Southern Negroes, 1861-1865 (review)

Book Reviews215 by Washington authorities andconsiderable harsh criticisms from the press which combined to postpone construction. Subsequendy, great controversy surrounded the bureau. As his final comment in the book, Mr. Bentiey criticizes the bureau for rushing the Negro into economical, social, and political advancement and thus increasing the prejudices of southern white people. This is certainly a valid comment from a personwho obviouslyknows whathe is talking about, but whatever setbackthe bureau caused, its influence upon America's social, economic and political life is still commendable. One wonders if the bureau, were it stiU in existence, could handle some of the racial problems which are causing so much worry, confusion, and strife in America today. William F. Donaldson Iowa City, Iowa. Southern Negroes, 1861-1865. By BeU Wiley. (Yale Historical pubhcations , Miscellany, Vol. XXXI. Reissued, New York: Rinehart and Company , 1953. Pp. x, 298. $5.00.) bell irvin wiley, now at Emory University in Georgia, wrote much of the material contained in this volume when he was a graduate student, and the book was first published nearly twenty years ago. This second pubUcation has, aside from the customary changes which usually mark a second issue, a special preface —an interesting account of Wiley's view of his own work via his later perspective. The following statement is contained in the preface. "I hope to be pardoned a sense of satisfaction, mingled with surprise, in finding that. . .most of the facts and interpretations of the book have thus far survived the test of time." One of the finest things about Southern Negroes is its obvious ability to pass time's test, for the success of this book is undoubtedly due to the authoritative and near-intimate aspects of the highly detailed material. The sources are innumerable. The book not only deals with Southern Negroes: it treats individual Southern Negroes. The slaves who were ignorant of the War until it reached their plantation, the slaves who revolted violendy, strong field hands who were hired as servants for the miUtary and could not hold weapons themselves, Negro men and women enjoying frenzied religious practices , a Negress leaving her "impoverished security" to enoy the freedom she did not understand—these are neither historical statistics nor generalized groups. They are specificpeople who were about to be thrown into a world and a state of freedom for which they were totaUy unprepared. Southern Negroes, of course, confines its study to the Civil War years, and there is much emphasis placed on the gradual changes slaves underwent. Of special interest is the education of Negroes under Federal control, which had its beginnings duringthewar. The teachers ofthe Negroes were usuaUypaid by private organizations; the government supplied food and transportation. General Butler, prominent in most Civil War matters, was highly instrumental in promot- 216CIVIL war history ing the education of the freedman, as were General W. T. Sherman, Reverend Horace James, and Lieutenant W. B. Stickney. There are a fewtimes in this bookwhenWiley's approach tothe material seems to be perhaps too academic for so provocative and unexplored a topic. Yet, the author's insistence upon detail and his outstanding abih'ty for organization are points too great to be detracted by the comparatively minor flaw of occasional wordiness. William F. Donaldson Iowa City, Iowa. Congress and the Civil War. By Edward Boyldn. (New York: The McBride Company. 1955. Pp.352. $5.00.) the first reaction t? this book is that its tide is somewhat misleading, since only some forty-one pages (pages 264 through 305) actually treat the Congress in die Civil War period. The bulk of the book discusses the pre-Civil War and post-Civil War activities of that legislative body. Edward Boyldn, nevertheless, has managed to teU a fuU and able story of the turbulent years starting with the TaUmadge Amendment (providing that aU children of slaves in the newly organized state of Missouri "shaU be declared free at the age of 25 years") of 1819 and concluding with the acquital of Andrew Johnson, in 1868. In Mr. Boykin's opinion it was this Amendment, Uttle known to most students, which stirred up feelings that were to be kept ahve for the foUowing forty-two years...