Inspired and informed by the latest research in African American; military; and social history; the fourteen original essays in this book tell the stories of the African American soldiers who fought for the Union cause. An introductory essay surveys the history of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) from emancipation to the end of the Civil War. Seven essays focus on the role of the USCT in combat; chronicling the contributions of African Americans who fought at Port Hudson; Milliken's Bend; Olustee; Fort Pillow; Petersburg; Saltville; and Nashville. Other essays explore the recruitment of black troops in the Mississippi Valley; the U.S. Colored Cavalry; the military leadership of Colonels Thomas Higginson; James Montgomery; and Robert Shaw; African American chaplain Henry McNeal Turner; the black troops who occupied postwar Charleston; and the experiences of USCT veterans in postwar North Carolina. Collectively; these essays probe the broad military; political; and social significance of black soldiers' armed service; enriching our understanding of the Civil War and African American life during and after the conflict.The contributors are Anne J. Bailey; Arthur W. Bergeron Jr.; John Cimprich; Lawrence Lee Hewitt; Richard Lowe; Thomas D. Mays; Michael T. Meier; Edwin S. Redkey; Richard Reid; William Glenn Robertson; John David Smith; Noah Andre Trudeau; Keith Wilson; and Robert J. Zalimas Jr.
#2069010 in Books Ingramcontent 2014-04-16 2014-04-16Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x .94 x 6.13l; 1.18 #File Name: 080715475X304 pagesThe Complete Antislavery Writings of Anthony Benezet 1754 1783 An Annotated Critical Edition Antislavery Abolition and the Atlantic World Hardcover
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A history relevant to our timesBy john timothy leonardAnthony Benezet had significant influence on the founding of our nation; yet is rarely mentioned in history books. Friend and confidant of Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush; and much admired by Patrick Henry; and English anti-slavery activists like Granville Sharp; Benezet was rightly called the father of the abolitionist movement. This book; along with Maurice Jackson’s estimable biography of Benezet; Let this voice be heard; should spark a groundswell of interest in the understanding of this magnificent American.This book exemplifies the way history ought to be written and taught. First; it publishes the essential documents pertaining to its subject; second; it carries the story forward by insightful commentary on the context and significance of each document. In addition; each claim is backed by extensive end-notes; appendices and glossaries which one may choose to read or set aside depending on ones’ purpose and level of interest. Benezet; a Quaker; was a Philadelphia school teacher and publisher. He organized the first abolition society in North America; and taught hundreds of Black children and girls for over 40 years; publishing in the meantime the eight anti-slavery pieces printed in Crosby’s book; and a flood of other essays and letters. There are two features of this collection that come across to the reader with great force. First there is Benezet’s conviction; based on his working with his students; walking and talking in the streets of Philadelphia with free Blacks; slaves; and slave traders that Blacks are in every way; physically; mentally and spiritually the equal of Whites and all persons. This view was a rarity in his time; and remained so until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. That the opposite view is still held by many North Americans is all the more reason this book deserves a wide reading. Another forceful aspect of the book is its demonstration that Benezet’s writing was filled with narrative. Benezet told of the sophisticated physical and spiritual culture of West Africa that was radically disrupted by slave traders. In great detail he told of the selling of parents away from their children; husbands from their wives. He also told of the physical cruelty of the traders visited upon the slaves. The book shows that Benezet’s rhetoric of story transformed the conversation about slavery into a concrete treatise on the golden rule that eventually led to the British Parliament’s outlawing the slave trade in 1807.This is an excellent book for anybody interested in the history of the anti-slavery movement in North America immediately before and during the founding of the United States. It demonstrates that the issue of slavery and its abolition was a crucial part of the struggle that challenged the nation at its very beginnings; a challenge the nation continues to face to this present day.
