This webpage has links to free books & articles on social topics in Michigan, past and present, including:
Immigrants
Ethnic Groups
Women’s Lives & Women’s Movements
Crime
Underground Railway
African Americans & Race Relations
Entertainment
Pioneer Life
Social Life & Living Conditions
The Great Lakes States Directory
Arab Detroit: From Margin to Mainstream – Michigan Immigrants
Abraham, Nabeel; Shryock, Andrew, eds.
Wayne State University 2000
“Metropolitan Detroit is home to one of the largest, most diverse Arab communities outside the Middle East, yet the complex world Arabic-speaking immigrants have created there is barely visible on the landscape of ethnic America. In this volume, Nabeel Abraham and Andrew Shryock bring together the work of twenty-five contributors to create a richly detailed portrait of Arab Detroit. The book goes behind the bulletproof glass in Iraqi Chaldean liquor stores. It explores the role of women in a Sunni mosque and the place of nationalist politics in a Coptic church. It follows the careers of wedding singers, Arabic calligraphers, restaurant owners, and pastry chefs. It examines the agendas of Shia Muslim activists and Washington-based lobbyists and looks at the intimate politics of marriage, family honor, and adolescent rebellion. Memoirs and poems by Lebanese, Chaldean, Yemeni, and Palestinian writers anchor the book in personal experience, while over fifty photographs provide a backdrop of vivid, often unexpected, images.” -Publisher
Jewish Ann Arbor – Ethnic Groups in Michigan History
Adler, Rich
Charleston, SC: Arcadia 2006
A volume in the Images of America series.
Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Michigan – Ethnic Groups in Michigan History
Alvarado, Rudolph
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2003
A volume in the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, published by Michigan State University press. The series examines the rich multicultural heritage of Michigan and explores its ethnic dynamics.
Progress of Michigan Women – Women in Michigan History
A brief record of the effort and achievement of women of Michigan in the struggle for equality before the law.
Arthur, Clara B.
Detroit: 1912?
Poles in Michigan
Badaczewski, Dennis
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2002
A volume in the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, published by Michigan State University press. The series examines the rich multicultural heritage of Michigan and explores its ethnic dynamics.
Latinos in Michigan – Michigan Ethnic History
Badillo, David A.
Michigan State University 2003
“This work looks at how Latinos have contributed culturally, economically and socially to many important developments in Michigan’s history. The history of Latinos is one of cultural diversity, institutional formation, and an ongoing search for leadership in the midst of unique circumstances.” -Publisher
Contents:Introduction — Tejanos, Mexican immigrants, and Mexican American communities — Pioneers of Latino Catholicism — Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and other Latinos — Rise of rural and urban activism — Regional migration and the metropolis — contemporary ethnicity and leadership — SIDEBARS: Community redevelopment in southwest Detroit — The UFW, La Lucha, and Michigan — Latino music and culture
“The Vermontville Colony: Its Genesis and History, with Personal Sketches of the Colonists”
Michigan Historical Collections Vol 28, 1900, 197-287
Barber, Edward W.
Lansing: Michigan Historical Commission
“This is a detailed history of the founding and development of Vermontville, Michigan. Under the leadership of a Congregational minister named Sylvester Cochrane, a group of men from Bennington, Poultney, Benson, Orwell and other Vermont communities signed a compact pledging to honor the Gospel and the Sabbath, to provide jointly for certain community services, and to pool their money to purchase land “in the western country.” Arriving in Michigan’s Thornapple River Valley in 1836, the colony gave each member a farm lot of 160 acres and a village lot of ten acres to develop with his family. A church, a school and an academy were also part of the master plan from the outset. Vermontville’s economic growth exemplified that of many small Michigan towns. At first, the settlers were heavily dependent on the Indians for food. In time, they produced enough to feed themselves and to exchange for the other goods and services they needed. A doctor arrived; a store opened; eventually Vermontville had its own weekly newspaper.
Attracted initially by the projected Clinton and Kalamazoo canal, the residents found themselves fully integrated with other Michigan communities as railroad routes proliferated throughout the region. Besides its account of major local events, this work offers thumbnail sketches of Vermontville’s founding citizens.”
-Description from U.S. Library of Congress ‘American Memory‘ website
Murder, Michigan: Seventy Fascinating and Dramatic Murders that have Violently Shaped the Dark Side of Michigan History – Crime History Michigan
Barfknecht, Gary W.
