" Freedom's Daughters is a moving testament to how new revelations surface when telling history is in the hands of slavery's descendants. Celeste Headlee feelingly recovers her fascinating family story, introducing readers to the remarkable educator, activist, and matriarch, Carrie Still Shepperson. An award-winning journalist, Headlee challenges each of us to know the past and to discover what we can do with it in our own time." -- Martha S. Jones, author of T he Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir "With Freedom's Daughters , Celeste Headlee rigorously and vividly restores the history of Black women erased from the record. This stunning, deeply personal book reminds us that these women fought oppression with the ultimate weapon of education, and that we must continue to defend our right to learn with that same fierce determination." --Anna Malaika Tubbs, New York Times bestselling author of The Three Mothers and Erased " Freedom's Daughters is ostensibly a story of Headlee's great-grandmother Carrie Still Shepperson and her heroic work for not only her family, but for the plight of African-Americans in the Deep South after reconstruction. When you read this book, you will quickly discover that Carrie is a metaphor for strength, power, resilience, fearlessness and above all, intelligence--something that African-American women have carried on their shoulders and souls--without the celebratory mythology of their male counterparts.

" --Christian McBride, Grammy-winning jazz bassist, bandleader, and composer "Headlee's dogged unearthing of buried truths revives a woman who has been unjustly ignored by historians, and she makes a persuasive case that many other Black women, like the indefatigable Shepperson, deserve to be celebrated. A stirring contribution to America's historical narrative." --Kirkus Reviews.