Our Land Before We Die

In Our Land Before We Die, Jeff Guinn traces the little-known history of the runaway slaves who fled to the Florida Everglades to live alongside the Seminole Indians. Deeply rooted in tribal oral history, and based on extensive interviews with descendants, this book describes the incredible circumstances of a people who sought shelter in the shadow of a tribe whose land and welfare already hung in the balance. And yet, in their tireless journey-from Florida to Indian Territory in Oklahoma; on the seven-hundred-mile flight from persecution that took them across the Rio Grande into Mexico; and then back across the Rio Grande to Texas-they never surrendered the hope of one day attaining land of their own. Our Land Before We Diebrings to life the largely forgotten history of a courageous people and the descendants for whom this story is their only legacy.

Jeff Guinn is the books editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is the author of six books, including the Christmas classic The Autobiography of Santa Claus.