Booknotes: Navigating Liberty

New Arrival:
• Navigating Liberty: Black Refugees and Antislavery Reformers in the Civil War South by John Cimprich (LSU Press, 2023).

At this point, a fairly expansive body of literature is available to those wishing to learn more about the black refugee camps that sprung up all across the occupied South as well as the activities of the many reform-minded northerners (both women and men) who went to those places to improve conditions and assist in the transition from slavery to freedom. As John Cimprich demonstrates in his new book Navigating Liberty: Black Refugees and Antislavery Reformers in the Civil War South, the dynamic that developed between the two groups was far more complex and contentious than help offered and help accepted.

The process of emancipating millions of individuals amid wartime conditions was always going to be full of pitfalls, and Navigating Liberty shows how these difficult circumstances "presented new opportunities and spawned social movements for change yet produced intractable challenges and limited results."

As Cimprich's study reveals, "(t)he two groups brought views and practices from their backgrounds that both helped and hampered the transition out of slavery. While enslaved, many Blacks assumed a certain guarded demeanor when dealing with whites. In freedom, they resented northerners’ paternalistic attitudes and preconceptions about race, leading some to oppose aid programs―included those related to education, vocational training, and religious and social activities―initiated by whites. Some interactions resulted in constructive cooperation and adjustments to curriculum, but the frequent disputes more often compelled Blacks to seek additional autonomy." In its full-length examination of this relationship, Cimprich's book "serves as the first comprehensive study of the two groups’ collaboration and conflict, adding an essential chapter to the history of slavery’s end in the United States."