The first paths to freedom taken by runaway slaves led to Native American villages. There, black men and women found acceptance and friendship amoung our country's original inhabitants. Though they seldom appear in textbooks and movies, the children of these Native- and African-American marriages helped shape the early days of the fur trade, added a new dimension to frontier diplomacy, and made a daring contribution to the fight for American liberty. For twenty-five years, William Loren Katz's Black Indians has remained the definitive work on their long, arduous quest for freedom. Now his compelling account, meticulously researched and documented with rare antique prints and photographs, is available in this anniversary edition that includes brand-new information of this neglected chapter in American history.

William Loren Katz is the author of forty books, including such award-winning titles as Breaking the Chains: African American Slave Resistance, The Black West, and Black Women of the Old West. He has lectured in Europe, Africa, and the United States; he has been a Scholar in Residence at Teachers College, Columbia University; and he has served as a consultant to the Smithsonian Institute and to school systems from California to Florida and England. He lives in New York City. Visit him at WilliamLKatz.com.