The Slaves' War

The Slaves' War PDF Author: Andrew Ward
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547237923
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
In The Slaves' War, the acclaimed historian Andrew Ward delivers an unprecedented vision of the nation's bloodiest conflict. Woven together from hundreds of interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs, here is a groundbreaking and poignant narrative of the CivilWar as seen from not only battlefields, capitals, and camps, but from slave quarters, kitchens, roadsides, and fields as well. Speaking in a quintessentially American language, body servants, army cooks, runaways, and gravediggers bring the war to life. From slaves' theories about the causes of the CivilWar to their frank assessments of such major figures as Lincoln, Davis, Lee, and Grant; from their searing memories of the carnage of battle to their often startling attitudes toward masters and liberators alike; and from their initial jubilation at the Yankee invasion of the South to the crushing disappointment of freedom's promise unfulfilled, The Slaves' War is a transformative and engrossing chronicle of America's Second Revolution.

The Slaves' War

The Slaves' War PDF Author: Andrew Ward
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547237923
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Get Book Here

Book Description
In The Slaves' War, the acclaimed historian Andrew Ward delivers an unprecedented vision of the nation's bloodiest conflict. Woven together from hundreds of interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs, here is a groundbreaking and poignant narrative of the CivilWar as seen from not only battlefields, capitals, and camps, but from slave quarters, kitchens, roadsides, and fields as well. Speaking in a quintessentially American language, body servants, army cooks, runaways, and gravediggers bring the war to life. From slaves' theories about the causes of the CivilWar to their frank assessments of such major figures as Lincoln, Davis, Lee, and Grant; from their searing memories of the carnage of battle to their often startling attitudes toward masters and liberators alike; and from their initial jubilation at the Yankee invasion of the South to the crushing disappointment of freedom's promise unfulfilled, The Slaves' War is a transformative and engrossing chronicle of America's Second Revolution.

The Fire of Freedom

The Fire of Freedom PDF Author: David S. Cecelski
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807835668
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Examines the life of a former slave who became a radical abolitionist and Union spy, recruiting black soldiers for the North, fighting racism within the Union Army and much more.

How the Slaves Saw the Civil War

How the Slaves Saw the Civil War PDF Author: Herbert C. Covey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440828245
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Drawing from narratives of former slaves to provide accurate and poignant insights, this book presents descriptions in the former slaves' own words about their lives before, during, and following the Civil War. Examining narratives allows us to better understand what life was truly like for slaves: "hearing" history in their own words brings the human aspects of slavery and their interpersonal relationships to life, providing insights and understanding not typically available via traditional history books. How the Slaves Saw the Civil War: Recollections of the War through the WPA Slave Narratives draws upon interviews collected largely during the 1930s–1940s as part of the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Because most slaves could not read or write, their perspective on the unfolding history of the war has been relatively unknown until these narratives were collected in the 1930s and 1940s. This book extracts the most cogent and compelling tales from the documentation of former slaves' seldom-heard voices on the events leading up to, during, and following the war. The work's two introductory chapters focus on the WPA's narratives and living conditions under slavery. The remaining chapters address key topics such as slave loyalties to either or both sides of the conflict, key battles, participation in the Union and/or Confederate armies, the day Union forces came, slave contact with key historical figures, and emancipation—and what came after.

The War Before the War

The War Before the War PDF Author: Andrew Delbanco
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735224137
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book Selection Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner of the Lionel Trilling Book Award A New York Times Critics' Best Book "Excellent... stunning."—Ta-Nehisi Coates This book tells the story of America’s original sin—slavery—through politics, law, literature, and above all, through the eyes of enslavedblack people who risked their lives to flee from bondage, thereby forcing the nation to confront the truth about itself. The struggle over slavery divided not only the American nation but also the hearts and minds of individual citizens faced with the timeless problem of when to submit to unjust laws and when to resist. The War Before the War illuminates what brought us to war with ourselves and the terrible legacies of slavery that are with us still.

South to Freedom

South to Freedom PDF Author: Alice L Baumgartner
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541617770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
A brilliant and surprising account of the coming of the American Civil War, showing the crucial role of slaves who escaped to Mexico. The Underground Railroad to the North promised salvation to many American slaves before the Civil War. But thousands of people in the south-central United States escaped slavery not by heading north but by crossing the southern border into Mexico, where slavery was abolished in 1837. In South to Freedom, historianAlice L. Baumgartner tells the story of why Mexico abolished slavery and how its increasingly radical antislavery policies fueled the sectional crisis in the United States. Southerners hoped that annexing Texas and invading Mexico in the 1840s would stop runaways and secure slavery's future. Instead, the seizure of Alta California and Nuevo México upset the delicate political balance between free and slave states. This is a revelatory and essential new perspective on antebellum America and the causes of the Civil War.

