Pride and Prejudice in the American Civil War

The image of the American Civil War as a ‘white man’s fight’ became the national norm almost as soon as the last shot was fired. Susan-Mary Grant looks at the experience and legacy of the conflict for black Americans.

Restored plaster cast of the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

...You can say of the colored man, we too have borne our share of the burden. We too have suffered and died in defence of that starry banner which floats only over free men... I feel assured that the name of the colored soldier will stand out in bold relief among the heroes of this war...
(Henry S. Harmon, 3rd United States Colored Infantry, October 1863)

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