In North Carolina’s Free People of Color, 1715–1885, Warren Eugene Milteer Jr. examines the lives of free persons categorized by their communities as “negroes,” “mulattoes,” “mustees,” “Indians,” “mixed-bloods,” or simply “free people of color.” From the colonial period through Reconstruction, lawmakers passed legislation that curbed the rights and privileges of these non-enslaved residents, from prohibiting their testimony against whites to barring them from the ballot box. While such laws suggest that most white North Carolinians desired to limit the freedoms and civil liberties enjoyed by free people of color, Milteer reveals that the two groups often interacted—praying together, working the same land, and occasionally sharing households and starting families. Some free people of color also rose to prominence in their communities, becoming successful businesspeople and winning the respect of their white neighbors. Milteer’s innovative study moves beyond depictions of the American South as a region controlled by a strict racial hierarchy. He contends that although North Carolinians frequently sorted themselves into races imbued with legal and social entitlements—with whites placing themselves above persons of color—those efforts regularly clashed with their concurrent recognition of class, gender, kinship, and occupational distinctions. Whites often determined the position of free nonwhites by designating them as either valuable or expendable members of society. In early North Carolina, free people of color of certain statuses enjoyed access to institutions unavailable even to some whites. Prior to 1835, for instance, some free men of color possessed the right to vote while the law disenfranchised all women, white and nonwhite included. North Carolina’s Free People of Color, 1715–1885 demonstrates that conceptions of race were complex and fluid, defying easy characterization. Despite the reductive labels often assigned to them by whites, free people of color in the state emerged from an array of backgrounds, lived widely varied lives, and created distinct cultures—all of which, Milteer suggests, allowed them to adjust to and counter ever-evolving forms of racial discrimination.

Cultural observer Os Guinness argues that the American experiment in freedom is at risk. Guinness calls us to cultivate the essential civic character needed for ordered liberty and sustainable freedom. True freedom requires virtue, which in turn requires faith. Only within the framework of what is true, right and good can freedom be found.

Free People of Color is a path-breaking historical inquiry into the forces that unified and divided free African Americans in the pre-Civil War North, as they dealt with human issues vastly complicated by the racist character of American society. James Oliver Horton explores the social and psychological interior of free African American communities and reveals the diversity and nuances of free black society in such northern cities as Boston, Buffalo, and Washington, D.C. While examining the heated debates within these communities over gender roles, skin color, national identity, leadership styles, and politics, he argues for a complex and pluralistic view of free black society - where disagreement did not preclude cooperation toward common goals, such as ending slavery, obtaining full citizenship, and securing educational and economic opportunities for all African Americans. Horton also discusses relations between blacks and the European immigrants with whom they shared living space and often competed for employment. He finds the association between African Americans and Germans to have been relatively harmonious, particularly in contrast to the violence and acrimony that marked contact between blacks and Irish immigrants. "Black people", observes Horton, "like all Americans, develop communities which reflect the national, regional, and local issues that affect their well-being". The essays in Free People of Color document the complexity of antebellum African American communities and portray their inhabitants as a multifaceted people whose lives were both complicated by restrictive forces and unified by common goals.

No one is immune to the byproducts of compulsory schooling and standardized testing. And while reform may be a worthy cause for some, it is not enough for countless others still trying to navigate the tyranny of what schooling has always been. Raising Free People argues that we need to build and work within systems truly designed for any human to learn, grow, socialize, and thrive, regardless of age, ability, background, or access to money. Families and conscious organizations across the world are healing generations of school wounds by pivoting into self-directed, intentional community-building, and Raising Free People shows you exactly how unschooling can help facilitate this process. Individual experiences influence our approach to parenting and education, so we need more than the rules, tools, and “bad adult” guilt trips found in so many parenting and education books. We need to reach behind our behaviors to seek and find our triggers; to examine and interrupt the ways that social issues such as colonization still wreak havoc on our ability to trust ourselves, let alone children. Raising Free People explores examples of the transition from school or homeschooling to unschooling, how single parents and people facing financial challenges unschool successfully, and the ways unschooling allows us to address generational trauma and unlearn the habits we mindlessly pass on to children. In these detailed and unabashed stories and insights, Richards examines the ways that her relationships to blackness, decolonization, and healing work all combine to form relationships and enable community-healing strategies rooted in an unschooling practice. This is how millions of families center human connection, practice clear and honest communication, and raise children who do not grow up to feel that they narrowly survived their childhoods.

