Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Choctaw Freedmen of Skullyville: Uncovering an Oklahoma Ghost Town

The Choctaw Freedmen of Skullyville: Uncovering an Oklahoma Ghost Town

Walton-Raji, Angela Y.

Paperback

Series: Lost

Native American HistoryBlack American StudiesRegional: Southwest

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 146717002X
ISBN13: 9781467170024
Publisher: History Press
Published: Apr 28 2026
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.65
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English

From settlement to sediment

Unlike the freedman communities in Spiro, Ft. Coffee and Poteau, the town of Skullyville faded into a forgotten ghost town. Dr. G. E. Hartshorne's 1950 Skullyville and Its People in 1889 chronicled the inhabitants' lifestyle and culture. Yet he excluded many that arrived in the 1830s, having survived the long and arduous journey of the Trail of Tears. Enslaved people of African descent, arriving alongside their Choctaw masters, were seldom mentioned in contemporaneous accounts. They labored for decades without pay, or the comforts of freedom. Their tribal oppressors joined the Confederates, vowing to maintain their slaveholding lifestyle. Conversely, some from Skullyville resisted by joining the Union Army. Many lived to see freedom, and established livelihoods after abolition. In April of 1866, Choctaw leaders joined the Chickasaw at Fort Smith to sign a peace treaty that abolished slavery and promised citizenship and suffrage to those once enslaved by their nations. Freedman descendent Angela Walton-Raji resurrects the lost voices of Skullyville and champions a legacy that outlasted the town itself.

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Regional: Southwest

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