Such a great read. I love learning about the complexities of the civil war and race relations. How did these men join the Confiderency, what were their roles, and were they just slaves that their Masters brought off to war? All things and more you learn from this book.

Debunking the myth of Black Confederates Fighting during the Civil War should be considered a crucially important piece of work. An important historical work.

I enjoyed reading this book. The author debunks the myth of Black Confederates Fighting during the Civil War. I liked reading the stories about the many soldiers and the slaves who followed them into battle. I was not familiar with the many ways the myth was expanded after the war I found the book easy to read and the author presented his thesis clearly. Historic photographs accompany the text. Enjoy

Incredible. As a historian who works at an antebellum plantation, this book is invaluable to me. So many people come through with these preconceived ideas of slavery and the Confederacy, and I'm so excited to be able to have a book like this to point people toward when they want to argue. Kevin M. Levin writes with a wonderful sense of clarity that gets his factual points across without being boring, which can sometimes be a more common than not occurrence with writers who are also historians. This is just an excellent book all the way through, and I highly recommend it.

Really nice, readable and interesting treatment of a topic that is controversial and oftentimes ignored by historians.

I have come to the conclusion that a little history in the wrong hands is a very dangerous thing. That is no more true than in the myth of the Black Confederate Soldier. In Searching for Black Conefderates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth, author and historian Kevin M Levin debunks this myth using both secondary and contemporaneous sources. As Levin shows, this myth actually began in the 1970s in response to the gains of the Civil Rights movement. It was part of the attempt to 'deracialize' the Civil War to 'prove' that the war was not fought over slavery but states rights. As the myth developed, it entered the education system so that it became widely disseminated 'history'. Levin looks at all the 'evidence' used to back up its claims, some of them direct and deliberate falsehoods but some, like a photograph of a Black man in a Confederate uniform standing behind a sitting white man, are, as he shows, misunderstanding of what the picture signifies.

In Searching for Black Confederates, Levin shows how small bits of history taken out of context can become dangerous 'truths' especially in a world where the Internet functions on memes and one can easily find any 'facts' to back up biases. This is particularly dangerous when it is used, as in the case of the myth of the Black Confederate, to dismiss the horrors of slavery, one of the worst human rights violations ever committed. It is well-researched and well-documented and, unlike too many history books, interesting and accessible and I recommend it highly.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and University of North Carolina Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

I have to admit, until I read the title of this book, I never would have thought about the idea that there were African Americans serving in the Confederate Army. It is a very interesting concept, and that made the book a very interesting read. The readers learn a great deal about life in the south, the reasons why they wanted to leave the Union, and the relationships between masters and slaves. The biggest criticism that I would have about this book, is that when the author gives explanations about blacks being in the confederate army, it reads like it is repeating itself over and over again like a broken record. Aside from that, It is a very interesting read and my library will more than likely be buying this book. I would give this book a four out of five stars.

This was a captivating read; not only was it well researched, it was wonderfully written.

Through the work, Levin thoroughly refutes the idea that swathes of black men volunteered to fight in the Civil War as Confederate soldiers. It's concerning that this myth is still perpetuated with such furore, but then again, White Supremacy has never gone out of fashion in America.

***I was granted an ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***

The book, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth by Kevin Levin, challenges the myth that large numbers of African Americans served in the Confederate army and charts the myth’s development to the present day. Levin explains that for most of the Civil War, the Confederacy refused to allow black slaves to become soldiers in the army. It wasn’t until a couple a month before its defeat, when it was in dire straits, that the Confederate government allowed for black men to join their armies. Since their defeat, many in the south, including groups like the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy, have used the idea of enslaved blacks fighting as soldiers under the Confederate flag to back their Lost Cause narrative and divorce racism and white supremacy from the Confederate cause. This narrative made its way into textbooks, museums and even into National Parks until being challenged and put into context in current times. Levin does a great job of pointing out the errors in the way Lost Cause proponents use historical evidence to back their claims. From the mischaracterization of the black camp servants as soldiers, so-called photographic evidence of black Confederate soldiers, pension papers and narratives created after the war, Levin puts everything into its proper historical narrative allowing the reader to see how over time the truth became distorted. This is a great analysis of Black Confederate soldier narrative and will be an interesting read for anyone interested in the Civil War and its influence on American culture.

Rating: 4 stars. Would recommend to a friend.

The topic of the Confederacy is still a very popular one in public libraries. Other than WWII, anything attending to the War Between the States gets high circulation. This book, by Kevin Levin, is recommended for public and academic libraries to add to their collection of information. The scholarship is very detailed, and the book is very readable. Although it is not a "non-fiction title that reads like fiction," Searching for Black Confederates flows well and brings the reader from the Civil War to the present day on whether enslaved people also functioned as soldiers in the Confederate army.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley

This book is very well-researched and an important read for our current historical moment. This books adds to our ongoing knowledge about the Civil War and how to best interpret that history.

