Local illuminates Black female history

Dr. Tamika Nunley, a 2003 Euclid High graduate, spent over six years diving into historical archives and court records while researching for her first nonfiction book, “At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery & Shifting Identities in Washington D.C.”

Nunley spent several years out of state pursuing her master’s degree from Columbia University in New York City, and her doctorate from The University of Virginia, before returning home to the Cleveland area to become an associate professor at Oberlin College in the history department.

Now residing in Cleveland Heights, Nunley said she loved growing up as a Euclid resident and student, and high school left lasting impressions on her.

“Growing up in Euclid was really special, and attending the high school was wonderful,” she said. “My life has been really positively impacted by the teachers at Euclid High School. It has a special place in my heart.”

“At the Threshold of Liberty,” officially published on Feb. 22, explores the experiences of Black women in Washington D.C. in the early 19th century as they navigated how to define their lives on their terms amid slavery or the pursuit of freedom.

“This book is about African-American women in D.C. who are imagining lives for themselves, whether they be lives that are free, lives that are educated or lives that are politically active. It begins in 1800, right at the beginning where the nation’s capital was moved to Washington D.C.,” Nunley said.

She said her goal was to show that the identities of these women were far more complex than the simple labels of ‘enslaved’ or ‘free.’ Despite their oppression, they sought to carve out the lives they imagined for themselves and influenced American history as a result, she said.

“What my book shows is that these women actually embody a lot of different kinds of identities,” Nunley explained. “And so many of them may be in bondage and remain in bondage, but they don’t always see themselves only in the context of their bondage. Some people end up becoming free or making claims to freedom in the court.

“It shows that their status can be changing over time.”

The women Nunley studied were constantly faced with the challenges of America’s laws at that time, which penalized them for being both Black and female, and criminalized simple activities they might partake in — even playing cards with friends.

“The tension in the book is that we want them to be free and completely liberated on their terms, but the way that the nation takes shape just does not allow for that because of how race works and because of how gender works,” she said.

Because of the laws that discriminated against Blacks, Nunley said she was able to find much of her information on the activities of these historical women through criminal court records, even though they were not engaging in criminal behavior as one would think of today.

“They were transgressing, they were violating laws, but not in the ways that we would associate with criminality, and I think that’s an important point,” Nunley said. “There were Black codes and slave codes, so there were a set of governing laws that applied to Black men and women and children that did not apply to the white inhabitants of the district.”

Nunley added that she hopes her book will help highlight the unique experiences of Black women in the 19th century, and that readers will be able to hear their voices in the nation’s narrative, as they have traditionally been underrepresented in most history textbooks.

“I think that when you begin to look at the lives and the experiences of Black women in early America, you get a sense of the nation’s history,” she said. “And so I don’t see this as separate from studying American history. More generally, I see this as helping to understand American history in a deeper way.”

“At the Threshold of Liberty” is available to purchase through many major booksellers, including Barnes & Noble, Books-AMillion and Amazon.com.