Overview

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, a turbulent period fraught with violence, struggle, and uncertainty, a forgotten few African Americans banded together as men to assert their rights as citizens. Following emancipation, the nation’s newest citizens established churches, entered the political arena, created educational and business opportunities, and even formed labor organizations, but it was through state militia service, with the prestige and heightened status conveyed by their affiliation, that they displayed their loyalty, discipline, and more importantly, their manliness within the public sphere. In African American State Volunteers in the New South, John Patrick Blair offers a comparative examination of the experiences and activities of African American men as members in the state volunteer military organizations of Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, including the complicated relationships between state government and military officials—many of them former Confederate officers—and the leaders of the Black militia volunteers. This important new study expands understanding of racial accommodation, however minor, toward the African American military, confirmed not only in the actions of state government and military officials to arm, equip, and train these Black troops, but also in the acceptance of clearly visible and authorized military activities by these very same volunteers. In doing so, it adds significant layers to our knowledge of racial politics as they developed during Reconstruction, and prompts us to consider a broader understanding of the history of the South into the twentieth century.

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9781648430732

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An extraordinary work that deals with a previously unexplored aspect of US military history, one that played out dramatically against a backdrop of regional social history in an era of great change. For readers of US military history, this is a gamechanger. --Dan K. Utley, coauthor of Faded Glory: A Century of Forgotten Military Sites in Texas, Then and Now--Dan K. Utley An impressive account of African American volunteer militias in the states of Georgia, Texas, and Virginia. John Blair provides a new perspective on the experiences of African American males in the New South and provides a more nuanced examination of race relations within the region. --Kenneth W. Howell, author of Texas Confederate, Reconstruction Governor: James Webb Throckmorton--Kenneth W. Howell

"""An extraordinary work that deals with a previously unexplored aspect of US military history, one that played out dramatically against a backdrop of regional social history in an era of great change. For readers of US military history, this is a gamechanger.""--Dan K. Utley, coauthor of Faded Glory: A Century of Forgotten Military Sites in Texas, Then and Now--Dan K. Utley ""An impressive account of African American volunteer militias in the states of Georgia, Texas, and Virginia. John Blair provides a new perspective on the experiences of African American males in the New South and provides a more nuanced examination of race relations within the region.""--Kenneth W. Howell, author of Texas Confederate, Reconstruction Governor: James Webb Throckmorton--Kenneth W. Howell"

Author Information

JOHN PATRICK BLAIR currently serves with the National Archives and Records Administration in the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University.

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