Voices of Emancipation : Understanding Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction through the U.S. Pension Bureau Files / ed. by Elizabeth A. Regosin, Donald R. Shaffer.
2008
E185.2 .V65 2008
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Title
Voices of Emancipation : Understanding Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction through the U.S. Pension Bureau Files / ed. by Elizabeth A. Regosin, Donald R. Shaffer.
ISBN
9780814777343
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2008]
Copyright
©2008
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Other Standard Identifiers
10.18574/nyu/9780814777343.001.0001 doi
Call Number
E185.2 .V65 2008
Dewey Decimal Classification
973.0496073
Summary
Voices of Emancipation seeks to recover the lives and words of former slaves in vivid detail, mining the case files of the U.S. Pension Bureau, which administered a huge pension system for Union veterans and their survivors in the decades following the Civil War. The files contain an invaluable, first-hand perspective of slavery, emancipation, black military service, and freedom. Moreover, as Pension Bureau examiners began interviewing black Union veterans and their families shortly after the Civil War, the files are arguably among the earliest sources of ex-slaves reflecting on their lives, occurring decades before better-known WPA Slave Narratives of the 1930s took place.Voices of Emancipation explores the words of former slaves topically, beginning with recollections of slavery, moving on to experiences of military service in the Civil War, the transition to freedom, and finally to reflections on marriage and family before and after emancipation. With an introduction that places the pension files in context and presents the themes of the book, and historical commentary interwoven throughout the excerpts of the interviews themselves, Elizabeth A. Regosin and Donald R. Shaffer effectively introduce the files and the treasures they contain to students and general readers, but also provide specialists with an indispensable research tool.
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Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780814775868
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Slavery and Emancipation
2 The Civil War
3 Postwar Patterns
4 Marriage and Family
Appendix: Complete Sample Documents
Notes
Index
About the Authors
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Slavery and Emancipation
2 The Civil War
3 Postwar Patterns
4 Marriage and Family
Appendix: Complete Sample Documents
Notes
Index
About the Authors