This is an incredibly fascinating and informative read on a vital, and sadly sensitive, subject. The author did an amazing job debunking the myth of the black Confederate soldiers. Making his case in a very well written, structured way and presenting the facts in an objective and impartial manner. Slaves were not free to make their own choices, duh… and the Southern states (at that time) regarded them as property not people and would never have wanted to elevate them to the rank of soldier, which would have implied they were equal to white men.
I was pleased by the richness of historical details and context provided by the author’s meticulous and in-depth research, conscientiously referencing the many quotations throughout the book. In the foreword, he also makes a very good case for the necessity of having this book out there in this day and age of fake news & the internet, as well as the rising tide, unfortunately, of (aggressive) white supremacy. The author brilliantly demonstrates how important academic research is in the fight against fake news as a way to ignore all the pesky little facts that don’t fit into some people’s narrative or worldview.
It’s sad, scary, and incomprehensible, that so many people today still feel the need to revere and defend the former slave-owning Southern states. Why not take responsibility and preserve this history as a warning and lesson, instead of trying to glorify it?
I have learned so much reading this book. Very much a necessary read.

I am not completely convinced of the narrative of this title. It has a strong bias in the writing. Well be doing more research to see if any accuracy to the author's claims.

Levin provides some compelling arguments. I disagree with some of his assertions in the introduction.. I also think he extrapolates too much in some of the chapters and veers off the subject. Overall, readers will find value in his debunking of the black soldier of the south myth.

I would really like to review this book, as it looks like a very interesting one as well as one that my library would purchase. However, the PDF download did not work.

Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth by Kevin M. Levin

Over the last few years I’ve made it a point to read more nonfiction books focused on slavery and the Civil War. It was while reading those books that I came across this idea of Black people fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. It was presented in a way that showed it to obviously be false but I was still unsettled by the notion that this was something that people were fighting vehemently to prove. But then I had to consider the Lost Cause and how that is defended and broadcasted throughout many places in the South. I wanted to read this book because it focused on this very specific aspect of the Civil War. I was not at all disappointed in the way Levin dismantled all of the different images, testimonies, iconography and documents used as evidence that Black people fought on the side of the Confederacy. What Levin presents in this book is a logical, educated and well researched look at what actually took place behind Confederate lines. He discusses the use as slaves and free Black people as laborers in the camp. It discusses how some of those slaves ran, while others for their own reasons decided to stay instead of fleeing across battle lines. He also discusses how some of those camp servants applied for pensions later on in their lives and many were denied because the pensions only existed for soldiers. Those who were granted pensions had to provide the name of the master they served, and the unit the master was attached to. Levin also stresses the point that it wasn’t even legal for Black people to serve in the Confederate Army until March of 1865. A month before the war ended.

What we can’t do when we look at topics like the Civil War, the Lost Cause and the idea of Black Confederates is narrow that lens down to just what happened in the past, because so much of the changing narrative has to do with the change in the political landscape. I’m glad that Levin made it a point to address how the changing political landscape, and the use of technology, magnified certain aspects of this narrative. He addresses the fact that many Civil War monuments were built during the Civil Rights movement in the 1970s. He addressed how the internet has helped spread the misinformation and lies spread, whether it’s a doctored photo or an obviously false tale of a Black soldier.

Highly recommending this book. Levin presents the facts in such a way that it’s ridiculous to deny the actual history. What always bothers me about how history is being reimagined is that certain historical documents exist that make it very clear what the South was fighting for and people can try and change that narrative to make themselves feel better but it will never change the fact that the articles of secession exist and if you ever really want to know what the Civil War was about, those documents make it very clear.

I found this an easy to read book on the history of the Black Confederate myth, and how more recent organizations have tried to twist the historical record for their own purposes. Pretty invaluable for having counterpoints ready should anyone bring up the argument that Blacks fought for the Confederacy.

title;

Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth


Author: Kevin M.Levin

Pages: 248 pages

Genre: Non fiction; History

September 9th 2019



More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, scores of websites, articles, and organizations repeat claims that anywhere between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans fought willingly as soldiers in the Confederate army. But as Kevin M. Levin argues in this carefully researched book, such claims would have shocked anyone who served in the army during the war itself. Levin explains that imprecise contemporary accounts, poorly understood primary-source material, and other misrepresentations helped fuel the rise of the black Confederate myth. Moreover, Levin shows that belief in the existence of black Confederate soldiers largely originated in the 1970s, a period that witnessed both a significant shift in how Americans remembered the Civil War and a rising backlash against African Americans' gains in civil rights and other realms.

Levin also investigates the roles that African Americans actually performed in the Confederate army, including personal body servants and forced laborers. He demonstrates that regardless of the dangers these men faced in camp, on the march, and on the battlefield, their legal status remained unchanged. Even long after the guns fell silent, Confederate veterans and other writers remembered these men as former slaves and not as soldiers, an important reminder that how the war is remembered often runs counter to history



My thoughts

Rating: 4

Would I recommend it? yes

Will I read anything else by this author? maybe

Will I love history there was time I was a little confused about what the author was talking about , which means I had to go back and re read it , but I did learn some more about the the Civil War and how they treated their fellow men, like I said before there was times I was a little confused but that could have been on me. Still in all it was very good and the author brought to life the people he was talking about as well as that time period, with that said I want to say thank you to Netgalley for letting me read and review it exchange for my honest opinion .