American Railroads

Two decades before the Civil War, a middle-class farmer named Samuel Maddox lies on his deathbed. Elsewhere in his Virginia home, a young woman named Kitty knows her life is about to change. She is one of the Maddox family's slaves - and Samuel's biological daughter. When Samuel's wife Mary inherits her husband's property, she will own Kitty, too, along with Kitty's three small children. After Samuel's death, Mary decides to grant Kitty and her children their freedom and travels with them to Pennsylvania, where she will file papers declaring Kitty's emancipation.

The Transcontinental Railroad, laid across the United States during the 1860s, remains the very epitome of contradiction. On the one hand, it was a triumph of engineering skills over thousands of miles of rough terrain, but on the other hand, it drained the natural resources in those places nearly dry.

The two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War traces the extraordinary downfall of financier Jubilee Jim, bringing to life New York’s Gilded Age and some of its legendary players, including Boss William Tweed, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the...

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Discover the real truth behind African American history. You will be amazed to learn about some of the great African Americans and their legacies.

The Underground Railroad is one of the topics that young schoolchildren are most often taught. Every American is familiar with the idea of fugitive slaves escaping to Canada and the North with the help of determined abolitionists and even former escaped slaves like Harriet Tubman.

“Riveting...A great read, full of colorful characters and outrageous confrontations back when the west was still wild.” —George R.R. Martin A propulsive and panoramic history of one of the most dramatic stories never told—the greatest railroad war of all time, fought by the daring...

The epic story of the Congo-Océan railroad and the human costs and contradictions of modern empire. The Congo-Océan railroad stretches across the Republic of Congo from Brazzaville to the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noir. It was completed in 1934, when Equatorial Africa was a French colony, and it...

Uplifting and occasionally heartbreaking stories of love from the time of slavery in the American south.

Harriet Tubman was known as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. But this wasn’t a railroad that carried trains and freight but rather human lives that were desperately seeking freedom. It was a clandestine group of individuals (hence the name “underground”) scattered across the United States and Canada who helped facilitate the migration of those ensnared in the South’s scourge of slavery to the so-called free states and provinces of the North.

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869 is usually told as a story of national triumph and a key moment for American Manifest Destiny. The Railroad made it possible to cross the country in a matter of days instead of months, paved the way for new settlers to come out west, and helped speed America's entry onto the world stage as a modern nation that spanned a full continent. It also created vast wealth for its four owners, including the fortune with which Leland Stanford would found Stanford University some two decades later.

The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. They are little known to history: Sydney Howard Gay, an abolitionist newspaper editor; Louis Napoleon, a furniture polisher; Charles B. Ray, a black minister. At great risk they operated the Underground Railroad in New York, a city whose businesses, banks, and politics were deeply enmeshed in the slave economy.

In Abandoned Tracks, W. Thomas Mainwaring bridges the gap between scholarly and popular perceptions of the Underground Railroad. Historians have long recognized that many aspects of the Underground Railroad have been mythologized by emotion, memory, time, and wishful thinking. Mainwaring’s book is a rich, in-depth attempt to separate fact from fiction in one local area, while also contributing to a scholarly discussion of the Underground Railroad by placing Washington County, Pennsylvania, in the national context.

The remarkable and inspiring story of William Still, an unknown abolitionist who dedicated his life to managing a critical section of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia—the free state directly north of the Mason-Dixon Line—helping hundreds of people escape from slavery. Born free in...

An important book of epic scope on America's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for change. The true story of the Underground Railroad is much more morally complex and politically divisive than even the myths suggest. Against a backdrop of the country's westward expansion...

The fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores. In 1904, the brilliant and driven...

Have you ever wondered why America is the way it is? Do you want to understand the events that have shaped American culture? Are you interested in seeing the long-term historical connections that explain how America moved from a group of colonies to the most powerful nation in history? If so, this book is for you. In simple, straightforward language, this book will take you on a brief journey through the highlights of American history. Filled with interesting facts and historical context, this book is a must-hear for those who are passionate about history or are simply interested in better understanding the history of the United States.

In this New York Times bestseller, Stephen Ambrose brings to life the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad, from the men who financed it to the engineers and surveyors who risked their lives to the workers who signed on for the dangerous job. Nothing Like It in the World gives...

Thomas B. Allen’s expertise in military history and strategy is combined with Roger MacBride Allen’s knowledge of technology to reveal a lesser-known yet fascinating side of the 16th president of the United States. Their authoritative narrative reveals Lincoln as our nation’s first hands-on commander in chief, whose appreciation for the power of technology plays a critical role in the North’s Civil War victory over the less-developed South.

Dive into the untold history of the courageous and forgotten, where legends are made and myths are shattered, even if you've never heard their names before… Are you frustrated by the same repeated tales of history's mainstream figures? Are you looking to uncover the hidden stories of those who dared to fight for freedom and justice against daunting odds? Do you long to deepen your understanding with accounts built on credible evidence, enriching your perspective of the past and inspiring your vision for the future?