On Jordan's Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley (review)

Following the end of the Civil War, the experiences of African Americans in the lower Ohio River Valley were remarkably alike regardless of whether one lived north or south of the river. In this synthesis of existing sources, Darrel E. Bigham convincingly argues that surprising similarities in the ways blacks used or obtained land and its resources, population patterns and growth, and the availability of economic opportunities, shaped post-emancipation life on both banks of the Ohio River. In his third monograph detailing life in the Ohio River Valley, this professor of history at the University of Southern Indiana succeeds in adding the experiences of African Americans to the broader historical understanding of life in the region. Bigham focuses the study on twenty-five counties in Kentucky and twenty-five cross-river counties including six in Illinois, thirteen in Indiana, and six in Ohio. He argues that approaching a comparison by using the river rather than state boundaries, "one is struck by the varieties as well as the similarities in experiences and outcomes for African Americans who resided along its banks" (7).

On Jordan's Banks is divided into three chronological parts. Part one details life in the region before the Civil War and takes up the first two chapters. On the southern side, slavery formed the most obvious difference. However, African Americans did not enjoy a tremendous amount of freedom across the river as the author demonstrates that cultural ties spread racial prejudice evenly along both banks of the Ohio River. Another two chapters comprise part two which traces the region during the Civil War years. Because Kentucky remained a part of the Union, it was forced to look northward for trade, and loosened the bonds of slavery to the point of mustering black regiments. The border between free and slave territory became even more fluid by war's end as many slaves discovered the proximity of freedom in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio.

The eight chapters and epilogue of part three form the heart of On Jordan's Banks. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1885, Bigham traces the freedom of the postwar years as African Americans formed communities, sought economic opportunities, and civil rights, including male suffrage. These chapters explore the meaning and application of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments in each of the states, and clearly show that the Civil War did little to appease racial bias on either bank of the river. In fact, whether codified or de facto, by the end of the nineteenth century Jim Crow was a fact of life in almost all Ohio River communities. Much demographic information is relayed in the text, and a series of useful tables in the appendix denotes population shifts and the growth of African American communities.

These same demographics may make On Jordan's Banks a challenging study for the general reader, but scholars interested in regional history will find that Bigham has succeeded in bringing together a host of secondary sources and community studies to offer a clear picture of African American life in the lower Ohio Valley. Although one could argue that the book contains little new information because it is not based solely on original research, those who study the black experience in the Midwest and the Upper South will find much fodder here.