Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: Mainers in the Civil War by Harry Gratwick; The 22nd Maine Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War: A History and Roster by Ned Smith; Write Quick: War and a Woman\u27s Life in Letters 1835-1867 Edited by Ann Fox Chandonnet and Robert Gibson Pevear; Civil War Senator: William Pitt Fessenden and the Fight to Save the American Republic by Robert J. Cook; Lincoln\u27s Friend: Leonard Swett by Robert S. Eckley; We Are in His Hands Whether We Live or Die: The Letters of Brevet Brigadier General Charles Henry Howard edited by David K. Thomson; Fanny & Joshua: The Enigmatic Lives of Frances Caroline Adams and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain by Diane Monroe Smith; This Birth Place of Souls:The Civil War Nursing Diary of Harriet Eaton edited with an Introduction by Jane E. Schultz; Army at Home: Women and the Civil War on the Northern Home Front by Judith Giesberg; A Visitation of God: Northern Civilians Interpret the Civil War by Sean A. Scott; Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes; War Upon the Land: Military Strategy and the Transformation of Southern Landscapes during the American Civil War by Lisa M. Brady; Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation by Caroline E. Janne

Slavery, Fatherhood, and Paternal Duty in African American Communities over the Long Nineteenth Century

Analyzing published and archival oral histories of formerly enslaved African Americans, Libra R. Hilde explores the meanings of manhood and fatherhood during and after the era of slavery, demonstrating that black men and women articulated a surprisingly broad and consistent vision of paternal duty across more than a century. Complicating the tendency among historians to conflate masculinity within slavery with heroic resistance, Hilde emphasizes that, while some enslaved men openly rebelled, many chose subtle forms of resistance in the context of family and local community. She explains how a significant number of enslaved men served as caretakers to their children and shaped their lives and identities. From the standpoint of enslavers, this was particularly threatening--a man who fed his children built up the master’s property, but a man who fed them notions of autonomy put cracks in the edifice of slavery. Fatherhood highlighted the agonizing contradictions of the condition of enslavement, and to be an involved father was to face intractable dilemmas, yet many men tried. By telling the story of the often quietly heroic efforts that enslaved men undertook to be fathers, Hilde reveals how formerly enslaved African Americans evaluated their fathers (including white fathers) and envisioned an honorable manhood.</p