Most Americans believe that slavery was a creature of the South. Miles reveals that slavery was at the heart of the Midwest's iconic city: Detroit. She has pieced together the experience of the unfree--both native and African American--in the frontier outpost of Detroit, a place wildly remote yet at the center of national and international conflict, unearthing struggles that remained hidden from view until now.

Tiya Miles is the recipient of a 2011 MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," and is an award-winning historian and former chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African studies at the University of Michigan. The author of The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits, she lives in Ann Arbor.