participation, african american

Examines the history of African-Americans during the Civil War, discussing significant people and events and including photographs, sidebars, a timeline, a related activity, and a further reading list.

Recounts the experiences of the slaves who answered Lord Dunmore's 1775 promise that any slave who left his master and fought for the British would have their freedom.

A biography of Robert Smalls who, during the Civil War, commandeered the Confederate ship Planter to carry his family and twelve other slaves to freedom, and went on to become a United States Congressman working toward African-American advancement.

Paying Freedom's Price provides a comprehensive yet brief and readable history of the role of African Americans?both slave and free?from the decade leading up to the Civil War until its immediate aftermath. Rather than focusing on black military service, the white-led abolitionist movement, or Lincoln?s emergence as the great emancipator, Escott concentrates on the black military and civilian experience in the North as well as the South.

Soon after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, abolitionists began to call for the creation of black regiments. At first, the South and most of the North responded with outrage?southerners promised to execute any black soldiers captured in battle, while many northerners claimed that blacks lacked the necessary courage. Meanwhile, Massachusetts, long the center of abolitionist fervor, launched one of the greatest experiments in American history.

On Independence Day, 1861, the schooner S.J. Waring set sail from New York on a routine voyage to South America. Seventeen days later the schooner limped back into New York's harbor with the ship's Black steward, William Tillman, at the helm. The Waring had been overtaken by a marauding crew of Confederate privateers. The white sailors got along well with their Southern captors, but free Black man William Tillman was very aware of the fate that awaited him in the slave markets of the South. Nine days after capture, Tillman killed three officers of the privateer crew and took the ship's wheel and pointed it back to New York. He had no experience as a navigator, only one other helper, and the Atlantic sea to contend with. After five perilous days at sea, the Waring was home and Tillman was recognized as a hero for not only getting the best of the Confederate crew, but for saving the ship and its contents for the Waring's owners.

Briefly presents, in graphic novel format, the story of the African American soldiers in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

Introduces the life of Crispus Attucks, an African-American sailor and rope maker who became one of the first to die for independence at the Boston Massacre in 1770, and discusses the roles of other African American patriots during the American Revolution.

Introduces the life of Crispus Attucks, an African-American sailor and rope maker who became one of the first to die for independence at the Boston Massacre in 1770, and discusses the roles of other African American patriots during the American Revolution.