"George Scott peered at the nearby Union fortress. Something miraculous was taking place! Three enslaved men had entered but had not been cast out. To Scott, the fortress must be a sanctuary. A place where the three would be safe from capture and harm--never to return to the Confederate South. But exactly why were they granted refuge? Scott left the woods where he had been hiding and joined others in line to enter the fortress. Once inside, his knowledge...

Describes the Civil War through the letters of the people who fought it on both sides, including the voices of women on the front and the experiences of African Americans.

"Describes the role of African Americans during the Civil War (1861-1865)"--Provided by publisher.

The Civil War began as a means of preserving the Union. But to nearly four million African Americans, it held a much more personal promise. As Northern armies swept south, self-emancipated slaves sought refuge behind Union lines. Determined to claim basic human rights, former slaves turned soldiers helped defeat their oppressors. But the road to freedom would be a rocky one. Despite continued oppression and violence, African Americans worked tirelessly...

Describes the conditions of African Americans in the North and the South during and immediately after the Civil War.

The Civil War was just days old when the first enslaved men, women, and children began fleeing their plantations to seek refuge inside the lines of the Union army as it moved deep into the heart of the Confederacy. In the years that followed, hundreds of thousands more followed in a mass exodus from slavery that would destroy the system once and for all. Drawing on an extraordinary survey of slave refugee camps throughout the country, Embattled Freedom...

Describes slavery in the United States, the harsh conditions under which slaves lived, the active and passive resistance with which they fought for their rights, the revolts, and the involvement of slaves in the Civil War.

Even before shots were fired at Fort Sumter, slaves recognized that their bondage was at the root of the war, and they began running to the Union army. By the war's end, nearly half a million had taken refuge behind Union lines in improvised "contraband camps". These were crowded and dangerous places, with conditions approaching those of a humanitarian crisis, yet families and individuals took unimaginable risks to reach them, and they became the...