The first book of its kind to appear in a generation, this comprehensive study details the experiences of the black men, women, and children who lived in the South during the traumatic time of secession and civil war.The Black Experience in the Civil War South is the first comprehensive study of the Southern black wartime experience to appear in a generation. Incorporating the most recent scholarship, this thematically organized book does justice to the richness of its subject, looking at the lives of blacks in the Confederate states and the nonseceding Southern states; at blacks on farms and plantations and in towns and cities; at blacks employed in industry and the military; and at black men, women, and children.Drawing on memoirs, autobiographies, and other original source materials, the author details the experiences of blacks who took up residence in Union "contraband camps" and on free-labor plantations and those who enlisted in the Union army. He introduces individuals who escaped from slavery, as well as the small minority of Southern blacks who were free when the war began. Most significantly, this revealing study deals not only with those who gained freedom during the war, but those whose freedom came only after the conflict's end.

A bibliographical essay discusses other studies of the black Civil War experience for readers who want to explore the subject further

Series ForewordPreface and AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter One: Freedom DelayedChapter Two: Life and Labor on the LandChapter Three: Beyond the PlantationChapter Four: Gaining FreedomChapter Five: Experiencing FreedomEpilogueNotesBibliographical EssayIndex