Chaos of Emancipation
Special guest post today at National Archives blog, “Rediscovering Black History” about the Chaos of Emancipation in northeast Louisiana, 1863. Much thanks to Tina Ligon and others for making this possible!
Continue reading →Category Archives: Slavery
Slave takes his master prisoner (or does he?)
A recent post included a brief anecdote about a former slave – now a Union soldier – taking his former master prisoner at Milliken’s Bend. This story was widely repeated (after all, it made sensational journalism) – but it was more »
Close quarters fighting at Milliken’s Bend
“Two gentlemen from the Yazoo” provided this account of the fight at Milliken’s Bend, two days after the battle: This account, as well as several others, can be found in the Rebellion Record vol. 7, available online from the Internet more »
Confederate generals propose arming slaves
In September 1863, two of the Confederate generals who had been involved, at a distance, in the battle of Milliken’s Bend began to consider the unthinkable – arming slaves. In the immediate aftermath of the battle in June, Trans-Mississippi commander more »
Creating a biography of a slave
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 more »