The generation of Black women born in the waning days of the Antebellum South was extraordinary. This is their story—almost forgotten, and more urgent than ever.

Celeste Headlee comes from a long line of strong women, but there is one woman whose story loomed larger than the rest: that of her great grandmother, Carrie.

To a young Headlee, Carrie Still Shepperson held an almost-mythical status. Born into the chaos of the Civil War, Carrie graduated from college, became a teacher, and dedicated her life to providing access to education and literacy for Black people living in the South. She received many honors and accolades in her lifetime, and was a respected and well-known figure. And yet her story, as is so often the case with Black women’s legacies, had been nearly erased.

It took Headlee nearly a decade to piece together Carrie’s life. But in Freedom’s Daughters, Headlee has rendered not only her great grandmother’s forgotten story, but those of her sisters—a generation of women who believed freedom was inextricably linked with learning and free expression, and who worked tirelessly to secure access to literacy and education for a generation of Black children born into freedom.

By turns shocking, inspiring, and deeply moving, Freedom’s Daughters is Headlee’s impeccably researched, beautifully rendered journey to better understand her family history, herself, and the blurry lines that separate past and present.