ScholarWorks at WMU

Follow

• 

  The Great Beginning of Cîteaux: A Narrative of the Beginning of the Cistercian Order: The Exordium Magnum of Conrad of Eberbach

  Konrad Abbot of Eberbach, Benedicta Ward, Paul Savage, E. Rozanne Elder, and Brian Patrick McGuire

  Conrad, a monk of Eberbach in Germany, weaves both documentary history and edifying exempla into a gentle exhortion to Cistercians of the early thirteenth century to remain true to their vocation and to the traditions of their Order. Benedicta Ward SLG, a member of the Sisters of the Love of God community, is a fellow of Harris Manchester College and teaches for the Faculty of Theology at Oxford University. She is the author of numerous books on early monasticism and medieval spirituality. Paul Savage received his Ph.D. in medieval history from the University of Notre Dame and wrote his dissertation on the Exordium Magnum. In addition to the early Cistercians he has studied the early generations of the Carthusian Order and contributed several articles on the antipopes in the New Catholic Encyclopedia. He currently teaches history and economics in Salt Lake City.

• 

  An American Dream: The Life of an African American Soldier and POW Who Spent Twelve Years in Communist China

  Clarence Adams, Della Adams, and Lewis Carlson

  Throughout his life, Clarence Adams exhibited self-reliance, ambition, ingenuity, courage, and a commitment to learning--character traits often equated with the successful pursuit of the American Dream. Unfortunately, for an African American coming of age in the 1930s and 1940s, such attributes counted for little, especially in the South. Adams was a seventeen-year-old high school dropout in 1947 when he fled Memphis and the local police to join the U.S. Army. Three years later, after fighting in the Korean War in an all-black artillery unit that he believed to have been sacrificed to save white troops, he was captured by the Chinese. After spending almost three years as a POW, during which he continued to suffer racism at the hands of his fellow Americans, he refused repatriation in 1953, choosing instead the People's Republic of China, where he hoped to find educational and career opportunities not readily available in his own country. While living in China, Adams earned a university degree, married a Chinese professor of Russian, and worked in Beijing as a translator for the Foreign Languages Press. During the Vietnam War he made a controversial anti-war broadcast over Radio Hanoi, urging black troops not to fight for someone else's political and economic freedoms until they enjoyed these same rights at home. In 1966, having come under suspicion during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, he returned with his wife and two children to the United States, where he was subpoenaed to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities to face charges of "disrupting the morale of American fighting forces in Vietnam and inciting revolution in the United States." After these charges weredropped, he and his family struggled to survive economically. Eventually, through sheer perseverance, they were able to fulfill at least part of the American Dream. By the time he died, the family owned and operated eight successful Chinese restaurants in his native Memphis.

• 

  Collaboration and the Future of Education: Preserving the Right to Think and Teach Historically

  Gordon P. Andrews, Wilson J. Warren, and James Cousins

  Current educational reforms have given rise to various types of "educational Taylorism," which encourage the creation of efficiency models in pursuit of a unified way to teach. In history education curricula, this has been introduced through scripted textbook-based programs such as Teacher Curriculum Institute’s History Alive! and completely online curricula. They include the jargon of authentic methods, such as primary sources, cooperative learning, differentiated instruction, and access to technology; yet the craft of teaching is removed, and an experience that should be marked by discovery and reflection is replaced with comparatively empty processes.

  This volume provides systematic models and examples of ways that history teachers can compete with and effectively halt this transformation. The alternatives the authors present are based on collaborative models that address the art of teaching for pre-service and practicing secondary history teachers as well as collegiate history educators. Relying on original research, and a maturing body of secondary literature on historical thinking, this book illuminates how collaboration can create real historical learning.

• 

  Voices from Silencee: A Loretto Patchwork

  Sandy Ardoyno, Dianne Dignam Chowen, Marion Golden Curtis, Jackie Hartman Dear, Barbara Speas Havira, Sharon Kassing, Michele Minnis, Marion Veeneman Panyan, and Jane Peckham Stoever

  "In 2008, 13 women who had entered the Loretto novitiate as postulants in 1961 gathered for a reunion at a rustic home in the Missouri Ozarks. Within that group, there were two members of the congregation. Among the remaining 11, some had left during training, others after several years of service. ... We determined to produce an informal, personal record of our Loretto novitiate memories. It would be a gift to the Loretto Community for the 2012 celebration of the bicentennial of the Sisters of Loretto and the 50th jubilee year of the sisters in our novitiate class: Sisters Sandy Ardoyno, Donna Day, Sharon Kassing, Carol Ann Ptacek, Helen Santamaria, and Mary Louise 'Billie' Vandover. Another class member who remained in the order, Sister Lucy Ruth Rawe, died in 2003"--Preface.

