Freedmen and Southern Society Project

FAIN: RQ-50667-12

University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD 20742-5141)
Leslie S. Rowland (Project Director: December 2011 to April 2017)

The preparation for publication of one volume of a documentary history of the transition from slavery to freedom in the U.S. South. (24 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. Six volumes have been completed, and preliminary selection of documents for the seventh will be complete by the beginning of the proposed grant period. Each volume of Freedom is between 800 and 1,100 pages long, 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 several article-length collections of documents. The project's web site provides both documents and interpretive material; it has been designated one of the best sites for humanities education.

Associated Products

Freedom, A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, Selected from the Holdings of the National Archives of the United States, Series 3: Volume 2, Land and Labor, 1866-1867 (Book)
Title: Freedom, A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, Selected from the Holdings of the National Archives of the United States, Series 3: Volume 2, Land and Labor, 1866-1867
Editor: Stephen A. West
Editor: René Hayden
Editor: Anthony E. Kaye
Editor: Kate Masur
Editor: Steven F. Miller
Editor: Susan E. O'Donovan
Editor: Leslie S. Rowland
Abstract: Land and Labor, 1866-1867 examines the remaking of the South's labor system in the tumultuous aftermath of emancipation. Using documents selected from the National Archives, this volume of Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation depicts the struggle of unenfranchised and impoverished ex-slaves to control their own labor, establish their families as viable economic units, and secure independent possession of land. Among the topics addressed are the dispossession of settlers in the Sherman reserve, the reordering of labor on plantation and farm, nonagricultural labor, new relations of credit and debt, long-distance labor migration, and the efforts of former slaves to rent, purchase, and homestead land. The documents--many of them in the freedpeople's own words--speak eloquently for themselves, while the editors' interpretive essays provide context and illuminate major themes.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-and-labor-1866-1867/oclc/828193669&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=3428
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9781469607429
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Prizes

Thomas Jefferson Prize
Date: 4/24/2015
Organization: Society fr History in the Federal Government
Abstract: The Jefferson Prize is awarded biannually to the editor(s) of a documentary history project that contributes significantly to our understanding of the history of the federal government.

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