Donald Yacovone – författare

George E. Stephens, the mostimportant African-American war correspondent of his era, served in thefamed black Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, subject of the film Glory.His letters from the front, published in the New York Weekly Anglo-African,brilliantly detail two wars: one against the Confederacy and one againstthe brutal, debilitating racism within his own Union Army. Together withDonald Yacovone's biographical introduction detailing Stephens's lifeand times, they provide a singular perspective on the greatest crisisin the history of the United States.Stephens chronicled the African-Americanquest for freedom in reports from southern Maryland and eastern Virginiain 1861 and 1862 that detailed, among other issues of the day, the Armyof the Potomac's initial encounter with slavery, the heroism of fugitiveslaves, and the brutality both Southerners and Union troops inflictedon them.From the inception of theFifty-fourth early in 1863 Stephens was the unit's voice, telling of itsstruggle against slavery and its quest to win the pay it had been promised.His description of the July 18, 1863, assault on Battery Wagner near Charleston,South Carolina, and his writings on the unit's eighteen-month campaignto be paid as much as white troops are gripping accounts of continuedheroism in the face of persistent insult.The Weekly Anglo-Africanwas the preeminent African-American newspaper of its time. Stephens'scorrespondence, intimate and authoritative, takes in an expansive arrayof issues and anticipates nearly all modern assessments of the black rolein the Civil War. His commentary on the Lincoln administration's wartimepolicy and his conviction that the issues of race and slavery were centralto nineteenth-century American life mark him as a major American socialcritic.

Generations of Americans have debated the meaning of Abraham Lincoln's views on race and slavery. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation and supported a constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery, yet he also harbored grave doubts about the intellectual capacity of African Americans, publicly used the n-word until at least 1862, and favored permanent racial segregation. In this book--the first complete collection of Lincoln's important writings on both race and slavery--readers can explore these contradictions through Lincoln's own words. Acclaimed Harvard scholar and documentary filmmaker Henry Louis Gates, Jr., presents the full range of Lincoln's views, gathered from his private letters, speeches, official documents, and even race jokes, arranged chronologically from the late 1830s to the 1860s. Complete with definitive texts, rich historical notes, and an original introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., this book charts the progress of a war within Lincoln himself.We witness his struggles with conflicting aims and ideas--a hatred of slavery and a belief in the political equality of all men, but also anti-black prejudices and a determination to preserve the Union even at the cost of preserving slavery. We also watch the evolution of his racial views, especially in reaction to the heroic fighting of black Union troops. At turns inspiring and disturbing, Lincoln on Race and Slavery is indispensable for understanding what Lincoln's views meant for his generation--and what they mean for our own.