Davison, MI: Friede 1983
There are brief, 3-5 page chapters for each murder in chronological order, beginning in the 1500s and ending in 1982.
“Battle Creek as a Station on the Underground Railway“
Michigan Historical Collections Vol 38 (1919) pp 279-285
Barnes, Charles E.
Lansing: The Michigan Historical Society
According to the article, there were two underground railway routes through Michigan toward the Canadian border in SE Michigan. One ran from Indiana through Battle Creek to Marshall and then Jackson, and the other from Ohio through Adrian or Tecumseh. The author states that all the ‘station masters’ were Quakers.
For books on the issue of slavery in Indiana and Illinois, see: Anti-Slavery before the Civil War
The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford – African Americans in Detroit History
Bates, Beth Tompkins
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
“In the 1920s, Henry Ford hired thousands of African American men for his open-shop system of auto manufacturing. Bates explains how black Detroiters, newly arrived from the South, seized the economic opportunities offered by Ford in the hope of gaining greater economic security. As these workers came to realize that Ford’s anti-union “American Plan” did not allow them full access to the American Dream, their loyalty eroded, and they sought empowerment by pursuing a broad activist agenda. This, in turn, led them to play a pivotal role in the United Auto Workers’ challenge to Ford’s interests. This groundbreaking history demonstrates how by World War II Henry Ford and his company had helped kindle the civil rights movement in Detroit without intending to do so.” – book cover
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age – African Americans in Detroit History
Boyle, Kevin
NY: Holt 2005
Ossian Sweet, an African American physician who had recently arrived in Detroit from the south, was indicted in a murder case that put him and his wife in prison in 1925. Attorney Clarence Darrow, famous throughout the U.S., took up their defense in a trial that captured the nation’s attention and would be a milestone in the civil rights movement.
“Amusements in Detroit in Colonial Days – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Michigan Historical Collections Vol 38. (1912) pp 324-342
Burton, Clarence M.
Lansing: The Michigan Historical Society
I can’t imagine why the title refers only to “Amusements”. The article is in fact a wide-ranging description of life in Detroit throughout the 18th century.
In Detroit Courage was the Fashion. The Contribution of Women to the Development of Detroit from 1701 to 1951 – Women in Michigan History
Crathern, Alice Tarbell
Detroit: Wayne University 1953
In 1951 the City of Detroit celebrated its 250th year. Business and professional women of Detroit set up a committee to gather material on the contribution of women to Detroit life, and they asked Professor Alice Crathern to produce this history. She organized it into the following chapters, showing how women, individually and through their organizations, contributed to the welfare of Detroit’s population, and to civic life.
-Homemakers -For the Children -Educators -For the Sick -Philanthropists -Club Women -Artists -Crusaders -Women in Business, the Professions, and Industry -Women in Public Affairs
Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide – African Americans in Detroit History
Darden, Joe T.
Michigan State University 2013
Report of the Great Conspiracy Case. The People of the State of Michigan, versus Abel F. Fitch and others … – Crime History Michigan
commonly called the Rail Road Conspirators: tried before His Honor Warner Wing, presiding judge of the Circuit court for the county of Wayne, at the May term, 1851, in the city of Detroit. Containing the evidence, arguments of counsel, charge of the court and the verdict of the jury
Detroit Advertiser and Free Press 1851
This trial was the result of a conflict between the Michigan Central Railroad, who refused to pay full value of farmers’ cattle killed by its trains, and farmers in Jackson county who were accused of having sabotaged the railroad in retaliation. There were initially 50 defendants in southern Jackson county, led by Abel Fitch of Michigan Center. Fitch and a couple of others died in prison during the trial.
See the companion piece “Argument of William H. Seward…” on this webpage. Incidentally, An article about the Underground Railroad in Battle Creek on the “Michigan-Social History” page of this site identified Abel Fitch as the original Jackson ‘station master’.
Citizenship and Crisis: Arab Detroit after 9/11 – Michigan Immigrants
Detroit Arab American Study Team
Russell Sage Foundation
“The Dutch Pioneers of Michigan” – Ethnic Groups in Michigan History
Historical Collections Vol 38, 1912, 204-211
D’ooge, Martin L.
