{"product_id":"voice-of-thunder","title":"Voice of Thunder","description":"      George E. Stephens, the most\u003cbr\u003e         important African-American war correspondent of his era, served in the\u003cbr\u003e         famed black Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, subject of the film \u003ci\u003eGlory.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e         His letters from the front, published in the New York \u003ci\u003eWeekly Anglo-African,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e         brilliantly detail two wars: one against the Confederacy and one against\u003cbr\u003e         the brutal, debilitating racism within his own Union Army. Together with\u003cbr\u003e         Donald Yacovone's biographical introduction detailing Stephens's life\u003cbr\u003e         and times, they provide a singular perspective on the greatest crisis\u003cbr\u003e         in the history of the United States.\u003cbr\u003e       Stephens chronicled the African-American\u003cbr\u003e         quest for freedom in reports from southern Maryland and eastern Virginia\u003cbr\u003e         in 1861 and 1862 that detailed, among other issues of the day, the Army\u003cbr\u003e         of the Potomac's initial encounter with slavery, the heroism of fugitive\u003cbr\u003e         slaves, and the brutality both Southerners and Union troops inflicted\u003cbr\u003e         on them.\u003cbr\u003e       From the inception of the\u003cbr\u003e         Fifty-fourth early in 1863 Stephens was the unit's voice, telling of its\u003cbr\u003e         struggle against slavery and its quest to win the pay it had been promised.\u003cbr\u003e         His description of the July 18, 1863, assault on Battery Wagner near Charleston,\u003cbr\u003e         South Carolina, and his writings on the unit's eighteen-month campaign\u003cbr\u003e         to be paid as much as white troops are gripping accounts of continued\u003cbr\u003e         heroism in the face of persistent insult.\u003cbr\u003e       The \u003ci\u003eWeekly Anglo-African\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e         was the preeminent African-American newspaper of its time. Stephens's\u003cbr\u003e         correspondence, intimate and authoritative, takes in an expansive array\u003cbr\u003e         of issues and anticipates nearly all modern assessments of the black role\u003cbr\u003e         in the Civil War. His commentary on the Lincoln administration's wartime\u003cbr\u003e         policy and his conviction that the issues of race and slavery were central\u003cbr\u003e         to nineteenth-century American life mark him as a major American social\u003cbr\u003e         critic.\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"University of Illinois Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54258687967576,"sku":"9780252067907","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/voice-of-thunder","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}