Ballard, Shannon. “Episode 85: The Kingdom of the Happy Land.” April 12, 2021. Southern Mysteries. https://southernmysteries.com/2021/04/12/thekingdomofthehappyland/.
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“Davis Slave Cemetery, Kingdom of the Happy Land.” Henderson Heritage. https://hendersonheritage.com/davis-slave-cemetery-kingdom-of-the-happy-land/.
Elliston, Jon. “The Happy Land: Former Slaves Forged a Communal Kingdom in Henderson County.” WNC Magazine. Winter 2021. https://wncmagazine.com/feature/happy_land.
Elliston, Jon, and Kent Priestley. “The Kingdom of the Happy Land.” Mountain Xpress. February 7, 2007. https://mountainx.com/news/community-news/0207happyland-php/.
Green, Gary Franklin. “The Kingdom of the Happy Land.” In A Brief History of the Black Presence in Henderson County. Asheville, NC: Biltmore Press, 1996. https://blackhistories.org/2020/07/01/the-kingdom-of-the-happy-land/.
Hill, Michael. “Buncombe Turnkpike.” Encyclopedia of North Carolina. Edited by William S. Powell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. https://www.ncpedia.org/buncombe-turnpike.
Schenck, Missy. “African-American History of Henderson County, Part Two.” Charleston Mercury. https://www.charlestonmercury.com/single-post/african-american-history-of-henderson-county-part-two.
Schenck, Missy Izard. “Kingdom of the Happy Land.” Good News (blog). Flat Rock Together. February 6, 2021. https://www.flatrocktogether.com/good-news/kingdom-of-the-happy-land.
“Serepta Merritt Davis.” Find a Grave. Added August 29, 2007. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21247932/serepta-davis.
“The Freedmen’s Bureau.” African American Heritage. National Archives. Updated October 28, 2021. https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau.
Federal Writers’ Project. Mississippi Slave Narratives. Washington, DC: Allen-Young, 1936.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Boston: L. Maria Child, 1861.
Jones, Katharine M. The Plantation South. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1957.
LeClercq, Anne Sinkler Whaley. An Antebellum Plantation Household: Including the South Carolina Low Country Receipts and Remedies of Emily Wharton Sinkler. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.
Madison, Mary. Plantation Slave Weavers Remember: An Oral History. CreateSpace Independent Publishing, September 2015.
Patton, Sadie Smathers. The Kingdom of the Happy Land. Asheville, NC: Stephens Press, 1957.
Roberts, Bruce. Plantation Homes of the James River. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
Williams, Kidada E. They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies of Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I. New York: NYU Press, 2012.
All the songs the Happy Landers sing in The American Queen were written either during slavery or right after. All are in the public domain. Here is the list of songs: