A BRAVE QUEEN OF AVADH WHO LED HER KINGDOM DURING AN UPRISING. A 73-YEAR-OLD FREEDOM FIGHTER WHO STOOD HER GROUND AGAINST BRITISH SOLDIERS. A FEARLESS TEEN HERO FROM NAGALAND WHO DEFENDED THE RIGHTS OF HER COMMUNITY. These extraordinary Indian women, and others like them featured in this book, shared one common goal: to stand up against the British and fight for India's freedom from colonial rule. Fearless and feisty, these homemakers and princesses, politicians and poets, doctors and educators, and lawyers and activists marched in protest, endured hunger strikes, rallied supporters, went to jail and led from the front. From Sarojini Naidu to Matangini Hazra, from Aruna Asaf Ali to Rani Gaidinliu, from Muthulakshmi Reddi to Hansa Mehta, and from Annie Mascarene to Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, they showed amazing courage in breaking their shackles and facing grave challenges to liberate the country. Bringing together the inspiring life stories of more than 35 remarkable women, Her Name Was Freedom is a tribute to these brave torchbearers of India's independence movement, who left a lasting legacy.

Emancipation and the citizenship that followed conferred upon former slaves the right to create family relationships that were sanctioned, recognized, and regulated by the laws that governed the families of all American citizens. Elizabeth Regosin explores what the acquisition of this legal familial status meant to former slaves, personally, socially, and politically. The Civil War pension system offers a fascinating source of documentation for this study of ex-slave families in transition from slavery to freedom. Because the provisions made to compensate eligible Union veterans and surviving family members created a vast bureaucracy—pension officials required and verified extensive proof of qualification—former slaves were obliged to reproduce and represent the inner workings of their familial relationships. Regosin reveals through both their personal histories and pension narratives how former slaves constructed identities as individuals and as family members while they negotiated the boundaries of "family" as defined by the pension system. The stories told by ex-slaves, their witnesses, and the government officials who played a role in the pension process all serve to provide us with a richer understanding of life for newly emancipated African Americans.

Daughters of the Faith: Ordinary Girls Who Lived Extraordinary Lives. 1761—Phillis Wheatley was a little girl of seven or eight years old when she was captured in Africa and brought to America as a slave. But she didn’t let her circumstances keep her down. She learned to read and write in English and Latin, and showed a natural gift for poetry. By the time she was twelve, her elegy at the death of the great pastor George Whitefield brought her worldwide acclaim. Phillis became known to heads of state, including George Washington himself, speaking out for American independence and the end of slavery. She became the first African American to publish a book, and her writings would eventually win her freedom. More importantly, her poetry still proclaims Christ almost 250 years later.

Call My Name the Wind is introduced by a Native American myth that knits its way through the story and focuses on Matt Steele, who driven by blood inflicted events, conceals his Native background. He descends into the quagmire of white supremacist violence and despair until the epiphany that brings him together with Gloria Palmer who helps him return to the destiny tattooed across his genetic pool.