Update: In 2010 the Georgia Historical Society dedicated a marker commemorating the 44th USCT and their treatment at the hands of Confederate soldiers near Dalton, Georgia. As Confederate officials in Richmond and citizens throughout the country debated whether to recruit slaves into the army as soldiers, black Union soldiers were being massacred on battlefields throughout Read more

There is nothing quite like holding a copy of your own book for the first time. Yesterday UNC Press sent along a single copy of Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth and it looks amazing. The cover art is stunning. I am still feeling overwhelmed over the fact that this book Read more

Yesterday work crews removed the letters on the Jefferson Davis Memorial Arch located at Fort Monroe in Virginia. The arch was dedicated in 1956 shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. I still find it bizarre that a memorial to Davis was placed on the very ground where he was Read more

Searching for Black Confederates hits bookstores in just a couple of weeks. Secure your copy today by ordering direct from UNC Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and IndieBound. Book tour dates can be found here. Jeff Forrett, Williams’ Gang: A Notorious Slave Trader and His Cargo of Black Convicts (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Alejandro De Read more

I always knew that I wanted to use the famous photograph of Andrew and Silas Chandler for the cover art on Searching for Black Confederates. The design team did a wonderful job of complimenting one of my central interpretive goals of trying to untangle former camp slaves like Silas from the web of the Lost Read more

Here is a little taste of my forthcoming book, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth, which was published last week at Smithsonian. I re-worked a few pages that focus on the role of camp slaves during the Gettysburg campaign. All too often we try to draw a distinction between the importance Read more

During the summer months I devote part of my time to leading student tours of Boston. Some of those tours, like the one I led this morning, are through a collaboration with a large tour company here in town. The tours I lead are specifically focused on the history of the black community that thrived Read more

I recently learned that Keith Poulter has resurrected North & South. The magazine was in production from 1997 through 2013 and for a long time offered high quality articles from some of the top historians in the field. Unfortunately, the quality of the publication suffered greatly following the departure of Terry Johnston, who went on to Read more

A reminder that you can now pre-order Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth at your preferred online retailer: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, UNC Press. Click here for information about my Fall book tour. S. Jonathan Bass, Blessed are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the Read more