African Americans In The Civil War [Paperback]

African Americans in the Civil War: A Pictorial History of Courage and Pride highlights the war as never before. Large Format and lavishly illustrated with hundreds of images, including rare Civil War photographs, paintings, etchings, lithographs, and maps reproduced in full color. In its visual power and humanistic portrayal of the African American experience, the war comes alive in a newly focused perspective. While the Civil War was the bloodiest in American history, for African Americans, the war was also a quest for equality as human beings. The fight for fair treatment and an end to institutional slavery was only achieved through bloodshed on a horrific scale. The humanity and emotional drama of this conflict comes alive through first-person accounts and carefully selected illustrations. The narrative explores the pre-war rise of anti-slavery sentiment in a nation that bound human beings as slaves. The psychological and sociological battles waged by courageous abolitionists are highlighted with poignant vignettes. The words of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and many others bring to life the physical scars, the emotional struggle, and the heart-felt pain of slavery. As the heated division between North and South erupts into war, the narrative focuses on the plight of inequality, even for freedmen living in the Union. Racial bias experienced by black surgeons and other professionals highlight the dilemma the United States faced in the early 1860s. Witness the plight of contrabands and slaves who desperately sought safety by following the North Star on a seemingly endless and dangerous journey. Several biographies focus on Harriet Tubman, Anna Douglass and the relevance of the Underground Railroad. As the war escalates into mass death on a scale never witnessed in history, President Lincoln emancipates all African Americans. The reader then explores the continued racial bias as black soldiers are denied equal pay and receive limited opportunities l3!