Freedmen & Southern Society Project

FAIN: RQ-260842-18

University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD 20742-5141)
Leslie S. Rowland (Project Director: December 2017 to October 2025)

Completion of editorial work on volume 8 and start of work on volume 9 of the nine-volume series, Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867. (36 months)

The Freedmen and Southern Society Project is editing Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, a nine-volume documentary history of the transition from slavery to freedom in the U.S. South. The edition documents a critical juncture in American history: the moment four million slaves gained their freedom. It constitutes a social history in the words of emancipated slaves and their contemporaries. Seven volumes will be in print by the beginning of the proposed grant period, and work on the eighth will be nearing completion. Each volume of Freedom is between 800 and 1,100 pages, twice the size of the volumes in most editions. The editors have published four additional volumes for general audiences and use in the classroom, as well as article-length collections of documents. The project's website provides both documents and interpretive material.