Negro's Civil War

In his introduction to this volume of documentary evidence gleaned from black sources concerning the role of blacks in the American Civil War James McPherson notes that up until the 1920's the common historical wisdom was that blacks played merely a passive role in their liberation from slavery. Sound familiar. After that point serious historical studies by black and white scholars, John Hope Franklin, Carter Woodson and C. Vann Woodward among others, have attempted to and generally have redressed that wrong. McPherson's little volume originally written in 1965 long before he became dean of American Civil War studies represents something of a halfway point in that appreciation. Although this is not the last place to go to find out about the black contribution to the end of slavery it is a worthy first place. Let me reemphasize that point made above about the older notion of the role of blacks in the liberation struggle by giving a personal example. As late as the early 1960's my American History textbook had no reference to the role blacks played in their own struggles for freedom. The prevailing line at that time was that the Union Army, that is the white Union Army composed of yeoman and city proletarians, was solely responsible for those results. And the later post-war Freedmen's Bureau merely sorted out the rest, an early welfare agency if you will. And here is where my personal example comes into play. As a student almost every day I had to pass the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street in Boston. In a prominent place in front of that building stands the famous work of Saint Gauden's commemorating the role of the Robert Gould Shaw- led Massachusetts 54th Regiment that has since been written about extensively and has been the subject of several film treatments. I did not find out about the heroic role of this regiment until much later, when I, independently, seriously started to study black history. That, my friends, pretty much says it all. McPherson's little volume goes into this question of armed black participation in the war and other questions that inflamed the country and the black community during this time. This work, moreover, shows that there was not a unified black response, particularly among better-educated blacks, to the unfolding events. McPherson thus takes care to catalogue the range of black responses to the conflict between preservation of the union and abolition of slavery that were fought out politically in the initial period of the war. He also deals with the question of the white racist response, North and South, as epitomized by the anti-draft riots in New York City, the status of Southern blacks in the military struggle as `contraband' and the fight for some kind of just economic program (the famous forty acres and a mule) to give teeth to physical emancipation. McPherson also details some incipient black nationalist trends in black thought as he does for black responses to colonization schemes, self-help an

I bought this book after watching "Glory" (yet again) and decided to get better informed on the subject of black soldiers in the Civil War. I found the book to be very well done and very well researched. It is all excerpts from interviews, newspaper stories, and speeches given around the time of the Civil War. It really did a good job of showing how the average black man before, during, and a little bit after the Civil War. It really did open my eyes to many injustices the black man suffered during those days and how they overcame them. That said, however, I did find the book did drag a bit in some sections and it wasn't truly what I had been looking for; the stories of black soldier battles and valor was not covered very much and when it was it jumped around a bit. Bottom line, if your looking for a book on the combat black soldiers faced and the battles they were involved in then pick another book, but if your looking for a great overall history of the entire time period concerning black soldiers then this is a good book for you.

James McPherson successfully recounts the Negro's feelings and actions during and somewhat after the Civil War. The author uses a compilation of letters written by actual heroes of this revolutionary period to tell a story that is heard by few. Educators often share the many distinct battles and strategies both sides engaged in and created during the war. However, students seldom learn the grand history of the war that could only be learned by giving a broader sense of the account- a feat only accomplished when one studies those who were most affected by the war. Mr McPherson's usage of speeches and actual letters allow the reader to transcend time with the upper hand of hindsight having 20/20 vision! The interjections that McPherson interpolates into the scheme keep the flow of the different works so well tied at times it appears as though the authors worked together on the event. The final essay is more than fitting to end the book as it redefines the Negro's necessity to strive for and never forget the pursuit of freedom and equality. There were instances when it seemed each individual had a secret knowledge that decades later others would read his/her words and learn positive things from the experience. I respect James McPherson for having the courage to write without prejudice but maintain and provide factual evidence that the African-American was not simply rescued but by the blood, sweat and tears of thousands of his brothers and sisters aided in liberating himself. The author gives a refreshing look at the "colored" man as he verifies that he is a citizen by right as well as an important part of the history of the United States whose story should not be neglected by any.