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
A schism in the National Reformed Church in the Netherlands in the early 19th century led to creation of the “Christian Reformed Church”, later known as the “Seceded Reformed Church”. Members of the new church were persecuted by the government as well as by the established church. In the 1840s some congregations began thinking of emigrating to Java or the U.S. Dr. Albertus Christian Van Raalte and a few followers arrived in NY in 1846, looking for a place to settle his congregation. He selected a site called Hope Haven on the borders of Black Lake, now occupied by Holland, and in 1847 the immigrants from his congregation began arriving. Nearby Zeeland was also started as a colony by another Dutch congregation in 1848, under Rev. C. Van der Meulen.
French Canadians in Michigan – Michigan Ethnic History
DuLong, John P.
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2001
A volume in the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, published by Michigan State University press. The series examines the rich multicultural heritage of Michigan and explores its ethnic dynamics.
Forever Young at Heart – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Ederer, Roselynn
Saginaw, MI: Thomastown 2003
A social and cultural history of Saginaw, MI. This “is the 5th book in my Building a Michigan Lumber Town series. This book concentrates on the social, cultural, recreational, and entertainment facilities and opportunities that were organized and practiced in the mid-1800s to early 1900s.” – Author’s Intro.
Violence in the Model City: The Cavanagh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967 – African Americans in Detroit History
Fine, Sidney
Michigan State University 2007
“The Shanty Boy”, or Life in a Lumber Camp … – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Being Pictures of the Pine Woods in descriptions, tales, songs and adventures in the lumbering shanties of Michigan and Wisconsin
Fitzmaurice, John W.
Cheboygan, MI: Democrat Steam 1889
Fitzmaurice was a minister and temperance lecturer who became a journalist in Saginaw Valley in 1870. He spent a winter in the woods to recover from poor health, and in this volume he drew upon his experiences there.
Early Michigan Settlements – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Volume 2
Volume 3
Florer, Warren Wahburn
Ann Arbor: Herold 1941
German settlements in Michigan is the theme of all three volumes. Volume 1 covers Washtenaw, Westphalia, Frankenmuth, and the revolutionists of 1848 in Detroit, as well as Saginaw and several German societies in Michigan. Volume 2 appears to contain a lot of material on the Frankenmuth community, and has reprints of many German-language documents and articles. Volume 3 is about German Indian Missions in Michigan.
See our True Crime Books Free PDF Download
Scots in Michigan – Michigan Immigrants
Forrester, Alan T.
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2003
A volume in the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, published by Michigan State University press. The series examines the rich multicultural heritage of Michigan and explores its ethnic dynamics.
“War Times in the Copper Mines”
Historical Collections Vol 18, y1892, 375-382
Forster, John Harris
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
The author, a mine manager, describes life in the fledgling mining towns of Houghton and Hancock in the Keweenaw Peninsula throughout the early years of the Civil War. The area was totally isolated for nearly six months each winter. The small community of middle-class Americans – managers, merchants and artisans – coped with the isolation through a very active social life. However, the early years of the war brought financial distress for the miners, who were foreign-born and were often there without families. They engaged normally in a great deal of drinking and fighting among themselves, but when they weren’t paid during much of the first year of the war, they became especially dangerous.
Pioneering Michigan – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Freedman, Eric
Franklin, MI: Altwerger and Mandel 1992
“Provides a nostalgic look at Michigan’s early settlers before and after statehood. This collective bibliographical portrait uses journals, letters, family diaries, and photos to give a personal touch to history.” – Book cover
The Rumrunners: A Prohibition Scrapbook – Crime History Michigan
Gervais, C. H.
Thornhill, Ontario: Firefly
“Rumrunners carried millions of dollars worth of booze from Canada to the United States during the Roaring Twenties, and this is the story of many of the men and women who supplied Demon Rum to a thirsty continent.” Accompanied by more than 80 photos.
“The Great Conspiracy …” – Crime History Michigan
A Chapter from the Early History of Michigan Railroading, Showing the Desperate and Destructive Opposition to the Michigan Central
Historical Collections Vol 31, 1902, 232-238
Gilbert, John
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
This history of the “Great Railway Conspiracy Case” was authored in 1892 by a former employee of Michigan Central Railroad. He explains how opposition to the railway arose in southern Michigan beginning about 1849 among farmers, and the types of actions they took against the railroad. The most frequent attacks occurred in Jackson county, at Michigan Center and Leoni, and these culminated in the burning of a newly constructed depot. In 1851 the railroad’s employees, assisted by a sheriff in Jackson, arrested 36 men, including leader Abel Fitch, and imprisoned them in Detroit. The ensuing trial was followed nation-wide. Other publications about this case can be found on this website.
