HISTORY

Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War

by Hilary N. Green

Fordham Univ. Feb. 2025. 400p. ISBN 9781531508524. pap. $35. HIST

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Green (Africana studies, Davidson Coll.) offers an examination of how different communities worked to preserve and remember Black involvement with the Civil War, from a city in Pennsylvania where Black residents were kidnapped and forced into enslavement around the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, to organizations that strove to commemorate the contributions of Black soldiers and push against Lost Cause mythology, to the more recent efforts in Charleston, SC, to erect a monument commemorating and honoring those who endured enslavement, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. There are ample footnotes to guide readers down many paths of further inquiry, and Green also includes the “porch lessons,” or oral stories, handed down in her own family that connect to her broader narrative.

VERDICT Green offers a foundational understanding of Black Civil War memory and encourages readers to continue to ask questions and gather more stories before they are further lost to time, thus continuing to dispel misconceptions and misinterpretations. An excellent companion to Levin’s Searching for Black Confederates and Roberts and Kyrtle’s Denmark Vesey’s Garden.

Reviewed by Amanda Ray , Jan 01, 2025

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