In Print: Freedom Soldiers
Publication Title
Freedom Soldiers: The Emancipation of Black Soldiers in Civil War Camps, Courts, and Prisons
Author
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication Date
October 2024
About the Book (from the publisher)
Almost 200,000 African Americans fought to save the Union, many believing that military service was the pathway to freedom. Yet, even after enlisting, their journeys for liberation continued amid the bloody civil war. They marched across taxing terrain, performed backbreaking labor, and endured corporeal punishment meted out by white officers. They also agonized over families still enslaved and suffered virulent diseases. Many grew disillusioned, disgruntled, or homesick. They fought on bravely, yet thousands also ran. Chafing against restraints and violence reminiscent of slavery, they briefly liberated themselves from onerous army discipline.
The men examined in Freedom Soldiers took self-granted breaks—"leaves of freedom"—and, once caught, were tried by the US Army for the military crime of "desertion." In the courts-martial, they justified their unauthorized departures by telling authorities that they left to temporarily help their families, regain their health, and evade violent officers. Army judges nevertheless convicted freedom seekers, sending most to military prisons. From prisons, the convicted deserters wrote petitions to President Abraham Lincoln and Union officials requesting release. These prisoners disputed rulings, offered their continued service to the Union, insisted on the injustice of incarceration, and explained the dire need of kin around the wartime South.
Drawing upon transcripts of the nearly 80,000 Civil War courts-martial cases, as well as prisoners' petitions, soldiers' letters, and government reports, Jonathan Lande recovers this subset of soldiers who took leaves of freedom and defended their breaks within the military justice system. In doing so, he reveals how Black men fought for freedom not only against Confederates but also in US Army camps, courts, and prisons.
About the Author
Jonathan Lande earned his PhD at Brown University (2018). Before joining Purdue, he was the Brown University-Tougaloo College Exchange Faculty Fellow (2017-2018) and the Schwartz Postdoctoral Fellow at New-York Historical Society and the New School (2018-2019).
Lande is the recipient of the Allan Nevins Dissertation Prize (Society of American Historians), the Cromwell Dissertation Prize (American Society for Legal History), the Du Bois-Wells Paper Prize (African American Intellectual History Society), and the William F. Holmes Paper Prize (Southern Historical Association). He also received the award for Excellence in Discovery and Creative Endeavors from the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University (2024) and Brown University’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching (2018), an award he was nominated for by students from Brown and Tougaloo.
Lande has published articles in the Journal of American History, Journal of Social History, Journal of African American History, Journal of American Ethnic History, Civil War History, and The Washington Post. He has been a research fellow at, among other institutions, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Huntington Library, Harvard University, and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition of Yale University.
Lande has delivered papers on his research at meetings of organizations including the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, and the Southern Historical Association. C-SPAN aired his talk on formerly enslaved men who deserted the US Army. It can be viewed here.
Lande is accepting graduate students interested in delving into the Civil War era and African American history throughout the nineteenth century.