Originally published on May 30, 2022 (Episode 266)
Introduction
When Samuel Townsend died in 1856 near Huntsville, Alabama, he was the era’s equivalent of a multimillionaire. He had thousands of acres of cotton land, and hundreds of enslaved people who planted, harvested, and processed that cotton to make him rich. Like many other parents, he left it all to his five sons, four daughters, and two nieces. But in this case all of them were slaves.
And that crucial event is not even the beginning of the intricate, horrible, thrilling, and ennobling story of the Townsend family, which Isabela Morales tells in her new book Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2022), which won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize.
About the Guest
R. Isabela Morales is currently the Education and Exhibit Manager at the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, Central New Jersey's first dedicated Black history museum. She was previously Editor and Project Manager of the Princeton & Slavery Project at Princeton University, from which she received her PhD in History.
For Further Investigation
Isabela Morales, Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Septimus D. Cabaniss Papers at the University of Alabama — includes the digitized 1856 will of Samuel Townsend
Martha Hodes, The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century (W. W. Norton, 2006)
Tiya Miles, Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom (University of California Press, 2005)
Daniel Sharfstein, The Invisible Line: Three African American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White (The Penguin Press, 2011)
Listen to Stolen: Richard Bell on the Reverse Underground Railroad
💬 Listen & Discuss
What does the Townsend family’s story reveal about the complexities of slavery, freedom, and identity in 19th-century America? Share your reflections in the comments—and consider passing this episode along to a friend interested in American history and family stories.
