In an unprecedented quest to find the last surviving children of slaves, searching from Los Angeles to New Orleans, from Virginia nursing homes to Alabama churches, Sana Butler provides a fascinating picture of African American life and its legacy in the post-Civil War world. Drawing on interviews she began in the summer of 1997 with centenarian sons and daughters of slaves, Butler reveals how African Americans emerged from slavery with a deep commitment to the future and a powerful energy to make the most of their opportunities, large and small. Like immigrants in a new land, freed slaves faced a new America with enthusiastic hopes and dreams for their children. The children of slaves were raised to be independent and often fearless thinkers, laying the groundwork for what would later become the Civil Rights Movement.--From publisher description.