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Black
Voices from Reconstruction, 1865-1877 by John David
Smith The facts of the Reconstruction period are well known, but never before have the people who lived through it told the story in their own words. John David Smith has uncovered a vast array of original documents that record the feelings, ideas, frustrations, and aspirations of the newly freed black people of the South. Smith’s narrative, and the period drawings and photographs that accompany it, bring to life the voices of the black men and women of Reconstruction--voices that resound even today. John David Smith is
Graduate Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at
North Carolina State University. He has written or edited
six books and published over 50 scholarly articles on
slavery, the Civil War, and race relations in the United
States. 1998. 192 pp. 6 X 9. 15 b&w illustrations, notes, references, index. ISBN 0-8130-1576-6 Paper, $14.95
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"A vast array of original documents that record the feelings, ideas, frustrations and aspirations of the new freedmen. . . . [C]an serve as a supplement to the usual narratives and interpretations of Reconstruction."--
Civil War Courier "Smith has done something useful to remedy the study of 'the dark and bloody ground' at any level, collected original documents from the period and organized them under ten headings of social history. He edits without getting in the way of the voices, and uncovers the impassioned voices calling for land, for schools, for roads, for autonomous families, for the vote, for offices, for the things vouchsafed the waves of newly arriving immigrants in the same day. . . . This book should be bought and used in classes by historians, sociologists, and political scientists." -- International Social Science Review "A valuable and compelling volume. I am impressed by the range of documents gathered by the author and his familiarity with details of the era’s history."-- Eric Foner, past president, Organization of American Historians "A remarkable book, bringing together for the first time a sensitive, sensible, but also sometimes searing collection of first-person accounts from Reconstruction, neatly knit together by Smith's own lucid narrative and intelligent arrangement."-- Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph’s University
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