Embattled Freedom

A fine example of the latest approach to the study of the Civil War. . . . An important book because it shows clearly that, despite Civil War mythology, the conflict did not result in immediate freedom.--Civil War Book Review A well-written, thoroughly documented, thought-provoking, if not always uplifting, book about an overlooked aspect of America's Civil War.--The Journal of America's Military Past A welcome addition to the recent Civil War scholarship that highlights the experiences of people who lived on the fringes of the war. . . . Embattled Freedom brings to life an aspect of the Civil War that many scholars have glossed over . . . well-researched and well-written.--H-Net Reviews Converts a triumphalist tale of enslavement ended by emancipation into a more realistic one of an ongoing journey toward a contingent and uncertain freedom that was far from complete in 1865.--Journal of American History A compelling account of how African American refugees' search for freedom pushed the nation toward abolition. . . . Taylor meticulously recovers the history of these erased settlements and the African American lives transformed therein. . . . An essential text for scholars and nonacademics alike.--Journal of the Civil War Era Taylor unravels the tangled process of emancipation during the Civil War. . . . By taking readers inside the camps, Taylor convincingly shows that slave refugee camps played a pivotal role in emancipation because they were the places where policy was enacted in the lives of individuals.--The Annals of Iowa An insightful and powerful book that highlights the tremendous struggle and endurance of the refugees to secure their freedom in the chaos of a massive war while surrounded by a hostile and armed white population. . . . Taylor's work illustrates the importance of . . . refugee camps as sites of emancipation and the struggle to define freedom during the Civil War.--Journal of Arizona History Taylor has identified nearly three hundred contraband refugee camps . . . and has painstakingly pieced together narratives of some of the people who lived and worked in them. . . . Taylor's masterful execution of this approach achieves a main goal of the book to move the focus away from the well-known topdown story of emancipation. . . . Embattled Freedom is an important and fresh standout in recent Civil War-era and Arkansas history.--Arkansas Historical Quarterly Taylor has written perhaps the single-most evocative portrayal of wartime refugees in the field's distinguished history. . . . In patient, concrete prose, and by slowing down the pace of the traditional emancipation narrative, Taylor elicits not just sympathy or terror or excitement but genuine suspense.--Reviews in American History Gracefully written and exhaustively researched, Taylor's book offers the reader a vivid and convincing narrative of these slave refugee camps as 'an elemental part of the story of slavery's destruction in the United States, ' one that deserves a broad readership among not only Civil War enthusiasts but anyone interested in the history of race and slavery in the United States.--Publishers Weekly, starred review Embattled Freedom is a profound meditation on the nature of warfare and its relation to freedom and citizenship. Amy Murrell Taylor demonstrates not only her expertise as a military and social historian but also her skill as a thinker and writer. This book is a model for scholars and students alike.--Journal of Social History

Amy Murrell Taylor is associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky and author of The Divided Family in Civil War America.