Betty DeRamus

Forbidden Fruit is a collection of fascinating, largely untold stories of ordinary men and women who took extraor dinary measures, risking life and limb to be together. It¹s the story of couples who faced mobs, bloodhounds, bounty hunters, and bullets to defy the system that allowed slave masters to breed and sell people like cattle. Some broke the taboo against interracial marriage, putting their lives in the most severe peril. In one remarkable story, a Georgia couple who fled slavery wearing multiple disguises sailed for England with bounty hunters and federal troops on their trail. A fugitive slave from Virginia spent seventeen arduous years searching for his wife. A Missouri slave fell in love with his white Mormon neighbor and escaped to Canada to be with her, putting pepper in his shoes to throw dogs off the scent at night and hiding in trees by day. Betty DeRamus gleaned these amazing stories from descendants of runaway slave couples, unpublished memoirs, Civil War records, books, magazines, and dozens of previously untapped sources. Beautifully and compassionately written, this important book reveals a chapter of American history that is shameful but is about triumph as well as torture, achievement as well as degradation, and indomitable love as well as hate.

Love Stories from the Underground Railroad

Forbidden Fruit

A collection of true love stories from the American slavery period relates the experiences of slave, free, and black-and-white couples who risked their lives in order to be together, from a Georgia couple who fled bounty hunters for England to a Missouri slave who escaped to Canada to be with his white Mormon love. 25,000 first printing.

In this powerful follow-up to her Essence bestseller Forbidden Fruit, Betty DeRamus explores the ingenious ways slaves wrestled freedom for themselves and their loved ones. In Forbidden Fruit DeRamus told the real-life love stories of enslaved African Americans whose relationships with each other and whites flourished in spite of the horrendous circumstances of the antebellum period. With the same lyrical style and attention to detail, Freedom By Any Means explains how African Americans resorted to using extraordinary methods to maintain their seemingly impossible personal relationships during this time of terror. Besides the tactics of running away together or raising money to buy their freedom, loved ones filed successful lawsuits, became military spies or counterspies, and used rumors of voodoo to create bluffs and tricks. Riveting and surprising, Betty DeRamus captures the tumultuous lives of the humans in inhumane situations who were able to salvage their families and marriages and achieve freedom together in spite of tremendous odds. Freedom By Any Means also features the return of many of the beloved figures from her previous book Forbidden Fruit, including Lucy Nichols, Al and Margaret Wood, and Sylvia and Louis Stark. This inspiring account steeped in rich historical research attests to the resolve of the human spirit and is a welcome addition to the library of American historical texts on this period.

Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love and Lawsuits on the Underground Railroad

Freedom by Any Means

A collection of true love stories from the American slavery period relates the experiences of slave, free, and black-and-white couples who risked their lives in order to be together, from a Georgia couple who fled bounty hunters for England to a Missouri slave who escaped to Canada to be with his white Mormon love. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Betty DeRamus

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