• 

  And the Wind Blew Cold: The Story of an American Pow in North Korea

  Richard M. Bassett and Lewis H. Carlson

  When Richard Bassett returned from Korea on convalescent leave in 1953, he set down his experiences in training, combat, and captivity. More than 20 years later, hospitalized for acute Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he once again faced his personal demons. This work expands the memoir to include his post-war struggles with the US government and his own wounded psyche. He describes the shock of capture and ensuing long march to Pyokdong, North Korea, Camp 5 on the Yellow River, where many prisoners died of untreated wounds, disease, hunger, paralyzing cold, and brutal mistreatment in the bitter winter of 1950-51. He recounts Chinese attempts to mentally break down prisoners in order to exploit them for propaganda. He then takes the reader through typical days in a prisoner's life, discussing food, clothing, shelter, and work; the struggle against unremitting boredom; religious, social, and recreational diversions; and even those moments of terror when all seemed lost. It refutes Cold War-era propaganda that often unfairly characterized POWs as brainwashed victims or even traitors who lacked the grit that Americans expected of their brave sons.

• 

  Solving Some Enigmas of the Middle Ages : The Historian as a Detective

  George Beech

  This work examines historical problems encountered on topics from eleventh-century France, England, and the Crusader East, and to a lesser degree from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These topics include works of art - the Eleanor of Aquitaine vase, the celebrated Bayeux Tapestry, a sixteenth century poem and painting - to inquiries about individual people, such as the first troubadour poet. Lack of contemporary evidence about the subjects described in this book, commonplace for the medieval period hundreds of years ago, limits the ability of the historian today to fully understand them. For instance, uncertainty still hovers over the questions as to who commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry, why, and where was it made. The author's approach to this study closely resembles that of a modern detective investigating a crime committed by an unknown criminal: a search for clues making it possible to identify the culprit. After the introduction to the subject in general, a brief commentary precedes each of the articles themselves, and in conclusion, becomes a summary with emphasis on the author's degree of success in solving the problems.

• 

  Was the Bayeux Tapestry Made in France?

  George T. Beech

  This book presents the hypothesis that the Bayeux tapestry, long believed to have been made in England, came from the Loire valley in France, from the abbey of St. Florent of Saumur. This is based on a number of different kinds of evidence, the most important of which is signs of a St. Florent/Breton influence in the portrayal of the Breton campaign in the tapestry, about a tenth of the whole.

• 

  Personal Names Studies of Medieval Europe: Social Identity and Familial Structures

  George T. Beech, Monique Bourin, and Pascal Chareille

  This collection of essays was the first published in North America that sought to describe the methodology and some results of a scholarly enterprise hailed in the preface to the volume as one of the most vibrant, innovative, and productive movements in medieval scholarship at the present time. Under the direction of Monique Bourin an international team of scholars has been considering onomastics from the perspective of history rather than that of linguistics or philology. By examining data on both the micro and macro levels, researchers are beginning to describe how medieval patterns of naming have implications for our understanding of family relationships, kinship, and larger social structures that were not fully realized by earlier scholars.

• 

  Day of Reckoning: Power and Accountability in Medieval France

  Robert Berkhofer

  Day of Reckoning: Power and Accountability in Medieval France applies recent approaches to literacy, legal studies, memory, ritual, and the manorial economy to reexamine the transformation of medieval power. Highlighting the relationship of archives and power, it draws on the rich documentary sources of five of the largest Benedictine monasteries in northern France and Flanders, with comparisons to others, over a period of nearly four centuries.

  The book opens up new perspectives on important problems of power, in particular the idea and practice of accountability. In a violent society, medieval lords tried to delegate power rather than share it--to get their men to prosecute justice or raise money legitimately, rather than through extortion and pillage. Robert F. Berkhofer III explains how subordinates were held accountable by abbots administering the extensive holdings of Saint-Bertin, Saint-Denis, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Père-de-Chartres, and Saint-Vaast-d'Arras. As the abbots began to discipline their agents and monitor their conduct, the "day of reckoning" took on new meaning, as customary meeting days were used to hold agents accountable. By 1200, written and unwritten techniques of rule developed in the monasteries had moved into the secular world; in these practices lay the origins of administration, bureaucratic power, and governance, all hallmarks of the modern state.

