The Last Hour of the Slaveholders’ Rebellion
The Last Hour of the Slaveholders’ Rebellion
African American Discourse on Lee’s Surrender
The essay elucidates how that belief took shape in the moment of Union victory, and the myriad ways it found expression in the postwar era. Varon demonstrates that the enshrinement of Appomattox as a “freedom day” rested on three interconnected claims: that the Union army’s victory over Lee dramatized the manly heroism and agency of African American soldiers; that the surrender brought many slaves their first consciousness and experience of liberation; and that the magnanimous terms of surrender which Grant offered Lee symbolized the promise of racial reconciliation between whites and blacks. Lee’s surrender figured as a prominent symbol in the bitter and protracted debates over race, reconstruction and reunion.
Keywords: United States Colored Troops, Appomattox Campaign, Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Civil War Memory
North Carolina Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
