Tag Archives: black history

Tomatoes & Eggs II: Erasing slavery on Big Isle

By Joel Thurtell During the long-ago historical period when I was a grad student in history, my faculty adviser warned me that contemporary history can be a time of troubles for historians. Too many living parties with stakes in yet-to-be-played … Continue reading

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Tomatoes & Eggs, Part I: Slaves on Grosse Ile

By Joel Thurtell Just as I predicted in a January 2007 Detroit Free Press story, Grosse Ile’s historians changed history. But not the way I expected. Early in 2007 (I retired from my Free Press reporting job the following November), … Continue reading

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Tomatoes and eggs

By Joel Thurtell Back when I was writing for the Detroit Free Press, I found some of my most interesting stories on Grosse Ile, the big island in the Detroit River that was purchased from Indians on July 6, 1776 … Continue reading

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