold stories. These intriguing pearls of history of American slavery should become integrated into the American history teaching curriculum of every educational facility. Needless to say, as author of "Freedom By Any means", DeRamus continues her excellence in documenting tales of African American history that she commendably started in her first book, "Forbidden Fruit".