About the Event
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Upper House welcomes Mary Elise Antoine to its Read Wisconsin series, discussing her book Enslaved, Indentured, Free: Five Black Women on the Upper Mississippi, 1800-1850. The author will be attending the first part of the gathering (via Zoom) to discuss the book and her extensive research.
Read Wisconsin is a thrice-yearly book event featuring excellent books and rich conversation that engages a Christian perspective. Refreshments at 3:45 PM, program begins at 4:00 PM. This free event is limited to 20 attendees and registration is required. To register for this event click here
Enslaved, Indentured, Free tells the story of five extraordinary Black women whose lives intersected in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in the 1800s. Gleaning details from legal documents, military records, court transcripts, and personal correspondence, Antoine unveils the lived experience of enslaved Black people in the Upper Mississippi River Valley—people who were denied freedom despite the fact that the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 made slavery illegal in territory that encompassed Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. Difficult to enforce and riddled with loopholes, the ordinance was thwarted by white enslavers who continued to hold Black people captive well into the 19th Century. The five women Antoine spotlights all secured their freedom through perseverance, self-purchase, or freedom suits.
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Mary Elise Antoine is president of the Prairie du Chien Historical Society and former curator at Villa Louis. She is the author of The War of 1812 in Wisconsin and coeditor, with Lucy Eldersveld Murphy, of Frenchtown Chronicles of Prairie du Chien .
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