Families and Freedom: A Documentary History of African-American Kinship in the Civil War Era [Paperback]

Ira Berlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

Through the dramatic and moving letters and testimony of freed slaves, Families and Freedom tells the story of the remaking of the black family during the tumultuous years of the Civil War era. Former slaves, free blacks, and their contemporaries recount the elation accompanying the reunion of brothers and sisters separated for half a lifetime and the anguished realization that time lost could never be made up.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Berlin and Rowland are, respectively, the former and present directors of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project at the University of Maryland. In this sturdy sequel to Free at Last, they present documents, primarily letters written by African Americans, that illustrate the stark brutalities of slavery in the 1860s. In the border states of Missouri, Maryland and Kentucky, where slavery remained legal despite the Emancipation Proclamation, black men who had joined the Union army were often arrested by civil authorities when they went home to help their families. When blacks entered army camps, often their families occupied shanty towns nearby. Many soldiers complained to their white commanders about their families' wretched living conditions; some even wrote to President Lincoln. Letters from blacks in the North show that they endured the same problems as whites?only magnified because free blacks in the North toiled on the fringes of the economy. There's also material on the immediate postwar situation of black families. Black units remained in service as occupation troops and on the Mexican border while their loved ones at home suffered discrimination and vengeance from former slave owners. Letters describing the sudden ability of blacks to form legal marriages in the South underscore the inhuman conditions of slavery, as do the missives of those futilely searching for kin sold off years earlier. With each letter preceded by a brief explanatory note, this valuable collection of primary documents contributes to our understanding of 19th-century black social history; it also can serve as an excellent college text.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This is the sixth installment of a Freedman and Southern Society-sponsored study entitled Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867. The impeccable standards established by the editors in the previous works (most recently, The Slaves' Economy, International Specialized Book Svcs., 1995) are rigorously maintained in this one. The joy and horror evoked by these historical documents are certain to remain with the reader for a long time. As the title suggests, the focus here is the complex familial relations of African Americans of the time. Because family ties were discouraged if not forbidden by slavery, the concept of the extended family developed and has survived to today. Slaves, thus deprived, acquired "family" where they could. The documents presented here examine these blood and extended relationships with poignancy. This work (and the entire series preceding it) is not merely highly recommended for all public and academic libraries; it is sine qua non for even the most rudimentary American history collection.
Don R. Brusha, Sebring P.L., Fla.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565844408
• ISBN-13: 978-1565844407
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,656,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Families and Freedom, February 15, 2011

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This review is from: Families and Freedom: A Documentary History of African-American Kinship in the Civil War Era (Paperback)

This was very interesting read by way of letters written from soldiers and civilians! If you want to know how life effected both during the Civil War...easy to read example.