The Slaves War, Andrew Ward
The Slaves War, Andrew Ward
5 Rating(s)
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The Slaves' War
The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves

Author: Andrew Ward

Narrator: Richard Allen

Unabridged: 13 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/16/2008


Synopsis

This is the first narrative of the Civil War told by the very people that it freed.

Groundbreaking, compelling, and poignant, The Slaves' War delivers an unprecedented vision of the nation's bloodiest conflict. An acclaimed historian of nineteenth-century and African American history, Andrew Ward gives us the first narrative of the Civil War told from the perspective of those whose destiny it decided. Woven together from interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs, here is the Civil War as seen not only from battlefields and camps but also from slave quarters, kitchens, roadsides, and fields. Speaking in a quintessentially American language of biblical power and intensity, body servants, army cooks and launderers, runaways, teamsters, and gravediggers bring the war to life. From slaves' theories about the war's causes to their frank assessments of such figures as Lincoln, Davis, Lee, and Grant; from their searing memories of the carnage of battle to their often startling attitudes toward masters and liberators alike; and from their initial jubilation at the Yankee invasion of the slave South to the crushing disappointment of freedom's promise unfulfilled, The Slaves' War is an engrossing vision of America's Second Revolution.

About Andrew Ward

Andrew Ward is the author of several award-winning historical works, including River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War; Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres in the Indian Mutiny of 1857; and Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. A former contributing editor and essayist at the Atlantic Monthly, he is a commentator for NPR's All Things Considered and a columnist for the Washington Post. Ward has also written numerous articles for American Heritage and National Geographic, as well as documentary screenplays for WGBH and the Hallmark Channel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Robert on August 20, 2015

In “The Slaves’ War” Andrew Ward uses various former slave narratives to add vibrancy to a tale recounting the major arcs of the Civil War. As the attempt is noble and the history, important, I wish that I could say that I enjoyed this book more than I actually did. Structurally, Ward lays out princ......more

Goodreads review by Allen on August 19, 2008

I saw Ward on the Daily Show, and thought the premise of the book was interesting, so I got it via interlibrary loan. It's sort of oddly constructed; he tells the story of the war in chronological order, by stitching together quotes from former slaves. Reading the first chapter, I was suddenly remin......more

Goodreads review by James (JD) on September 17, 2011

A comprehensive look at the war from slaves' perspectives. As an American literature teacher, I'm so grateful to have this resource for my lessons on slavery and the Civil War. The book is about 60% quotes, and Ward's prose is spare, meant only to connect the dots and introduce the ideas. The book fo......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on May 07, 2018

This was very good. Of course, any book of history which relies on interviews given years after, can be problematic. However, the author realizes the potential pitfalls and inaccuracies of eyewitness accounts and memory and acknowledges them. Like, any good book of history, this shows that one can’t......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on September 15, 2018

I think this book is valuable, as it organizes a bunch of information in a way that that it hadn't been organized before. All the narratives of the formerly enslaved people had been published before, but nobody had collected the pieces that were during the Civil War and organized them by area and se......more