Border Crossings: The Detroit River Region in the War of 1812

From Books Back Cover: This riveting essay collection explores the changing political allegiances and sweeping human narratives that shaped the Detroit River region in the War of 1812. For more than a generation, American citizens, British subjects, French settlers, Native Americans, and African slaves and freedmen routinely crossed the border while living and working together in one of the most diverse regions in North America. That tranquility ended suddenly with the War of 1812. The result of a year-long community history project by the Detroit Historical Society and Wayne State University, Border Crossings uncovers the personal and group interactions often ignored in standard histories of the War of 1812. As the Detroit River region shifted between American and British control "border crossings" had profound new implications for its diverse inhabitants, including wide spread privation, imprisonment, enemy attacks and dispossession of homes and land. Ultimately, this ugly conflict produced a surprising outcome: the War of 1812 molded a region, divided between two nations, that today host the busiest crossing of the longest peaceful border in the world.