Colored Travelers

“Contains an unprecedentedly rich trove of evidence about black people’s experiences and understandings of travel before the Civil War.” — New England Quarterly

“Proves once again that there is absolutely no break in American history from before America’s founding to the present day when it comes to Civil War and Civil Rights.” — Salvatore Cilella, Civil War News

“[A] seminal work. . . . An original contribution to historiography of the 19th century, this work will engage everyone from legal scholars to general readers, and is especially recommended to those interested in the antebellum era and African American history.” — Library Journal, Starred Review

“The book’s strength is its comprehension of the civic component of these prolonged public travails. Highly recommended.” — CHOICE

“Offers meaningful insights and an original analysis regarding the precariousness of black movement—a topic relevant to Americans in the twenty-first century.” — Journal of Southern History

“Pryor argues persuasively that the abusive and discriminatory treatment meted out to African Americans in the 'free' North was more about subordination than it was about blackness.”—The Journal of American History

“Colored Travelers adds to and pushes beyond a growing literature on the history of race and transportation. . . . While Colored Travelers addresses the links between race, mobility, equal rights, and citizenship, it also explores how transportation technologies were part of the longer development of racial practices that emphasize surveillance, criminalization, and the idea of home-grown foreigners.”—Technology and Culture

“Would be a welcome addition for students, scholars and readers of transport history.”—The Journal of Transport History

“Although there have been plenty of books and articles that have come out in the last ten years on racial segregation and public transportation as well as black activism in the antebellum North, at this moment there is nothing as original or thought provoking as Colored Travelers.” — Griot

“Pryor analyzes the experiences of free black people living in the antebellum North who had the resources to travel, and who protested against discrimination on public conveyances.”—Journal of North Carolina Association of Historians