Most of the Milliken’s Bend story takes place in Louisiana and Mississippi, around the general vicinity of Vicksburg. In honor of the upcoming Association for the Study of African American Life and History‘s annual meeting (Sept. 24-28) at the Peabody … Continue reading →
John Gordon was just 15 years old when he enlisted in Company B, 11th Louisiana Infantry, African Descent on May 8, 1863. He was probably involved in the fighting at Milliken’s Bend, as there is no evidence that he was … Continue reading →
(designed with Wordle)
Continue reading →It occurred to me, when I wrote my recent post about Webster, a runaway slave, that with digitized texts, it has now become possible to develop a biographical sketch of an individual slave simply by performing a keyword search of … Continue reading →
It’s impossible to estimate the number of runaway slaves that set out for a new life of freedom in Northeastern Louisiana in 1863. At the start of the year, it was minimal, though still significant. With the coming of spring, … Continue reading →