Overview

Perhaps no other symbol has more resonance in African American history than that of forty acres and a mule--the lost promise of Black reparations for slavery after the Civil War. In I've Been Here All the While, we meet the Black people who actually received this mythic forty acres, the American settlers who coveted this land, and the Native Americans whose holdings it originated from. In nineteenth-century Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma), a story unfolds that ties African American and Native American history tightly together, revealing a western theatre of Civil War and Reconstruction, in which Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole Indians, their Black slaves, and African Americans and whites from the eastern United States fought military and rhetorical battles to lay claim to land that had been taken from others. Through chapters that chart cycles of dispossession, land seizure, and settlement in Indian Territory, Alaina E. Roberts draws on archival research and family history to upend the traditional story of Reconstruction. She connects debates about Black freedom and Native American citizenship to westward expansion onto Native land.

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Alaina E. Roberts is a professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. From the coming of age story of a wide-eyed tween to the travel adventure of an inquisitive twenty-something, Caroline Sorunke loves to use her voice to inspire self-discovery, wonder, and zest for life! Years of studying her acting craft in the US and UK, with renowned schools such as RADA, LAMDA, and The National Youth Theatre, has groomed her to translate a well-written story into a well-crafted performance. Having, since she was three, lived and traveled abroad to cities in the UK, France, Italy, Ukraine, and Nigeria, Caroline is confident in her ability to morph into multiple unique characters from differing cultures and re-create the complex feelings of growth, discovery, adventure, and wanderlust. Caroline's conversational and engaging voice will place the listener right into the shoes of the characters of YA dramas, romances, fantasies, and comedies while her warm and relaxing tone is sure to persuade kids to curl up with a blanket and completely immerse themselves in an old fable or fairy tale. As a classically trained actor with over fifteen years of experience on screen and on stage, she enjoys using her understanding of accents, story structure, and character building to bring unique, inspired, and resonant stories to life.

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