ABSTRACT
The inability of postwar Reconstruction to secure African American civil rights, indeed survival, in more than a theoretical sense meant that the long, hard struggle for practical liberty and equal citizenship had only just begun. Representing the war and its aftermath posed a challenge for any American writer, but more so for African American authors, whose efforts to record their experience faithfully ran into social and institutional resistance on all sides. African American troops saw significant action during the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, during the late spring and summer of 1863. Building on the momentum of the Emancipation Proclamation, Massachusetts Governor John Andrew in March 1863 authorized the formation of the state’s first African American regiment, the 54th Volunteer Infantry, and abolitionists cheered the move as a defining moment in the war.