The People of Michigan
Graff, George P.
Lansing: State Library Services 1974
A collection of articles about Michigan settlers from nearly 50 countries, with bibliographies and articles for each topic.
“Old French Traditions” – Ethnic Groups in Michigan History
Historical Collections Vol 4, 1881, 70-78
Hamlin, M. Carrie W.
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
A long-time resident of Detroit collected some of the traditions of the French people there. The article is sub-divided under these headings:
“National Pride” – “New Year’s Day” – “Mardi Gras” – “The Christening of the Bell” – “Des Pains Benits, or Blessed Bread” – “The Home” – “The Wedding Feast”
Also included are copies (in English) of a wedding contract and a deed to a farm.
Hungarians in Michigan – Michigan Immigrants
Huseby-Darvas, Eva V.
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2003
A volume in the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, published by Michigan State University press. The series examines the rich multicultural heritage of Michigan and explores its ethnic dynamics.
Michigan Women: Firsts and Founders, Vol II – Women in Michigan History
Harley, Rachel Brett and MacDowell, Betty
Michigan Women’s Studies Association 1995
(Vol 1 was not found online.) “This volume recognizes the achievements of more than five hundred women who have been the first women (or first persons) in their fields or who have been the founders of movements, programs, organizations or institutions that have benefitted our society…. This volume also celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. It includes an expanded chronology of Michigan women’s history that highlights Suffrage events, photographs of Suffrage activities, and a Michigan Woman Suffrage Honor Roll that lists by county more than 3,000 women and men who supported the long struggle for women’s right to vote.” -Foreword
Contents: Biographical entries – Photographs of the woman suffrage movement in Michigan – Chronology of Michigan women’s history – Michigan woman suffrage honor roll – List of sources
Jewish Beginnings in Michigan before 1850 – Ethnic Groups in Michigan History
Being some notes on residents of the very early days, several biographical notices of more notable citizens between 1840 and 1850, and an account of the beginnings of the immigration of about that time
Heineman, David E.
Baltimore: 1905
The Great Railroad Conspiracy; The Social History of a Railroad War – Crime History Michigan
Hirschfeld, Charles
Michigan State College 1953
The Last Sleigh Ride: A Detroit Folk History – African Americans in Detroit History
Jones, Robert K.
Oak Park, MI: Burning Viper 2010
“26 powerful vignettes introduce 26 longer, illustrated stories in this riveting, Depression-era folk history. With war, race, sex and poverty as backdrops, the writer explores the life and times of an isolated black community in northwest Detroit during the years of 1937 to 1957.” – Book cover.
“The Armenians and Their Grand Rapids Colony” – Michigan Immigrants
Publications of the Historical Society of Grand Rapids No. 7, Vol 1, part 7, pp 97-117
Kassabian, N. H., Dr.
Grand Rapids: 1912
Before the Ghetto; Black Detroit in the Nineteenth Century – African Americans in Detroit History
Katzman, David M.
University of Illinois 1973
The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit 1910-1945 – Crime History Michigan
Kavieff, Paul R.
NY: Barricade 2000
“The Purple Gang was a loosely organized confederation of mobsters who dominated the Detroit underworld and whose tentacles reached across the country. Beginning in the Prohibition Era, the Purple Gang prevailed in distilling alcohol and running liquor from Canada, kidnapping, and labor racketeering. This is the hitherto untold story of the rise and fall of one of American’s most notorious criminal groups.” – Book cover.
Race Riot, Detroit 1943 – African Americans in Michigan History
Lee, Alfred McClung, and Humphrey, Norman D.
Octagon 1968
Internal Combustion: The Races in Detroit, 1915-1926 – African Americans in Michigan History
Levine, David Allan
Greenwood 1976
Italians in Michigan – Ethnic Groups in Michigan History
Magnaghi, Russell M.
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2001
A volume in the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, published by Michigan State University press. The series examines the rich multicultural heritage of Michigan and explores its ethnic dynamics.
Detroit and the Great Migration, 1916-1929 – African Americans in Michigan History
Martin, Elizabeth Anne
Ann Arbor: Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan 1993
The story of the swelling migration of African-Americans from the rural south to industrial Detroit.
Birchbark Belles: Women on the Michigan Frontier – Women in Michigan History
Massie, Larry B.
