African Americans, death, and the new birth of freedom : dying free during the Civil War and Reconstruction / Ashley Towle

"In this study the author examines how, in the Civil War-era South, newly freed African Americans used their experiences with death from war, disease, and racial violence to advance their own understanding of the meaning of freedom and to stake claims to citizenship, civil rights, and racial justice from the federal government"--.

This innovative book examines how African Americans in the South made sense of the devastating loss of life unleashed by the Civil War and emancipation. During and after the war, African Americans died in vast numbers from battle, disease, and racial violence. While freedom was a momentous event for the formerly enslaved, it was also deadly. Through an investigation into how African Americans reacted to and coped with the passing away of loved ones and community members, Ashley Towle argues that freedpeople gave credence to their free status through their experiences with mortality. African Americans harnessed the power of death in a variety of arenas, including within the walls of national and private civilian cemeteries, in applications for widows' pensions, in the pulpits of black churches, around seance tables, on the witness stand at congressional hearings, and in the columns of African American newspapers. In the process of mourning the demise of kith and kin, black people reconstituted their families, forged communal bonds, and staked claims to citizenship, civil rights, and racial justice from the federal government. In a society upended by civil war and emancipation, death was political.

Medienart:

Buch

Erscheinungsjahr:

[2023]

© 2023

Erschienen:

Lanham Boulder New York London: Lexington Books ; 2023

© 2023

Reihe:

New studies in Southern history

Sprache:

Englisch

WorkTitle:

Dying free [Towle, Ashley, 1987-]

Beteiligte Personen:

Towle, Ashley, 1987- [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Cover

ISBN:

978-1-6669-0571-7

Themen:

1861-1877 (Periode des amerikanischen Bürgerkriegs und die Ära des Wiederaufbaus)
19. Jahrhundert (1800 bis 1899 n. Chr.)
African Americans
Amerikanische Geschichte
Black & Asian studies
C 1800 to c 1900
HIS056000
HISTORY / United States / 19th Century
HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
History of the Americas
Social & cultural history
Southern States
Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte
USA
United States
Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, USA

RVK:

RVK Klassifikation

Anmerkungen:

Revision of author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Maryland, 2017, titled Dying free : African Americans, death, and the new birth of freedom, 1863-1877

Includes bibliographical references and index

Zielgruppe: 5PB-US-C, Bezug zu Afro-Amerikanern (5PB-US-C)

Interessenniveau: 06, Professional and scholarly: For an expert adult audience, including academic research. (06)

Umfang:

ix, 191 Seiten ; Illustrationen

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

1818436167