Freedom's Crescent

John C. Rodrigue is the Lawrence and Theresa Salameno Professor in the Department of History at Stonehill College. His book Reconstruction in the Cane Fields (2001) received the Kemper and Leila Williams Prize from the Louisiana Historical Association. He is also a co-editor of one of the volumes of Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867. In 2016–2017, he served as the President of the Louisiana Historical Association.

• Introduction; Prologue; Life – and labor – on the Mississippi; Part I. From War for Union to Military Emancipation, 1860–1862: 1. 'An independent power'; 2. Of stampedes and free papers; 3. 'Broken eggs cannot be mended'; 4. 'The unsatisfactory prospect before them'; Part II. From Military Emancipation to State Abolition, 1863: 5. 'The return of the seceded states to this Union as slave states'; 6. 'Repugnant to the spirit of the age'; 7. 'The greatest question ever presented to practical statesmanship'; 8. 'The name of 'slavery''; 9. 'Repudiating the emancipation proclamation and reestablishing slavery'; Part III. Abolition: State and Federal, 1864: 10. 'Slavery is incompatible with a republican form of government'; 11. Of foul combinations and the common object; 12. 'The jewel of liberty'; 13. 'The virus of slavery is as virulent as it ever was'; 14. 'No longer slaves but freedmen'; 15. 'So long as a spark of vitality remains in the institution of slavery'; 16. 'Freedom, full, broad and unconditional'; 17. 'To resolve never again to be reduced to slavery'; Part IV. The Destruction of Slavery, 1865: 18. 'The tyrants rod has been broken'; 19. 'This cup of liberty'; 20. 'Establish things as they were before the war'; 21. 'The institution of slavery having been destroyed'; 22. 'Americans in America, one and indivisible'; Epilogue: Memphis and New Orleans: May 1–3, and July 30, 1866.

'Based on a fresh and masterful reading of sources, both old and new, John Rodrigue demonstrates that the process of emancipation and the abolition of slavery in four confederate states played a critical role in the downfall of the Confederacy. Filled with stories, unforgettable characters and a careful presentation of political events, Freedom's Crescent is an impressive and original contribution to the history of the civil war and slavery.' Louis A. Ferleger, author of Cultivating Success in the South: Farm Households in Postbellum Georgia