The Slaves' Gamble

The Slaves' Gamble PDF Author: Gene Allen Smith
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1137310081
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
A sweeping and original look at American slavery in the early nineteenth century that reveals the gamble slaves had to take to survive Images of American slavery conjure up cotton plantations and African American slaves locked in bondage until the Civil War. Yet early on in the nineteenth century the state of slavery was very different, and the political vicissitudes of the young nation offered diverse possibilities to slaves. In the century's first two decades, the nation waged war against Britain, Spain, and various Indian tribes. Slaves played a role in the military operations, and the different sides viewed them as a potential source of manpower. While surprising numbers did assist the Americans, the wars created opportunities for slaves to find freedom among the Redcoats, the Spaniards, or the Indians. Author Gene Allen Smith draws on a decade of original research and his curatorial work at the Fort Worth Museum in this fascinating and original narrative history. The way the young nation responded sealed the fate of slaves for the next half century until the Civil War. This drama sheds light on an extraordinary yet little known chapter in the dark saga of American history.

Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men

Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men PDF Author: Jeffrey Hummel
Publisher: Open Court
ISBN: 0812698444
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
This book combines a sweeping narrative of the Civil War with a bold new look at the war’s significance for American society. Professor Hummel sees the Civil War as America’s turning point: simultaneously the culmination and repudiation of the American revolution. While the chapters tell the story of the Civil War and discuss the issues raised in readable prose, each chapter is followed by a detailed bibliographical essay, looking at all the different major works on the subject, with their varying ideological viewpoints and conclusions. In his economic analysis of slavery, Professor Hummel takes a different view than the two major poles which have determined past discussions of the topic. While some writers claim that slavery was unprofitable and harmful to the Southern economy, and others maintain it was profitable and efficient for the South, Hummel uses the economic concept of Deadweight Loss to show that slavery was both highly profitable for slave owners and harmful to Southern economic development. While highly critical of Confederate policy, Hummel argues that the war was fought to prevent secession, not to end slavery, and that preservation of the Union was not necessary to end slavery: the North could have let the South secede peacefully, and slavery would still have been quickly terminated. Part of Hummel’s argument is that the South crucially relied on the Northern states to return runaway slaves to their owners. This new edition has a substantial new introduction by the author, correcting and supplementing the account given in the first edition (the major revision is an increase in the estimate of total casualties) and a foreword by John Majewski, a rising star of Civil War studies.

The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832

The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 PDF Author: Alan Taylor
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393241424
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History Finalist for the National Book Award Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize "Impressively researched and beautifully crafted…a brilliant account of slavery in Virginia during and after the Revolution." —Mark M. Smith, Wall Street Journal Frederick Douglass recalled that slaves living along Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as "freedom’s swift-winged angels." In 1813 those angels appeared in the bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. Over many nights, hundreds of slaves paddled out to the warships seeking protection for their families from the ravages of slavery. The runaways pressured the British admirals into becoming liberators. As guides, pilots, sailors, and marines, the former slaves used their intimate knowledge of the countryside to transform the war. They enabled the British to escalate their onshore attacks and to capture and burn Washington, D.C. Tidewater masters had long dreaded their slaves as "an internal enemy." By mobilizing that enemy, the war ignited the deepest fears of Chesapeake slaveholders. It also alienated Virginians from a national government that had neglected their defense. Instead they turned south, their interests aligning more and more with their section. In 1820 Thomas Jefferson observed of sectionalism: "Like a firebell in the night [it] awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once the knell of the union." The notes of alarm in Jefferson's comment speak of the fear aroused by the recent crisis over slavery in his home state. His vision of a cataclysm to come proved prescient. Jefferson's startling observation registered a turn in the nation’s course, a pivot from the national purpose of the founding toward the threat of disunion. Drawn from new sources, Alan Taylor's riveting narrative re-creates the events that inspired black Virginians, haunted slaveholders, and set the nation on a new and dangerous course.

The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon

The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon PDF Author: Philippe R. Girard
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817317325
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
In this ambitious book, Girard employs the latest tools of the historian's craft, multi-archival research in particular, and applies them to the climactic yet poorly understood last years of the Haitian Revolution. Haiti lost most of its archives to neglect and theft, but a substantial number of documents survive in French, U.S., British, and Spanish collections, both public and private. In all, this book relies on contemporary military, commercial, and administrative sources drawn from nineteen archives and research libraries on both sides of the Atlantic.

Spartacus and the Slave Wars

Spartacus and the Slave Wars PDF Author: Brent D. Shaw
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312237035
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
In 72 B.C., in the heart of Rome's Mediterranean empire, a slave named Spartacus ignited one of the most violent episodes of slave resistance in the history of the Roman Empire--indeed in the world annals of slavery. This volume organizes original translations of 80 Greek and Latin sources into topical chapters that look at the daily lives of slaves trained as gladiators and those who labored on farms in Italy and Sicily, including accounts of revolts that preceded and anticipated that of Spartacus. In a carefully crafted introductory essay, Shaw places Spartacus in the broader context of first and second century B.C. Rome, Italy and Sicily and explains why his story continues to be a popular symbol of rebellion today. The volume also includes a glossary, chronology, selected bibliography, three maps, an annotated list of ancient writers, and questions for consideration.