Priscilla Press 1993
Blacks in Detroit: A Reprint of Articles from the Detroit Free Press – African Americans in Michigan History
McGehee, Scott, and Watson, Susan, eds.
Detroit Free Press 1980
“Slavery Is Detroit’s Big, Bad Secret. Why Don’t We Know Anything About It?” – African Americans in Michigan History
Deadline Detroit August 27, 2012
McGraw, Bill
Deadline Detroit
“Slavery in Detroit has remained an enormous secret. It is an essential chapter in Detroit’s 311-year story, but it has been pushed back into archives and covered up by decades of neglect and denial. Few people, even well-informed college graduates, know that slavery played a key role in the growth of Detroit, and wealthy Detroiters owned slaves for the first 120 years of the city’s existence.”
“The South Doesn’t Own Slavery” – African Americans in Michigan History
New York Times Sept 11, 2017
Miles, Tiya
New York Times
“American slavery had no bounds. It penetrated every corner of this country, materially, economically and ideologically, and the unjust campaign to preserve it is embedded in our built environments, North and South, East and West. Detroit is a surprising case in point.”
The Sweetness of Freedom: Stories of Immigrants – Ethnic Groups in Michigan History
Ostrander, Stephen Garr and Bloomfield, Martha Aladjem
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2010
This diverse group of immigrant stories emerged from oral interviews with Michigan immigrants.
“Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of a Merchant Voyageur in the Savage Territories of Northern America – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Leaving Montreal the 28th of May 1783 (to 1820)” edited with introduction and notes by John Sharpless Fox, PhD
Michigan Historical Collections Vol 37 (1909-10) pp 508-619
Perrault, Jean Baptiste
Lansing: The Michigan Historical Society
Henry Schoolcraft met Perrault in Sault Ste Marie in about 1830 and asked him to write a memoir of his life in the woods in the fur business. He was employed by the Northwest Company for many years, eventually leaving it for the Hudson Bay company. The narrative contains description of the life of a woodsman in the late 19th century and much about the fur trading business and the extreme practices of the big firms of the day.
“The Young Men’s Society (of Detroit)”
Its Foundation and Early Rise; Rise and Progress of the Society; Lists of its Officers; Interesting Reminiscences
Historical Collections Vol 10, 1887, 361-375
Raymond, Francis
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
This history and three attached letters describes the circumstances of the society’s foundation in 1832 and its growth through about 1860. Several young clerks who found very little to do in Detroit, particularly in the winter, conceived of the society as a way to collectively buy books to share and to come together to discuss and debate the serious issues of the day. It gradually grew to a membership of hundreds, and fostered the development of some of Michigan’s most influential citizens.
Finland-Swedes in Michigan – Michigan Ethnic History
Roinila, Mika
Michigan State University 2012
“Who are the Finland-Swedes? Defined as citizens of Finland with a Swedish mother tongue, many know these people as “Swede-Finns” or simply “Swedes.”. This book … examines the origins of the Finland-Swedes and traces their immigration patterns, beginning with the arrival of hundreds in the United States in the 1860s.” – Book cover
The Germanic Influence in the Making of Michigan – Ethnic Groups in Michigan History
Russell, John Andrew
Detroit: University of Detroit 1927
“Lights and Shadows from Pioneer Life – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Michigan Historical Collections vol 35 (1907) pp. 184-198
Schettler, Mrs. Eliza M. Scott
Lansing: The Michigan Historical Society
Stories from the author’s childhood while her father worked for the Hudson Bay company on Mackinac Island. Most of the incidents involve the Indians whom they lived among.
Argument of William H. Seward in Defence of Abel F. Fitch and Others Under an Indictment for Arson, delivered at Detroit, on the 12th, 13th and 15th days of September, 1851. – Crime History Michigan
Seward, William H.
Auburn: Derby & Miller 1851
See the companion piece “Report of the Great Conspiracy Case” above on this webpage. Seward, who would later serve as Lincoln’s Secretary of State, represented the defendants.
We, too, are Americans: African American Women in Detroit and Richmond, 1940-54 – Women in Michigan History
Shockley, Megan Taylor
University of Illinois 2004
Metropolitan Detroit: An Anatomy of Social Change
Sinclair, Robert, and Thompson, Bryan
Ballinger 1977
Dutch in Michigan – Michigan Ethnic History
Ten Harmsel, Larry
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2002
A volume in the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, published by Michigan State University press. The series examines the rich multicultural heritage of Michigan and explores its ethnic dynamics.
Whose Detroit? Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City
Thompson, Heather Ann
Cornell University 2001
“The Fever and Ague, Michigan Rash, Mosquitoes: The Old Pioneers’ Foes” – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Historical Collections Vol 5, 1884, 300-304
Van Buren, A. D. P.
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
The authors describe the symptoms of the fever and ague, which he believed afflicted every early Michigan settler, and discusses various remedies that were used. The Michigan rash was nearly as common, although less serious. Current Michigan residents don’t need to rely on their historical imagination to understand how annoying mosquitoes were.
“Raisings and Bees among the Early Settlers” – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Historical Collections Vol 5, 1884, 296-300
Van Buren, A. D. P.
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
The author says the word “bee” was used to ” … indicate the gathering of the settlers to render gratuitous aids to some neighbor in need” and that it ” … originated in, and was confined to new settlements. It was merely the voluntary union of the individual aid and strength of an entire community, to assist a settler in doing what he was unable to accomplish alone.” He goes on to describe how log houses were built, and a typical community house-raising. He also covers logging bees, rail-splitting, “breaking up” land for plowing, and husking bees.
“What the Pioneers Ate, and How They Fared: Michigan Food and Cookery in the Early Days” – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Historical Collections Vol 5, 1884, 293-296
Van Buren, A. D. P.
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
Settling the Great Lakes frontier; Immigration to Michigan, 1837-1924 – Michigan Immigrants
Vander Hill, C. Warren
Michigan Historical Commission 1970
Includes chapters on: Canadians and Canadiens, Germans, Cornish, Irish, Dutch, Scandinavians, the “New” immigrant, and “closing the door”.
African Americans in Michigan – African Americans in Michigan History
Walker, Lewis et al.
Michigan State University 2001
“African Americans, as free laborers and as slaves, were among the earliest permanent residents of Michigan, settling among the French, British, and Native people with whom they worked and farmed. Lewis Walker and Benjamin Wilson recount the long history of African American communities in Michigan, delineating their change over time, as migrants from the South, East, and overseas made their homes in the state. Moreover, the authors show how Michigan’s development is inextricably joined with the vitality and strength of its African American residents. In a related chapter, Linwood Cousins examines youth culture and identity in African American schools, linking education with historical and contemporary issues of economics, racism, and power.” -Publisher
The Negro in Detroit: A Survey of the Conditions of a Negro Group in a Northern Industrial Center during the War Prosperity Period – African Americans in Michigan History
Washington, Forrester B.
Detroit: Research Bureau, Associated Charities of Detroit 1920
“The Old Log House” – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Historical Collections Vol 26, 1896, 644-646
Watkins, L. D.
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
A concise description of the construction, interior and furnishings of a typical log house used by early Michigan settlers, and how it functioned for its occupants.
“Dog Teams and Sledges in Michigan” – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Stories of the Great Lakes 157-172
Watrous, Edward F.
NY: Century 1907
“Yankee Lewis’s Famous Hostelry in the Wilderness” – Pioneer Life in Michigan
Historical Collections Vol 26, 1896, 302-307
White, George H.
Lansing: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
William Lewis arrived in Michigan from western New York in 1836, settling at Yankee Springs, 14 miles west of Hastings, where his brother had been developing a farm. Although there were no roads in the area, the site was on a heavily used trail, and the inn that he built had sometimes as many as 100 people overnight. The author describes Lewis’s unique skills as an innkeeper, the features of the inn that made it among the most famous in western Michigan, and the many services Lewis did for travelers in the region. The location of the inn was apparently on S. Yankee Springs Road just south of Gun Lake Rd, in western Barry county.
Asian Americans in Michigan: Voices from the Midwest – Michigan Ethnic History
Wilkinson, Sook and Jew, Victor, eds.
Wayne State University 2015
“Editors Sook Wilkinson and Victor Jew have assembled forty-one diverse contributors to give an intimate glimpse into Michigan’s Asian American communities. Contributors create a fuller picture of these often overlooked groups, including the historical and demographic origins of Michigan’s Asian American communities, experiences in memory and legacy keeping, particular aspects of community culture and heritage, and prospects and hopes for the future”. -Publisher
Yankees in Michigan – Michigan Ethnic History
Wilson, Brian C.
East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University 2008
A volume in the series Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, published by Michigan State University press. The series examines the rich multicultural heritage of Michigan and explores its ethnic dynamics.