The early spring of 1863 was a difficult one for Kate Stone and her family. Yankees had infested the area near Milliken’s Bend for months, but their numbers were growing in anticipation of yet another attempt to take Vicksburg. As more »
As we close out Black History Month, and begin Women’s History Month, this seems like a fitting time to discuss how black women in the region of Milliken’s Bend were affected by the war. One of the finest works I more »
In 1861, at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, Union general Benjamin Butler refused to return three runaway slaves to their owners, even though Federal law required him to do so under the Fugitive Slave Act. Butler had a different take. Southern law more »
As a genealogist, archivist, and historical researcher, I know that one of the most difficult tasks for people tracing their Southern African American ancestry is to find generations before 1870. The 1870 Federal census marked the first time that persons more »
One of the finest works on American slavery is Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made.Written in 1974 by the late Eugene Genovese, it is a study that still stands the test of time. Genovese’s focus is on the more »