Author Archives: Donald R. Shaffer

This is Part 2 of the blog posts (click for Part 1) exploring interesting accounts of ex-slaves relating the story of how they learned they were free found in the WPA Slave Narratives. The following excerpt is from Mary Ella … Continue reading →

The WPA Slave Narratives, the folk history accounts produced from interviews with surviving ex-slaves in the late 1930s, contain numerous accounts of former slaves telling about the moment they learned they were free. The following account from this source is … Continue reading →

January 6, 2021, for me, is now one of those where were you and what were you doing when it was happening events. As an online-based professor, I was working at home as usual. I had the TV on, muted, … Continue reading →

HEAD-QUARTERS DISTRICT OF TEXAS Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865 General Orders No. 3 The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute … Continue reading →

Happy 150th Juneteenth!

Ex-slave Bob Lemmons, Carrizo Springs, Texas, c. 1936. Photographed by Dorothea Lange. Source: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998021797/PP/ Probably the most famous source on slavery from the slaves’ viewpoint is the WPA Slave Narratives, compiled by the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Crossroads:
On April 3, 1865, United States soldiers, most of them African Americans. entered what had been the capital of the Confederacy, freeing what had been Richmond’s enslaved population. Although there were other days in the war…

An artist in Harper’s Weekly (November 25, 1864) humorously imagining what would have happened had the Confederates actually sent black soldiers into the field. ******************************************************************************** Recently, the legend of black Confederate soldiers was revived by an article in The Root by John … Continue reading →

Tennessee is an interesting case in the Civil War. While it seceded and joined the Confederacy in the second wave of secession that followed Lincoln’s call for volunteers after the assault on Fort Sumter, its mountainous eastern region, with relatively … Continue reading →

I try in this blog to stick to its topic—the coming of freedom for the slaves in the American Civil War. Admittedly, I occasionally write on other subjects because I feel the compulsion to share my thoughts on them. I’ve … Continue reading →