Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War (Publications of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project)

A handsome new edition of an essential work by the groundbreaking historian of African American life in the nineteenth century

Free at Last brings together some of the most remarkable correspondence ever written by Americans. These letters, personal testimonies, official transcripts, and other records convey the struggle of black men and women to overthrow the slave system, to aid the Union cause, and to give meaning to their newly won freedom in a war-torn nation. Drawn from the landmark reference volumes of Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, this "work of deep significance for all Americans" (The Washington Post Book World ) offers a unique way of understanding emancipation.