Unforgettable Sacrifice
How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War
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Rediscover the Civil War through the voices that refused to be silenced
Unforgettable Sacrifice offers a groundbreaking exploration into the heart of African American memory of the Civil War, challenging conventional narratives and revealing a rich history preserved through oral traditions and communal efforts. Through extensive archival research and stories shared on the porches of African American families, Hilary Green provides a detailed examination of how diverse Black communities across the United States have actively preserved and contested the memory of the Civil War, from the nineteenth century to the present.
By rejecting the reduction of their experiences to mere footnotes in history, African Americans have established a vibrant commemorative culture that respects the complexity of their ancestors’ sacrifices and struggles. From the rural landscapes of Black Pennsylvanians to the heart of emancipated communities in the South, Green connects the narratives of those who not only fought on battlefields but also in the realms of memory and heritage, ensuring their stories of resilience, courage, and patriotism are remembered.
Unforgettable Sacrifice brings to light the untold stories of ordinary African Americans who took extraordinary steps in remembrance and resistance. By refusing to accept diluted narratives and lies, they have ensured the legacy of the Civil War includes the end of slavery, the valor of Black soldiers and civilians, and the ongoing struggle for democracy and full citizenship.
This book is a testament to the enduring power of memory and the steadfast spirit of the African American community. It is an indispensable addition to the libraries of scholars, general readers, and descendant communities alike, offering new perspectives on the lasting impact of the Civil War on American identity and the persistent pursuit of justice and equality.
Unforgettable Sacrifice is a monumental book. Why? Because historians of Civil War memory have yet to offer a full examination of what the Civil War meant to African Americans. That is, until now. Hilary N. Green brings the reader into the post-Civil War lives of Black men and women who actively commemorated the history of that war, and honored the heroism of the men who volunteered to become soldiers in the United States Army to help defeat the Confederacy and make possible the freedom of four million lives. She arrives at this history by tapping into sources outside of the traditional archive—songs, poems, and the memories shared on porches both North and South, including those of her family. Unforgettable Sacrifice is more than a story of war and memory, however. It’s about the meaning of citizenship, and the sacrifices Black Americans made and continue to make to be full participants in our democracy.---Karen L. Cox, author of No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice
Green’s research is impressive for both its breadth and depth. . . But perhaps more striking is her engaging writing and her daring willingness to explore outside the box and think about new methodologies, examine non-traditional sources, and blaze fresh approaches to this important topic.---Emerging Civil War Blog
Hilary N. Green is the James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College. A distinguished scholar, her research explores the intersections of race, memory, and education in the post–Civil War American South. She is the author of Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865–1890, co-author of the NPS-OAH Historic Resource Study of African American Schools in the South, 1865–1900, and co-editor of The Civil War and the Summer of 2020 (Fordham).
Edda L. Fields-Black (Foreword By)
Edda L. Fields-Black is a Professor in the Department of History and Director of the Dietrich College Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University. Her latest book, COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War (2024) uses US Civil War Pension Files to tell the story of the Combahee River Raid, when in June 1863 Harriet Tubman, her ring of spies, scouts, and pilots piloted Colonel James Montgomery, the 2nd SC Volunteers, and one battery of the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery up the Combahee River to raid seven rice plantations and bring liberation to 756 enslaved people, through the words and using the voices of the Combahee freedom seekers who self-liberated in the raid. One of Fields-Black's many specialties is identifying new sources and methods to recover the voices of historical actors (particularly peasant rice farmers in early and pre-colonial West Africa's Upper Guinea Coast and Blacks forced to labor on rice plantations in the antebellum South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry) who did not author their own written sources.
Note on Language and Sources | xi
Foreword by Edda L. Fields-Black | xiii
Porches: An Introduction | 1
Part I: Porches of My Mother’s Kinkeepers
1 Remembering the Enslavement of Black Pennsylvanians | 17
2 Honoring Liberators and the Grand Reception in Harrisburg, 1865 | 37
3 Joseph Winters’s Songs for Self-Made Men | 62
4 Cumberland Valley Veterans and the Grand Army of the Republic | 89
Porch Lessons I: Rebel, Father, and Veteran | 111
Part II: Porches of My Adopted Kinkeepers
5 The Limits of Emancipationist Memory in Richmond | 121
6 Black Women and the Persistence ofMemory | 145
Porch Lessons II: More Than Names on a Page | 173
Part III Porches of My Father’s Kinkeepers
Porch Lessons III: The Other Syllabus | 187
7 Delayed Honor in the Charleston Lowcountry | 199
8 “More Than a Footnote” during the Sesquicentennial | 221
Toward Black Civil War Memory Studies: A Conclusion | 244
Locating Neal, Crawford, and Gabe: An Epilogue | 249
Acknowledgments | 259
Notes | 261
Bibliography | 343
Index | 375
Photographs follow page 200
