Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel: In Conversation With Vanessa Adams-Harris
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Magic City Books is pleased to host local author Kristen Oertel for a free in-store event to celebrate her latest book, Seeking Freedom in Indian Country. This event will take place at Magic City Books, 221 E. Archer Street in the Tulsa Arts District.
Kristen will be in conversation with Vanessa Adams-Harris.
Seeking Freedom in Indian Country released on June 30, 2026, and you can purchase a copy through Magic City Books ahead of time or at the event.
About the Book
Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel’s Seeking Freedom in Indian Country is the first comprehensive study of African chattel slavery within the Five Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Nations. Oertel examines how chattel slavery functioned among all Five Tribes before and during the removal process, how the tribes reconstituted slavery post-removal in Indian Territory, and how enslaved Black people promoted freedom-seeking strategies at each stage. Furthermore, her work considers how the conflict over slavery in Indian Territory contributed to the larger national debate over slavery’s fate on the eve of the Civil War.
Historians have examined how the practice of African enslavement emerged within one or two tribes, how forced migration affected slavery within particular nations, and how the debate over slavery divided multiple Indigenous nations. Oertel, however, is the first to examine Indian Territory as a whole, its significance to the sectional debates, and its role as an incubator of emancipation policies in the United States. Knitting together these individual tribal narratives and supplementing them with extensive primary research on how slavery functioned across Indian Territory, she integrates Indian country into the antebellum march toward the Civil War.
Seeking Freedom in Indian Country joins a rising chorus of studies that integrate southern and western history, which, by default, also pulls together the history of the so-called Indian Wars with the Civil War. Oertel suggests that we cannot fully understand the causes of the Civil War without also considering the changes brought about by the forced removal of Indians. She argues that settler colonialism and the expansion of African chattel slavery together set the stage for sectional conflict to explode in the West. Ironically, both Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism and Black resistance to slavery challenged white supremacy in ways that foretold the end of slavery but also furthered the settler colonial project.
About the Author
Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel is Mary F. Barnard Professor of Nineteenth-Century American History at the University of Tulsa. She is most recently the author of Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the Nineteenth Century.
About the Moderator
Vanessa Adams-Harris is Muscogee (Creek) American Indian with African American/Scot/Irish ancestry. She is an artist, facilitator/presenter, interpreter of history, human rights community activist/peacebuilder. She has presented both nationally and internationally.
Kristen will be in conversation with Vanessa Adams-Harris.
Seeking Freedom in Indian Country released on June 30, 2026, and you can purchase a copy through Magic City Books ahead of time or at the event.
About the Book
Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel’s Seeking Freedom in Indian Country is the first comprehensive study of African chattel slavery within the Five Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Nations. Oertel examines how chattel slavery functioned among all Five Tribes before and during the removal process, how the tribes reconstituted slavery post-removal in Indian Territory, and how enslaved Black people promoted freedom-seeking strategies at each stage. Furthermore, her work considers how the conflict over slavery in Indian Territory contributed to the larger national debate over slavery’s fate on the eve of the Civil War.
Historians have examined how the practice of African enslavement emerged within one or two tribes, how forced migration affected slavery within particular nations, and how the debate over slavery divided multiple Indigenous nations. Oertel, however, is the first to examine Indian Territory as a whole, its significance to the sectional debates, and its role as an incubator of emancipation policies in the United States. Knitting together these individual tribal narratives and supplementing them with extensive primary research on how slavery functioned across Indian Territory, she integrates Indian country into the antebellum march toward the Civil War.
Seeking Freedom in Indian Country joins a rising chorus of studies that integrate southern and western history, which, by default, also pulls together the history of the so-called Indian Wars with the Civil War. Oertel suggests that we cannot fully understand the causes of the Civil War without also considering the changes brought about by the forced removal of Indians. She argues that settler colonialism and the expansion of African chattel slavery together set the stage for sectional conflict to explode in the West. Ironically, both Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism and Black resistance to slavery challenged white supremacy in ways that foretold the end of slavery but also furthered the settler colonial project.
About the Author
Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel is Mary F. Barnard Professor of Nineteenth-Century American History at the University of Tulsa. She is most recently the author of Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the Nineteenth Century.
About the Moderator
Vanessa Adams-Harris is Muscogee (Creek) American Indian with African American/Scot/Irish ancestry. She is an artist, facilitator/presenter, interpreter of history, human rights community activist/peacebuilder. She has presented both nationally and internationally.
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Where is it happening?
Magic City Books, 221 E. Archer St. ,Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherMagic City Books