Description
A handsome new edition of an essential work by the groundbreaking historian of African American life in the nineteenth century
Free at Last brings together some of the most remarkable correspondence ever written by Americans. These letters, personal testimonies, official transcripts, and other records convey the struggle of black men and women to overthrow the slave system, to aid the Union cause, and to give meaning to their newly won freedom in a war-torn nation. Drawn from the landmark reference volumes of Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, this “work of deep significance for all Americans” (The Washington Post Book World ) offers a unique way of understanding emancipation.
Author Bio
Until his death in 2018, Ira Berlin was one of the preeminent historians of American slavery. He was the author of Many Thousands Gone, Generations of Captivity, and Slaves Without Masters (published by The New Press). He co-edited Remembering Slavery (with Marc Favreau and Steven F. Miller), Families and Freedom (with Leslie S. Rowland), and Slavery in New York (with Leslie M. Harris), all published by The New Press. His books have won the Frederick Douglass Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, among many other awards.
Barbara J. Fields is a professor of history at Columbia University. She specializes in southern history and 19th-century social history. She is a co-editor (with Ira Berlin, Steven F. Miller, Joseph P. Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowland) of Freedom, and the Civil War (The New Press).
Steven F. Miller is a co-editor of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, a co-editor (with Ira Berlin, Barbara J. Fields, Joseph P. Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowland) of Freedom, and the Civil War, and a co-editor (with Ira Berlin and Marc Favreau) of Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation (both published by The New Press).
Joseph P. Reidy is a professor of history and an associate provost at Howard University. He is a co-editor (with Ira Berlin, Barbara J. Fields, Steven F. Miller, and Leslie S. Rowland) of Freedom, and the Civil War (The New Press).
Leslie S. Rowland is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland and the director of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, which is compiling a multivolume documentary history of the transition from slavery to freedom. She is a co-editor (with Ira Berlin, Barbara J. Fields, Steven F. Miller, and Joseph P. Reidy) of Families and Freedom, published by The New Press.
