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

by Ira Berlin (editor), Kelly S. Rowland (editor)

A sequel to the award-winning Free At Last that includes moving letters from freed slaves to their families.

Genres: History, Race, Civil War

259 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

A historian of American slavery, Ira Berlin earned his BA in chemistry, and an MA and Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle and Federal City College in Washington, DC before moving to the University of Maryland in 1974, where he was Distinguished University Professor of History. A former president of the Organization of American Historians, Berlin was the founding editor of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, which he directed until 1991.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

An accessible and well-constructed portrait of Black people struggling during and immediately after the Civil War. I think it illustrates very well the way we can sugar-coat the efforts of the past. The letters capture love and hope, but also frustration and disappointment with the limited freedom that newly-freed slaves endured. Also, while this isn't a main goal of the editors, the collection also puts the lie to the idea that the Civil War wasn't about slavery; the Black writers collected in this volume document the rage and abuse that white southerners heaped upon them, clearly motivated by an anger specifically around Black people's new freedom. They also detail the efforts, during and after the war, to curtail that freedom, often trying to using their states' legislatures. Overall, though, the main thing that recommends the piece is the way it makes these abstract ideas we have about slavery and the Civil War immediate and human. Reading the letters between family members, especially, was deeply moving and informative.

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a handy and engaging book, but it is limited to African-American families that had some contact with the Union army or government. I really wanted it to have more of a component on people caught behind Confederate lines.