The great-granddaughters of a freeborn Cherokee woman named Malindy, who was unlawfully enslaved as a child by a Missouri, farmer and gave birth to five children in slavery in the 1800s, share the story of their ancestor--a story of courage, conviction, and love.

Desloge Chronicles, A Tale of Two Continents is a monograph of an amazing family's journey supported by genealogical summaries which provide solid provenance. Situated in France and America, this is an authentic historical narrative built around one family's 600 letters dating from 200 years, providing live-action reality present at France & the French Revolution and the American Frontier. Based upon one of the largest bodies of vibrant correspondence written from the turn of the 1800s, we are able to peer into the scene of teeming wildlife and Native American Indians in the young America expanding from this family's French nobility on the young American frontier and then blooming into titanic industrialists and caring naturalists and philanthropists. Within this monograph, historical fact, studied historical research, and expanded narrative craft a compelling legend of the prominent Desloge family. More than simply cold chronology of facts, these are "action figures".

The book contains the correspondence between Christopher Desloge, whose ancestors in early Missouri had been slaveholders, and Theresa Delsoin, whose ancestor Malindy Wilson was a slave in Franklin County Missouri. Delsoin and her sister, Mildred Johnson, coauthored the 2005 book "Malindy's freedom" about their ancestor. The "etc." of the title refers to the use of that word in wills at the end of property lists that included slaves along with other household items. The year-long correspondence lasted from Oct. 2009-Sept. 2010.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by The Millions Lively, insightful writings on Black music, feminism, literature, and events from a “masterful critic and master teacher” (Walton Muyumba, Boston Globe). In Search of a Beautiful Freedom brings together the best work from Farah Jasmine Griffin’s rich forays on music, Black feminism, literature, the crises of Hurricane Katrina and COVID-19, and the Black artists she esteems. She moves from evoking the haunting strength of Odetta and the rise of soprano popular singers in the 1970s to the forging of a Black women’s literary renaissance and the politics of Malcolm X through the lens of Black feminism. She reflects on pivotal moments in recent American history—including the banning of Toni Morrison’s Beloved—and celebrates the intellectuals, artists, and personal relationships that have shaped her identity and her work. Featuring new and unpublished essays along with ones first appearing in outlets such as the New York Times and NPR, In Search of a Beautiful Freedom is a captivating collection that celebrates the work of “one of the few great intellectuals in our time” (Cornel West).

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