Overview

This book examines the complexities of life for African Americans in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. Although the Valley was a site of fierce conflicts during the Civil War and its military activity has been extensively studied, scholars have largely ignored the Black experience in the region until now.Correcting previous assumptions that slavery was not important to the Valley, and that enslaved people were treated better here than in other parts of the South, Jonathan Noyalas demonstrates the strong hold of slavery in the region. He explains that during the war, enslaved and free African Americans navigated a borderland that changed hands frequently-where it was possible to be in Union territory one day, Confederate territory the next, and no-man's land another. He shows that the region's enslaved population resisted slavery and supported the Union war effort by serving as scouts, spies, and laborers, or by fleeing to enlist in regiments of the United States Colored Troops. Noyalas draws on untapped primary resources, including thousands of records from the Freedmen's Bureau and newspapers, to continue the story and reveal the challenges African Americans faced from former Confederates after the war. He traces their actions, which were shaped uniquely by the volatility of the struggle in this region, to ensure that the war's emancipationist legacy would survive.

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9780813066868

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Reviews

A needed addition to the scholarship, centering African Americans within [a] narrative that typically marginalizes them. . . . Helps create a more accurate and inclusive picture of this era. --H-Net A solidly researched and well-written addition to the literature concerning slavery and the Civil War and furthers the effort to make more widely known a number of important aspects of the African American experience. --Journal of Southern History Rich with new details about a previously understudied region and will be of major use to scholars of slavery in Virginia, Black service in the Civil War, and emancipation. --North Carolina Historical Review

Author Information

Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of the McCormick Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University. He is the author or editor of several books, including Civil War Legacy in the Shenandoah: Remembrance, Reunion and Reconciliation.

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