Freedom's Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Cambridge Studies on the American South

by John C. Rodrigue

"This book is written for both specialists and a general audience. It addresses interpretive questions that are important to specialists on emancipation and the Civil War; and for general readers it weaves into a coherent narrative the war's military history, political developments, and the "on-the-ground" destruction of slavery"--

Genres: Civil War

528 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2022

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

My modest reading about the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation has never included information or perspectives from the Lower Mississippi Valley – the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Therefore, I was enormously impressed when I read “Freedom’s Crescent” by John C. Rodrigue. This is a truly remarkable work that argued effectively that the emancipation of slaves went through four steps, and that it was necessary that the last step be taken for the enslaved people to really have the guarantees of freedom. The four steps were: (1) limited military emancipation which occurred when Northern forces liberated slaves in conquered territory; (2) universal military emancipation created by the Emancipation Proclamation; (3) state-level emancipation when three of those four states amended their state constitutions by 1865 to prohibit slavery; and (4) Federal emancipation effected by the Thirteenth Amendment.
This is a complex story, involving actions by each of the four states, the federal government, the military, individuals that pushed liberation and those that opposed it, and (not least) the enslaved people themselves. John C. Rodrigue effectively weaves these elements together to tell a compelling and complete narrative. I was not aware of the critical importance of the Thirteenth Amendment to the story of freedom, since there were significant forces in each of the four states that believed slavery could be reinstated. Rodrigue argues that the failure of Congress to pass reconstruction legislation simultaneously with the Thirteenth Amendment led to the tragedy of Andrew Johnson’s mismanagement of reconstruction.
The story told through the lens of the Lower Mississippi Valley was most illuminating and effective. I highly recommend this powerful and enlightening book.