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Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation
Harcourt
November 2007
On Sale: November 5, 2007
Featuring: WALLACE TURNAGE; John Washington
320 pages ISBN: 0151012326 EAN: 9780151012329 Hardcover
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Historical | Non-Fiction Biography
Slave narratives, some of the most powerful records of our
past, are extremely rare, with only fifty-five post–Civil
War narratives surviving. A mere handful are first-person
accounts by slaves who ran away and freed themselves. Now
two newly uncovered narratives, and the biographies of the
men who wrote them, join that exclusive group with the
publication of A Slave No More, a major new addition to the
canon of American history. Handed down through family and
friends, these narratives tell gripping stories of escape:
Through a combination of intelligence, daring, and sheer
luck, the men reached the protection of the occupying Union
troops. David W. Blight magnifies the drama and significance
by prefacing the narratives with each man’s life history.
Using a wealth of genealogical information, Blight has
reconstructed their childhoods as sons of white
slaveholders, their service as cooks and camp hands during
the Civil War, and their climb to black working-class
stability in the north, where they reunited their families. In the stories of Turnage and Washington, we find history at
its most intimate, portals that offer a rich new answer to
the question of how four million people moved from slavery
to freedom. In A Slave No More, the untold stories of two
ordinary men take their place at the heart of the American
experience.
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