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Read the Preface
and Introduction to John Washington's Civil War (24
pages, 939KB)
In 1872, just seven years after his emancipation, a thirty-four-year-old
former slave named John Washington penned the story of his
life, calling it "Memorys of the Past." One hundred and twenty
years later, in the early 1990s, historian Crandall Shifflett
stumbled upon Washington's forgotten manuscript at the Library
of Congress while researching Civil War Fredericksburg. Over
the ensuing decade, Shifflett sought to learn more about this
Virginia slave and the people and events he so vividly portrays.
John Washington's Civil War presents this remarkable
slave narrative in its entirety, together with Shifflett's
detailed annotations on the life-changing events Washington
records.
While joining the canon of better-known slave narratives
by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Solomon Northup,
Washington's account illuminates a far different world. The
son of a slave woman and an unknown white man, Washington
never lived outside the seventy-five-mile radius that included
Richmond and Fredericksburg, until his emancipation. His narrative
spans his experiences as a household slave, a laborer in the
Fredericksburg tobacco factory, and a hotel servant on the
eve of the Civil War. He also tells of his bold venture across
Union lines and his experiences as a slave under Union officers.
Washington's recollections allow for a singular look at the
more personal aspects of slave life. Forced attendance at
the slaveowner's church, much-anticipated gatherings of neighboring
slaves at harvesttime, even a brief episode of courtship among
slaves are among the events described in this remarkable narrative.
On a broader scale, Washington was a witness to key moments
of the Civil War, and his chronicle includes his thoughts
about the wider political turmoil surrounding him, including
his dramatic account of watching the Union Army mass around
Fredericksburg as it prepared to invade the town. An excellent
introduction and expert annotations by Shifflett reconstruct
Washington's life through his death in 1918 and provide informative
historical background and context to Washington's recollections.
An unprecedented window into the life of a Virginia bondsman,
John Washington's Civil War communicates with real
urgency what it meant to be a slave during a period of extreme
crisis that sounded the notes of freedom for some and the
end of a way of life for others.
Crandall Shifflett is a professor of history
at Virginia Tech University. He is also the author of Patronage
and Poverty in the Tobacco South: Louisa County, Virginia,
1860–1900, Coal Towns: Life, Work, and Culture in Company
Towns of Southern Appalachia, 1880–1960, and Victorian
America, 1876 to 1913.
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