A Year in the South

Written by Stephen V. Ash

Four ordinary Southerners live through the year the Civil War ended.

4.0 Goodreads · 327 ratings

289 pages

$26.95Save 7%

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Bookroo's summary

A history of 1865 in the American South told through four ordinary people: an enslaved man determined to gain his freedom, a widow struggling against poverty, a planter's son and minister wrestling with faith and loss, and a former Confederate soldier looking for a new life. Drawing on their letters and diaries, the book follows them month by month as war, slavery and disunion give way to peace, emancipation and Reconstruction.

From the publisher

"A Year in the South" is about four ordinary people in an extraordinary time. They lived in the South during 1865 -- a year that saw war, disunion, and slavery give way to peace, reconstruction, and emancipation. One was a slave determined to gain freedom, one a widow battling poverty and despair, one a man of God and planter's son grappling with spiritual and worldly troubles, and one a former Confederate soldier seeking a new life. Between January and December 1865 they witnessed, from very different vantage points, the death of the Old South and the birth of the New South. Civil War historian Stephen V. Ash reconstructs their daily lives, their fears and hopes, and their frustrations and triumphs in vivid detail, telling a dramatic story of real people in a time of great upheaval and offering a fresh perspective on a pivotal moment in history.

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