Recent Acquisitions to My Library

In attempt to purge some seldom used titles in my library, I conducted a bit of a clean out last week. To help make the sweep, I found three outlets to dispose of about 80 or so books. Some went to a local Goodwill store, some to a used book store (they were rather picky on what they chose to accept), and some were offered as a donation to sell as used books in the gift store at work. Hopefully they find good new homes and benefit the selling organizations as well as the knowledge hungry buyers in some small way.

To help ease the pain of parting with some old friends, I acquired some new ones over the last month or so.

As I posted a couple of weeks back, I was recently able to visit Eppington Plantation with some colleagues from work. While there, my curiosity was piqued by the kin connections between the master families of the Eppes and Wayles, and the enslaved Hemings family. I'm looking forward to learning more about them all in this seemingly comprehensive study.

Civil War soldier studies are some of my favorite reads. This book appears to be a sort of Union-focused companion to J. Tracy Power's Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox, which came out in the late 1990s. I received this recently published volume in return for producing a book review on it. From what I've read so far, it will be a joy to read the book and write the review.

I read this book about a decade or so ago on an inter-library loan. I had searched for a copy that was reasonably affordable since then. Fortunately, I recently found one used on Amazon.com in good condition at a low cost and snatched it up. This work contains over 100 letters that African American soldiers wrote to black and abolitionist newspapers about different aspects of their service. Due to the lack of extant family kept letters by USCT soldiers, these missives inform us about black soldiers' Civil War service better than just about any other source. This volume is required reading for those interested in the USCT experience.

Another historical subject that I've always found fascinating is that of Southern honor. This book contains a wealth of intriguing essay titles on many different facets of that subject. I can hardly wait to dive into this work!

Building around the historical incident of the escaped enslaved Virginian Anthony Burns, and the attempt to rescue him from Southern rendition in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Law, the author seeks to show that there were diverse opinions on race relations in mid-nineteenth century Boston. Just as our society today is experiencing conflict and clashes over various ideas about tradition, law and order, and the need for progressive change, so too, did the people in the 1850s North.