On Jordan’s Banks: Emancipation and its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley by Darrel E. Bigham (review)

BOOK REVIEWS debates, explaining the intricacies ot-doctrinal conflicts. Whether analyzing the disputes between Regular and Separate Baptists, tlic strivings tif specific cot, gregations , or SmEhlliveh· defcitses if the Christian traith. Sparks does : 0 with precision . He dcies,hinvever,occasionally rel,· on carie., tures tir rague descriptic,ns, such as when he classifies Ric: hard ' llicim: ts ·, is 1 " cruelly C:ilvinistic preacher"with little explanation (149).Ilut, in general, Sp,trks pro\' ides his redders Ivith . 1 t.tir · assessment of theolcigic,1 isslies. Tracing the preacher' s journey from skeptic to Calvinistic Baptist k) lessCalvinistic Baptist to disciple ( if Alexander Campbell, Sparks uses u wide i·: Iriety of prim,iry sources, including Yss(, ci;itional minutes, pers ,( Ct he Inay h,ive," " while ive cannot knciw with certainty," or the dizzying Dccurrences of" probably"and " perhaps ." Sparks' s use of secondary sources, however,leaves mc,k. On Jor, hink Banks.-Emancipation anit its / 1. 1term , itli in tbe Obio Ri:, er Mil/ c·,explores the live> of African Amerif :ins during the tr;iii: fi, rm: ition ot the Ohic, River Valle\· fron) the : intchelluni peritid t well as cetisus dat. i ; ind (, ther st: itistical evidence ,Bigh, irn ex] ilicates the complex Jnd changi!, g nature of..\ fricin AI, irriC, In Sc)cicty on both the northern and southern shcires tif tl, e Ohio River. Bigham argues that the differences between black lives iii the North ( lndia,), 1. Illinois. and Ohio)and the South ( Kentucky)u·cre not that gre:, t; indeed, the simil, iritics were more striking than the distincth,ns. In arguingthis PAnt quite persmisively, Bigham, like Joe \ ViIliam lri,tter, flirces schc, lars tc, reconceptualize the Olih) 1 11 the northern shore and sc,uthern shore. In the first section, the author broadly outlines African American life 78 () 111(} \'.\ I. I. Ei- 111%1 -() 1{' t- BOOK REVIEWS 11 J ; ; 1] ill 11 1vit lives, even ill the tace 2, 1 Lvhite violence and racism. Thus, Bigham' s work fits quite well into the new historiography of race relations. In cach chapter of tile book, Bigham is careful to analyze the lives of African Americans not just in major urban areas such ns Louisville and Cincinnaticities that have received considerable scholarly . ittentin 011 matters of r, ice already, and to which Bigham adds verv little in terms of an analytical frameworkbut also to smaller cities, such as Evansville, New Al4 bany,Henderson,Cairo,and 1 Covington,where the author 31 really brings to tlie fore the struggles of African Amr icans to create neighborc ,hoods , businesses, schools and churches. Here,Bigham makes an important coritribution . 111e countryside around these cities receives less attentic, n, 11(, wever, and there d() es seem a preponderance of evidence from Evansville and Nezv Albanv. This m: zv be due to a lack of sources but ir does not detract from Bigham ' s overall thesis. llie strongest chapters ofthe book focits on African American life in the postbellum Ohio Valle>·particularly in terms of w