On the eve of the Civil War, most people of color in the United States toiled in bondage. Yet nearly half a million of these individuals, including over 250,000 in the South, were free. In Beyond Slavery's Shadow, Warren Eugene Milteer Jr. draws from a wide array of sources to demonstrate that from the colonial period through the Civil War, the growing influence of white supremacy and proslavery extremism created serious challenges for free persons categorized as "negroes," "mulattoes," "mustees," "Indians," or simply "free people of color" in the South. Segregation, exclusion, disfranchisement, and discriminatory punishment were ingrained in their collective experiences. Nevertheless, in the face of attempts to deny them the most basic privileges and rights, free people of color defended their families and established organizations and businesses. These people were both privileged and victimized, both celebrated and despised, in a region characterized by social inconsistency. Milteer's analysis of the way wealth, gender, and occupation intersected with ideas promoting white supremacy and discrimination reveals a wide range of social interactions and life outcomes for the South's free people of color and helps to explain societal contradictions that continue to appear in the modern United States.

This best-selling, bold motivational journal is for everyone seeking to boost their productivity. Do It For Yourself combines the pop-art-inspired graphics of Subliming with 75 thought-provoking prompts. Whether you’re embarking on a new project or planning your future, understanding what makes you tick is the crucial first step in making things happen. Choose any goal and work through the five stages of the journal: * Getting going * Building momentum * Overcoming setbacks * Following through * Seeking closure Or just open it to the phase you’re in now. Each exercise is designed to help reorient your outlook, overcome roadblocks, and encourage mindfulness, with powerful typographic quotes to inspire you along the way. Kara Cutruzzula has chronicled her creative output (highs, lows, in-betweens) and offered productivity tips and insights in the newsletter Brass Ring Daily. Vanity Fair called it “a life coach in your inbox.” That’s what she does for you here! In her introduction she writes, “Motivation. Want more of it? Of course you do. Motivation is the not-so-secret sauce to getting closer to what you want. Sure, you can dream and plan and plot, but without motivation to see a goal through, often your wild ambitions can feel stalled—or worse, like they’re nowhere to be found. You need motivation to blow past the roadblocks that arrive in every shape, size, and form.” In these pages, find the much-needed space to focus your energy, clear up mental clutter, and set yourself up for success. Because isn’t it time you did it for yourself? If you love Do It For Yourself, check out the other two journals in the series: Do It Today and Do It (or Don’t) are on sale now! *

A United States history textbook emphasizing such characteristics of the American way of life as educational and economic opportunity, political participation, and toleration of differences.

For anyone overwhelmed by the stresses of daily life, this book is a simple tool to promote calm and well-being. Here are 65 soothing pages, each featuring an encouraging mantra and a short practice, including exercises for mindfulness, self-care, awareness, grounding, gratitude, and more. Users can pull one page each morning to center themselves, or pick a few at a time to set a bigger intention for the week. Calm the Chaos make it easy to foster moments of peace and clarity, anytime and anywhere. • A CREATIVE WAY TO PRACTICE SELF-CARE: Manage daily stress, quell anxiety, and build happiness habits with the 65 pages in this book. • CULTIVATE MORE MINDFULNESS: This book will help you practice daily reflection, record gratitude, and set achievable goals. • USE DAILY, WEEKLY, OR WHENEVER YOU NEED CALM: Open this book each morning to find a mantra and inspiration for your day, or choose one page a week to set a larger intention.