Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union Book

Ground-breaking in both technique and in the facts and attitudes it uncovers, The Negro's Civil War offers a much-needed reassessment of our nation's bloodiest conflict from the perspective of those who had most at stake. For anyone concerned with the Civil War and the history and culture of black Americans, here is a richly complex, multifaceted chronicle of a neglected chapter in America's history.In The Negro's Civil War, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson assembles key extracts from newspaper articles, books, speeches, and letters, and allows black preachers and doctors, former slaves and intellectuals, soldiers and educators to speak for themselves. Through their words, we learn of conditions for blacks in the Union army, the rebuttal of the theory of racial inferiority, and the shift in black views of Lincoln. And we hear of the aspirations of a newly freed people to acquire education, suffrage, and, above all, the human dignity that had long been denied them. For this edition, McPherson has added a searching new foreword bringing the book up to date.Read More