• 

  Erchemperto, Piccola Storia dei Longobardi di Benevento

  Luigi Andrea Berto

  Erchemperto, active 9th century. Historia Langobardorum.

• 

  In Search of the First Venetians: Prosopography of Early Medieval Venice, Studies in the Early Middle Ages.

  Luigi Andrea Berto

  This prosopographical study provides information about each Venetian living in the early Middle Ages, from the invasion of the Lombards in 569 - an action that forced part of northeast Italy's population to seek refuge on the islands of the Venetian lagoon - to the rule of Duke Petrus Ursoylus II (991-1008). There is an entry for each individual listing all available information and quoting the full text of primary sources within the footnotes. The data are organized in categories such as families, first names, rulers, women, office holders, ecclesiastics, occupations, and places of residence (Venice was a duchy with different urban centres).

  Venice is an extremely important place for this kind of analysis. It is the area in which family name use began for the first time in medieval Europe. Venice was never conquered by a 'Germanic' people, and therefore it is possible to study the evolution of a post-Roman/Byzantine society by analyzing the names of the Venetians. Moreover, scholars interested in later periods will be able to find the origins of all the most important Venetian families.

• 

  I raffinati metodi d'indagine e il mestiere dello storico

  Luigi Andrea Berto

  Negli ultimi vent’anni vari studiosi, traendo ispirazione dalla sociologia, dall’antropologia e dalla critica testuale, hanno proposto nuove interpretazioni sui primi secoli del Medioevo italiano, in particolare sull’identità dei Longobardi e sulle conseguenze del loro insediamento in Italia. In alcuni casi tali posizioni sono state criticate perché ritenute essere il frutto della reazione alla convinzione che l’identità etnica e le qualità ad essa connesse fossero trasmesse geneticamente e quindi immutabili – teoria che ha condotto ad esasperate forme di nazionalismo, di cui la Germania nazista ha costituito uno dei peggiori esempi –. Questo volume mira a fornire una riflessione sulle nuove posizioni storiografiche, non esprimendo ulteriori opinioni su influenze politiche e culturali e su quanto raffinati siano quegli strumenti di ricerca, ma analizzando i risultati ottenuti alla luce di quanto riportato nelle fonti, le grandi assenti in questi dibattiti.

• 

  La guerra, la violenza, Gli altri e la frontiera nella "Venetia" altomedievale

  Luigi Andrea Berto

  Tra la fine del sesto secolo e gli inizi dell’undicesimo la Venezia delle lagune subì delle drastiche modificazioni. Da una periferia poco rilevante dell’impero bizantino diventò la massima potenza adriatica. In tale periodo i Venetici avevano inoltre ottenuto la piena indipendenza da Costantinopoli, evitato di essere assorbiti dai poteri della vicina terraferma e di subire disastrose distruzioni ad opera di incursori ed invasori, guadagnato sempre più ampie zone di mercato nell’Italia settentrionale e nel Mediterraneo orientale e raggiunto un assetto politico-istituzionale stabile. Questo non fu un processo lineare, ma i Venetici conseguirono e difesero questi risultati con grande tenacità, creando così le basi per il notevole sviluppo dei secoli successivi. Questo volume esamina alcune tra le più rilevanti tematiche che contraddistinsero Venezia nel corso di quest’epoca: la guerra, la violenza, la maniera in cui gli “altri” erano percepiti che cosa si conosceva su di loro e la frontiera.

• 

  Storia dei vescovi napoletani (I secolo - 876) Gesta Episcoporum Neapolitanorum

  Luigi Andrea Berto

  Edition and translation by Luigi Andrea Berto

  Nell'alto Medioevo Napoli subì drastiche modificazioni. Da zona di frontiera dell'impero bizantino diventò una delle più rilevanti potenze nel Meridione. Nell'ottavo e nono secolo i Napoletani avevano inoltre ottenuto la piena indipendenza da Costantinopoli, evitato di essere assorbiti dai Franchi e dai Longobardi di Benevento e di subire disastrose distruzioni ad opera dei musulmani. I testi riuniti in questo volume (le uniche opere cronachistiche scritte a Napoli prima del XIV secolo) ripercorrono le vite di tutti i vescovi di Napoli, dal semileggendario Aspreno (I secolo) ad Atanasio II (fine IX secolo) che furono furono messe per iscritto in questo periodo di fondamentale importanza per la città. La disponibilità di pochissime informazioni sui prelati partenopei fino all'ottavo secolo fece sì che la prima parte di questo testo sia poco più che una lista. Molto più dettagliata e ricca di informazioni, non soltanto sui vescovi, è invece la sezione successiva, particolarità che la rende una fonte estremamente preziosa per ricostruire la storia della Napoli altomedievale.

