On July 18, 1863, the African American soldiers of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry led a courageous but ill-fated charge on Fort Wagner, a key bastion guarding Charleston harbor. Confederate defenders killed, wounded, or made prisoners of half the regiment. Only hours later, the body of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the regiment's white commander, was thrown into a mass grave with those of twenty of his men. The assault promoted the young colonel to the higher rank of martyr, ranking him alongside the legendary John Brown in the eyes of abolitionists.
In this biography of Shaw,...
On July 18, 1863, the African American soldiers of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry led a courageous but ill-fated charge on Fort Wagner, a ...
On the Boston Common stands one of the great Civil War memorials, a magnificent bronze sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It depicts the black soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry marching alongside their young white commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. When the philosopher William James dedicated the memorial in May 1897, he stirred the assembled crowd with these words: "There they march, warm-blooded champions of a better day for man. There on horseback among them, in the very habit as he lived, sits the blue-eyed child of fortune."
In this book Shaw speaks for...
On the Boston Common stands one of the great Civil War memorials, a magnificent bronze sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It depicts the black so...
For the first time since the early years of the American republic, the period following emancipation held out the promise of a true colorblind democracy. The freed slaves hoped for forty acres and a mule by which they could work as small farmers, erect houses, establish families, and live free from the gaze of planter and overseer. In this first light of freedom, blacks needed help to learn how to function in a democracy and how to protect themselves from whites eager to find a new way to exploit their labor.
In "Freedom's Shore," Russell Duncan tells of the efforts of Tunis Campbell, a...
For the first time since the early years of the American republic, the period following emancipation held out the promise of a true colorblind demo...
The novelist William Dean Howells described autobiography as the most democratic of American literary genres. Autobiography has offered a voice to women, African Americans, Native Americans, and others whose writings have often been excluded from the literary canon.The men and women presented here observed, shaped, or participated in many of the most exciting and important events of American history. First Person Past lets them speak for themselves.
From the hundreds of American autobiographies, the editors have chosen twelve for each of Volumes I and II of First Person Past...
The novelist William Dean Howells described autobiography as the most democratic of American literary genres. Autobiography has offered a voice to wom...
Archibald C. McKinley Robert L. Humphries Russell Duncan
A valuable document from the Reconstruction era, "The Journal of Archibald C. McKinley" offers the modern reader a rare glimpse of daily life on Sapelo Island, Georgia, as seen through the eyes of an upper-class farmer.
A descendant of Scottish settlers, Archibald McKinley was born in Lexington, Georgia, in 1842 and served as a Confederate officer during the Civil War. Just after the war, he began farming near Milledgeville, Georgia, and within a year had met and married Sarah Spalding, a granddaughter of Thomas Spalding, who had built his plantation empire on Sapelo Island. In 1869, the...
A valuable document from the Reconstruction era, "The Journal of Archibald C. McKinley" offers the modern reader a rare glimpse of daily life on Sa...
A new edition of a popular introduction to all aspects of life in the United States. This edition reflects on Obama's second term, the reverberations of the 2016 presidential election and the ongoing fears about the United States's place in the world order.
A new edition of a popular introduction to all aspects of life in the United States. This edition reflects on Obama's second term, the reverberations ...
A new fifth edition of a well-established and popular introduction to all aspects of life in the US, fully updated to take into account the latest key domestic and international developments.
A new fifth edition of a well-established and popular introduction to all aspects of life in the US, fully updated to take into account the latest key...
