Liberty Brought Us Here
The Compelling Tale of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia, Africa
When Tolbert Major, an enslaved single father, is offered a chance for freedom, he accepts, even though it means migrating to Liberia. Tolbert, his two little boys, other relatives, and almost 70 additional formerly enslaved people and freeborn black people board the Luna on July 5, 1836, and set sail for Africa.
Several weeks later, Tolbert pens a letter to his former owner, Ben Major: “Dear Sir: We have all landed on the shores of Africa and got into our houses . . . none of us have been taken with the fever yet. We have a prospect of war with the natives.” His letter launches a 15-year correspondence with Ben Major and the settlers’ surviving letters form the heart of Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia.
Altogether, 16,000 black people left the United States under the auspices of the American Colonization Society and similar groups. It was likely the largest out-migration in the country’s history.
Why did Ben Major, who descended from a long line of slave owners, decide to free his enslaved people? Did the newly emancipated people want to go to another country? Did they have a choice? What would life in Africa have been like for them? What was the colonization movement about? Did those who supported it have noble or nefarious intentions?
The surviving correspondence seems to indicate that Tolbert respected and perhaps even cared for Ben and his family. Was such a relationship possible between formerly enslaved people and the man who had once owned them? It took more than six years to find answers to these questions.
Liberty Brought Us Here is a well-researched, compelling human drama—a story of survival and dreams for a better life.
The book is available in print, e-book, and audio versions from University Press of Kentucky at www.kentuckypress.com. To order on Amazon, click on: https://www.amazon.com/Liberty-Brought-Us-Here-American-ebook/dp/B083QTP2V9/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Susan+E+Lindsey&qid=1578826285&s=books&sr=1-1. To order from Barnes & Noble, go to: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liberty-brought-us-here-susan-e-lindsey/1135542267?ean=9780813179339
Speed Family Heritage Recipes
Unique Anthology Combines History, Bios, and Recipes
This unique anthology is part cookbook, part history, and all fundraiser for the historic Farmington plantation in Louisville, Kentucky. Food, family, friends, love . . . from humble spoonbread to chocolate caramels and gingersnaps that snap, this collection of recipes gives today’s cooks a glimpse into the kitchens of the 1800s and early 1900s.
Hattie Morton Speed (of the family who founded Louisville's Speed Art Museum) gathered her own treasured recipes and those of her close friends, and they are reproduced here exactly as they appear in her collection, followed by notes from modern cooks who tested and refined them. You’ll find recipes for sugar pie, Mexican eggs, chicken ala king, transparent pie, and more. Speed Family Heritage Recipes also includes brief sketches of some of the women who, many decades ago, prepared these recipes with love.
All profit from sales of this book benefit Farmington Historic Plantation in Louisville. Available on Amazon.
Other Published Work
Awards / Honors
Awards / Honors
- "Óbidos: Town of Queens, City of Literature," forthcoming in Portugal Living magazine, issue #8 (2023).
- "From the Bluegrass State to Africa: Kentucky and the Colonization Movement," forthcoming in Kentucky Humanities magazine.
- "Knights, Warriors, Priests: The Templars in Portugal," Portugal Living magazine, issue #4 (2022)
- "Azulejo: Portugal's Stunning Tiles," Portugal Living magazine, issue #3 (2021).
- "'All My Heavy Afflictions': Black and White Women in the Colonization of Liberia," Liberian Studies Association Journal (2021).
- "Great Expectations in Louisville’s Butchertown" (short story with Fred Schloemer), The Louisville Anthology, Belt Publishing (2020)
- "Russian Spring" (short story), Trajectory literary journal, issue 13, fall 2016.
- Speed Family Heritage Recipes, coauthor and editor (July 2016)
- BioStories.com: "The Red Wings Box" (July 2015) and "Chasing the Dead" (Vol. 5, No. 1, Honorable Mention in BioStories Essay Contest)
- RaphaelsVillage.com: "David and Ed" (June 2013), "Sabbath with Aunt Helen" (October 2012), "Independence Day" July 2012), and "Ruby's Valentine" (February 2012)
- Underwired magazine: “Aloha, Y’all” (April 2012), “Keep Your Fork” (November 2011), and “Depression Ladies” (August 2011)
- Calliope anthology (2013): “Pig Pile” and “All Dressed Up with Somewhere to Go”
- Calliope anthology (2012): “Lost and Found” and “Axed”
- Calliope anthology (2011): “Dancing at the Kwik & Klean” and “The Boy in the Cornfield”
- The Highlander newspaper: “Summer Storm” (August 2011) and a series of regional author profiles (November 2011 to December 2012)
Awards / Honors
Awards / Honors
Awards / Honors
- Recipient of two-week writing retreat, Wildacres, North Carolina (2016)
- Semi-finalist, Mark Twain Humor Contest (2015), “A Bargain to Die For”
- First place, Kentucky Daughters of the American Revolution Essay Competition (2012), “Depression Ladies”
- First place, Harriett Rose Legacies Contest (2012), “All Dressed Up with Somewhere to Go”
- Kentucky Foundation for Women, artist’s enrichment grant (2012)
- First place, Bluegrass Literacy Contest (2011), “Demolition Day”
- Second place, National Writers’ Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest (2011), “Wouldst Thou Keep Me Secret?”
- Second place, Cooking Comfort Contest (2010), “A Matter of Perspective”
- Diamond Award, Public Relations Society of America / East Central District, media relations
- Landmark of Merit Award, International Association of Business Communications / Kentucky Chapter, media relations