• 

  The Political and Social Vocabulary of John's the Deacon's 'Istoria Veneticorum'

  Luigi Andrea Berto

  Dukes, sovereigns, and holders of other offices -- Social definitions -- The verbs of power -- Kinship and classes of age -- Space -- The peoples. Based on an extensive linguistic analysis, this book provides the first examination of the political and social vocabulary of John the Deacon’s Istoria Veneticorum, thus offering significant insights to the history of Venice in the early Middle Ages. The Istoria Veneticorum, a chronicle attributed to John the Deacon, chaplain and ambassador of the Venetian Duke Peter Orseolo II (991-1008), is of fundamental importance for the reconstruction of early medieval Venetian history. In addition to being the only historical narrative of that period, it covers the entire early Middle Ages, from the invasion of the Lombards in 569, an action that forced a part of the Veneto’s population to seek refuge on the islands of the Venetian lagoon, to the beginning of the eleventh century. Its importance is further emphasized by the limited number of the surviving early medieval Venetian sources. Berto’s study of the political and social vocabulary of this work analyses the chronicler’s use and contextualization of key words and provides the reader with an enhanced understanding of the Istoria Veneticorum. The attentive and skilful use of terminology by the chronicler confirms that the author was, in all likelihood, a member of the Orseolo entourage, that he was acquainted with the art of diplomacy, and that he was, in fact, John the Deacon. Furthermore, he did not limit himself to a mere recording of dates and events; rather, by a careful use of terminology—probably in order to avoid reopening recent wounds—he was able to express his opinions about the dukes who had ruled his country.

• 

  The Political and Social Vocabulary of John the Deacon’s 'Istoria Veneticorum'

  Luigi Andrea Berto

  Based on an extensive linguistic analysis, this book provides the first examination of the political and social vocabulary of John the Deacon’s Istoria Veneticorum, thus offering significant insights to the history of Venice in the early Middle Ages. The Istoria Veneticorum, a chronicle attributed to John the Deacon, chaplain and ambassador of the Venetian Duke Peter Orseolo II (991-1008), is of fundamental importance for the reconstruction of early medieval Venetian history. In addition to being the only historical narrative of that period, it covers the entire early Middle Ages, from the invasion of the Lombards in 569, an action that forced a part of the Veneto’s population to seek refuge on the islands of the Venetian lagoon, to the beginning of the eleventh century. Its importance is further emphasized by the limited number of the surviving early medieval Venetian sources. Berto’s study of the political and social vocabulary of this work analyses the chronicler’s use and contextualization of key words and provides the reader with an enhanced understanding of the Istoria Veneticorum. The attentive and skilful use of terminology by the chronicler confirms that the author was, in all likelihood, a member of the Orseolo entourage, that he was acquainted with the art of diplomacy, and that he was, in fact, John the Deacon. Furthermore, he did not limit himself to a mere recording of dates and events; rather, by a careful use of terminology—probably in order to avoid reopening recent wounds—he was able to express his opinions about the dukes who had ruled his country. From publisher

• 

  African American Settlements in West Africa: John Brown Russwurm and the American Civilizing Efforts

  Amos J. Beyan

  John Brown Russwurm and African American Settlement in West Africa examines Russwurm's intellectual accomplishments and significant contributions to the black civil rights movement in America from 1826 - 1829, and more significantly explores the essential characteristics that distinguished his thoughts and endeavours from other black leaders in America, Liberia and Maryland in Liberia. Not surprisingly, the most controversial of Russwurm's ideas was his unwavering support of the American Colonization Society (ACS) and the Maryland State Colonization Society (MSCS), two organizations that most civil rights activists found racist and pro-slavery. Beyan probes the social and intellectual sources, underlying motives and the legacies of Russwurm's thoughts and endeavours, all in an attempt to dissect why Russwurm acted and made the choices that he did.

