The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship
- ISBN-10
- 147982626X
- ISBN-13
- 9781479826261
- Category
- Social Science
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2021-01-26
- Publisher
- NYU Press
- Author
- Deborah Willis
Description
A stunning collection of stoic portraits and intimate ephemera from the lives of Black Civil War soldiers Though both the Union and Confederate armies excluded African American men from their initial calls to arms, many of the men who eventually served were black. Simultaneously, photography culture blossomed—marking the Civil War as the first conflict to be extensively documented through photographs. In The Black Civil War Soldier, Deb Willis explores the crucial role of photography in (re)telling and shaping African American narratives of the Civil War, pulling from a dynamic visual archive that has largely gone unacknowledged. With over seventy images, The Black Civil War Soldier contains a huge breadth of primary and archival materials, many of which are rarely reproduced. The photographs are supplemented with handwritten captions, letters, and other personal materials; Willis not only dives into the lives of black Union soldiers, but also includes stories of other African Americans involved with the struggle—from left-behind family members to female spies. Willis thus compiles a captivating memoir of photographs and words and examines them together to address themes of love and longing; responsibility and fear; commitment and patriotism; and—most predominantly—African American resilience. The Black Civil War Soldier offers a kaleidoscopic yet intimate portrait of the African American experience, from the beginning of the Civil War to 1900. Through her multimedia analysis, Willis acutely pinpoints the importance of African American communities in the development and prosecution of the war. The book shows how photography helped construct a national vision of blackness, war, and bondage, while unearthing the hidden histories of these black Civil War soldiers. In combating the erasure of this often overlooked history, Willis asks how these images might offer a more nuanced memory of African-American participation in the Civil War, and in doing so, points to individual and collective struggles for citizenship and remembrance.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2021-01-26
- 256 pages
- Paperback
- NYU Press
Similar books
-
Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era
By John David SmithSommers, Richmond Redeemed, 4–8, 18–21; Welcher, The Union Army, 872–73, 875; Longacre, Army of Amateurs, 211–12. Welcher, The Union Army, 452–53, 482–83; Warner, Generals in Blue, 354–55; Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 615; Sommers, ...
-
The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois: The Story of the Twenty-ninth U.S. Colored Infantry
By Jr., Edward A. MillerMorning Reports and Record of Events , NA ; George Washington Williams , A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion , 1861-1865 ( 1888 ; reprint , New York : Bergman Publishers , 1968 ) , 293 . 67.
-
Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War
By Ira Berlin, Leslie S. Rowland, Joseph Patrick ReidyA publication of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project.
-
Black Civil War Soldiers
By Susan K. BaumannI' II I "" V MANY WELL'KNOWN BLACKS WORKED TO FILL THE RANKS OF ' THE 54“. ONE OF THEM WAS FREDERICK DOUGLASS. .___ . . . . ....-.__.-.._ {a . ONCE THE ' BLACK MAN HAS BEEN A UNION SOLDIER, NO ONE CAN DENY THAT HE HAS EARNED THE RIGHT ...
-
Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth
By Kevin M. LevinFew former slaves' service has proven to be more controversial than Levi Miller's. Miller was issued a Virginia Confederate veteran's pension in 1907, seventeen years before the state expanded its program to include body servants, ...
-
Black Soldiers in the Civil War
By Elisabeth HerschbachThis title focuses on the hardships and opportunities experienced by black Americans during the Civil War, especially those who fought for the Union.
-
Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War
By Margaret Humphreys... the Causation and Prevention of Disease and to Camp Diseases; Together with a Report of the Diseases, Etc., among the Prisoners at Andersonville, Ga., ed. Austin Flint (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867), 319–334, quote on p. 332.
-
A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War
By James G. MendezAnderson, Edmund (son), 151 Anderson, Edmund H. (father), 151 Anderson, Mary, 147 Anderson, Robert, 147–48 Andrew, ... Alexander, 195–96n2 Augustus, Benjamin, 154, 229n79 Augustus, Mrs., 154 Beauregard, P. G. T., 132 Beecher, James, ...
-
African American Soldier in the Civil War: USCT 1862–66
By Mark LardasApproximately 200,000 African Americans fought for the Union during the Civil War.
-
The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois: The Story of the Twenty-ninth U.S. Colored Infantry
By Edward a MillerHistorian Edward A. Miller, Jr., chronicles the Civil War experience of a representative African American regiment--the 29th United States Colored Infantry.