What readers are saying about The Black Woods
“The Black Woods is a beautifully written, painstakingly researched, and uncommonly nuanced story, heretofore a footnote in the ongoing saga of race in America. But here is a real story, liberated from the chains of arrogant historiography and willing to look into dark corners of our national narrative and climb to summits that offer a panoramic ‘us.’” —Ken Burns, filmmaker
“Amy Godine has done something of great importance here: recovered a fascinating story that needs to be told and heard. If you care about the North Woods, or if you care about the possibilities for reconciliation in this tired nation, this book will inform and move you.”
—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
“Godine’s utterly fascinating, sprightly history of Black Adirondack settlers is gripping in its own right and just right for this extraordinary moment in American history. Restoring African Americans to the Adirondacks, The Black Woods discovers our antiracist heritage in quite an unexpected place.”
—Nell Painter, author of The History of White People
“A rich and intimate story of African Americans and abolitionists in a little-known Adirondack community called Timbuctoo. Beautifully conceived, deeply researched, The Black Woods is an immensely timely book, and a necessary book for our time.”
—John Stauffer, author of The Black Hearts of Men
“With prodigious research and stunning prose, Godine’s The Black Woods provides the first comprehensive account of an important and overlooked chapter in regional and American history.”
---Philip Terrie, author of Contested Terrain