Our Silent Song

Before the Civil War there were a half a million people of African decent living as freemen in the United States. This book is their untold story. Our Silent Song is the remarkable story of an African-American family whose members were in America before America was a country and were living free in a slave state. It chronicles the struggles, victories, and defeats of these family members from one who fought for freedom in the Revolution through those who fought to extend freedom in the Civil War. The book tells the story of education pioneers like Fanny Richards, Michigan's first black schoolteacher and political giants like Dr. Joseph Ferguson, William Webb, and John D. Richards. It is a love story and a story of great courage. Our Silent Song tells the overlooked and forgotten stories of those who were legally free but still suffered the enslavement of discrimination and ignorance. Our Silent Song is a sometimes tender and a sometimes forceful retelling of American history though different eyes -- those of free Africans in America.