Amazon.com description: Product Description: African Americans carved spaces of freedom in Ohio for more than two hundred years and their work is still incomplete. Generations before the US Civil War, free African Americans owned farms and businesses in Ohio. Social networking, education and dignity were tools used in multigenerational efforts to demand the benefits of liberty and citizenship as free and equal citizens. African Americans carved several havens of democracy in Ohio despite the tyranny of racial oppression in Antebellum and post-Civil War American culture. Purgatory between Kentucky and Canada: African Americans in Ohio presents the work of several scholars who have researched the micro-tactics of ordinary people who attempted to create a little space of peace in a place that was less heavenly than some might suppose. This volume presents histories of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ohio African American individuals who fought for higher education, voting rights, the right to live where they chose and the right to "secure the blessings of liberty" and equality for themselves and their children. Some were prosperous farmers. Others were masters of print and radio media. Still others dedicated themselves to freeing fellow citizens from the oppression of ignorance. This book shows that they all used social networks to secure the fulfillment of the promises made in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. These lessons in social networking and in perfecting democracy from Ohio African Americans' experiences will inspire ordinary people everywhere. Democratic popular uprisings are just the beginning. The many people and families in this volume are a reminder that the fruits of democracy are worthy of diligent and brave efforts by demonstrators and their descendants.