• 

  Letters to America

  Guntram Bischoff

  Published here without alteration, Letters to America: Translated, Edited, and Retold is a manuscript finished by Guntram G. Bischoff shortly before his death in 1988. The work consists of two separate parts. In the first part, Bischoff translated and edited eighty-four letters written between 1882 and 1904 to Heinrich Arndsmann of Quincy, Illinois, by the parents, brother, and sister whom the young German immigrant had left behind. In the second part, Bischoff sought to recreate, through a commentary on these letters, the mental world of a young Heinrich Arndsmann as he endeavored to maintain familial ties across the broad expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

• 

  The Routledge History of American Sport

  Linda Borish, David K. Wiggins, and Gerald R. Gems

  The Routledge History of American Sport provides the first comprehensive overview of historical research in American sport from the early Colonial period to the present day. Considering sport through innovative themes and topics such as the business of sport, material culture and sport, the political uses of sport, and gender and sport, this text offers an interdisciplinary analysis of American leisure. Rather than moving chronologically through American history or considering the historical origins of each sport, these topics are dealt with organically within thematic chapters, emphasizing the influence of sport on American society.

  The volume is divided into eight thematic sections that include detailed original essays on particular facets of each theme. Focusing on how sport has influenced the history of women, minorities, politics, the media, and culture, these thematic chapters survey the major areas of debate and discussion. The volume offers a comprehensive view of the history of sport in America, pushing the field to consider new themes and approaches as well.

  Including a roster of contributors renowned in their fields of expertise, this ground-breaking collection is essential reading for all those interested in the history of American sport.

• 

  Your Fyre Shall Burn No More

  Jose Antonio Brandao

  Why were the Iroquois unrelentingly hostile toward the French colonists and their Native allies? The longstanding "Beaver War" interpretation of seventeenth-century Iroquois-French hostilities holds that the Iroquois’ motives were primarily economic, aimed at controlling the profitable fur trade. José António Brandão argues persuasively against this view. Drawing from the original French and English sources, Brandão has compiled a vast array of quantitative data about Iroquois raids and mortality rates. He offers a penetrating examination of seventeenth-century Iroquoian attitudes toward foreign policy and warfare, contending that the Iroquois fought New France not primarily to secure their position in a new market economy but for reasons that traditionally fueled Native warfare: to replenish their populations, safeguard hunting territories, protect their homes, gain honor, and seek revenge.

• 

  Nation Iroquoise: A Seventeenth-Century Ethnography of the Iroquois

  José António Brandão

  Nation Iroquoise presents an intriguing mystery. Found in the Bibliotheque Mazarine in Paris and in the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, the unsigned and undated manuscript Nation Iroquoise is an absorbing and informative eyewitness account of the daily life and societal structure of the Oneida Iroquois in the seventeenth century. The Nation Iroquoise manuscript is arguably one of the earliest known comprehensive descriptions of an Iroquois group. Rich in ethnographic detail, the work is replete with valuable information about the traditional Oneidas: the role of women in tribal councils; mortuary customs; religious beliefs and rituals; warfare; the function of the clan system in tribal governance; the impact of alcohol; and the topography, flora, and fauna of the Oneida territory. It also offers important information about the famed Iroquois Confederacy during the 1600s. Drawing on multiple strands of evidence and following a trail of clues within the Nation Iroquoise manuscript and elsewhere, José António Brandão presents the results of a fascinating and convincing piece of detective work. He explains who might have written the manuscript as well as its contribution to our understanding of the Iroquois and their culture. The book includes the original French transcription and its English translation. Brandão also provides an illuminating overview of Iroquois culture and of Iroquois-French relations during the period in which the Nation Iroquoise manuscript was likely written.

• 

  Historiography : Ancient, Medieval, & Modern

  Ernst Breisach

  In this pioneering work, Ernst Breisach presents an effective, well-organized, and concise account of the development of historiography in Western culture. Neither a handbook nor an encyclopedia, this up-to-date third edition narrates and interprets the development of historiography from its origins in Greek poetry to the present, with compelling sections on postmodernism, deconstructionism, African-American history, women’s history, microhistory, the Historikerstreit, cultural history, and more. The definitive look at the writing of history by a historian, Historiography provides key insights into some of the most important issues, debates and innovations in modern historiography.
  
  Praise for the first edition: “Breisach’s comprehensive coverage of the subject and his clear presentation of the issues and the complexity of an evolving discipline easily make his work the best of its kind.”—Lester D. Stephens, American Historical Review

• 

  On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath

  Ernst Breisach

  What does postmodernism mean for the future of history? Can one still write history in postmodernity? To answer questions such as these, Ernst Breisach provides the first comprehensive overview of postmodernism and its complex relationship to history and historiography. Placing postmodern theories in their intellectual and historical contexts, he shows how they are part of broad developments in Western culture. Breisach sees postmodernism as neither just a fad nor a universal remedy. In clear and concise language, he presents and critically evaluates the major views on history held by influential postmodernists, such as Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, and the new narrativists. Along the way, he introduces to the reader major debates among historians over postmodern theories of evidence, objectivity, meaning and order, truth, and the usefulness of history. He also discusses new types of history that have emerged as a consequence of postmodernism, including cultural history, microhistory, and new historicism. For anyone concerned with the postmodern challenge to history, both advocates and critics alike, On the Future of History will be a welcome guide.

• 

  "Face Zion Forward": First Writers of the Black Atlantic

  Joanna Brooks and John Saillant

  At the close of the Revolutionary War, more than 3,000 black Loyalists, many liberated from slavery by enlisting in the British army, made exodus in 1783 from New York to Nova Scotia in search of land and freedom. Almost half of the emigrants settled an independent black community at Birchtown, Nova Scotia, where, despite extraordinarily harsh conditions, they established their own churches and schools, and cultivated a shared sense of themselves as a chosen people. A majority of the population emigrated once again in 1791, this time setting sail for Sierra Leone to fulfill what they perceived to be their prophetic destiny. This circuit of gathering, exodus, and diaspora was grounded in a unique black Atlantic theology focused on redemption and Zion that was conceptualized and shaped by the charismatic black evangelists of diverse Protestant faiths who converged in the Nova Scotia settlements. "Face Zion Forward" now brings together the remarkable writings of these early authors of the black Atlantic. This collection of memoirs, sermons, and speeches, many of which are based on the Birchtown experience, documents how John Marrant, David George, Boston King, and Prince Hall envisioned the role of Africa and African American communities in black liberation. The volume demonstrates that these men were both collaborators and contestants in the construction of modern post-slavery black identities, and shows how the frameworks of Christian theology and Freemasonry influenced ideas about emancipation and communal independence. The centerpiece of the work is The Journal of John Murrant, published here in its entirety for the first time since 1790. Marrant's missionary diary not only illuminates the intricacies of eighteenth-century African American Christianity, but also presents a richly detailed account of everyday life in Birchtown. "Face Zion Forward" provides an informed reconstruction of the major ideological and theological conversations that occurred among North American blacks after the American Revolution and illustrates the disparate and complex underpinnings of the modern black Atlantic. In addition, the work presents invaluable insights into African American literary traditions and the development of Ethiopianist and black nationalist discourses.

• 

  "Face Zion Forward": First Writers of the Black Atlantic, 1785-1798

  Joanna Brooks, John Saillant, and Richard Yarborough

  At the close of the Revolutionary War, more than 3,000 black Loyalists, many liberated from slavery by enlisting in the British army, made exodus in 1783 from New York to Nova Scotia in search of land and freedom. Almost half of the emigrants settled an independent black community at Birchtown, Nova Scotia, where, despite extraordinarily harsh conditions, they established their own churches and schools, and cultivated a shared sense of themselves as a chosen people. A majority of the population emigrated once again in 1791, this time setting sail for Sierra Leone to fulfill what they perceived to be their prophetic destiny. This circuit of gathering, exodus, and diaspora was grounded in a unique black Atlantic theology focused on redemption and Zion that was conceptualized and shaped by the charismatic black evangelists of diverse Protestant faiths who converged in the Nova Scotia settlements. "Face Zion Forward" now brings together the remarkable writings of these early authors of the black Atlantic. This collection of memoirs, sermons, and speeches, many of which are based on the Birchtown experience, documents how John Marrant, David George, Boston King, and Prince Hall envisioned the role of Africa and African American communities in black liberation. The volume demonstrates that these men were both collaborators and contestants in the construction of modern post-slavery black identities, and shows how the frameworks of Christian theology and Freemasonry influenced ideas about emancipation and communal independence. The centerpiece of the work is The Journal of John Murrant, published here in its entirety for the first time since 1790. Marrant's missionary diary not only illuminates the intricacies of eighteenth-century African American Christianity, but also presents a richly detailed account of everyday life in Birchtown. "Face Zion Forward" provides an informed reconstruction of the major ideological and theological conversations that occurred among North American blacks after the American Revolution and illustrates the disparate and complex underpinnings of the modern black Atlantic. In addition, the work presents invaluable insights into African American literary traditions and the development of Ethiopianist and black nationalist discourses.