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In preparing this book it has not been the purpose of the author to write a complete historical sketch of the Michigan cavalry brigade. Such a history would require a volume as large for the record of each regiment; and, even then, it would fall short of doing justice to the patriotic services of that superb organization. The narrative contained in the following pages is a story of the personal recollections of one of the troopers who rode with Custer, and played a part-small it is true, but still a part-in the tragedy of the civil war.

Louis Manigault (1828-1899) was a member of a prominent and influential family of rice planters from South Carolina and Georgia. In 1833, his father, Charles Manigault (1795-1874), purchased Gowrie and East Hermitage plantations located on Argyle Island in the Savannah River, several miles upstream from the port of Savannah. Louis managed these properties for his father from the 1850s through the Civil War and Reconstruction.\n\nThe Manigault Plantation Journal, compiled by Louis Manigault between 1856 and 1879, includes information on plantation life, slaves and slavery, rice cultivation, market conditions, accounts, and other topics. Notes and memoranda kept by Charles Manigault regarding the plantations during the 1830s and 1840s were pasted into the journal.

From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. These former slaves, most born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War, provided first-hand accounts of their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms. Their narratives remain a peerless resource for understanding the lives of America's four million slaves. What makes the WPA narratives so rich is that they capture the very voices of American slavery, revealing the texture of life as it was experienced and remembered. Each narrative taken alone offers a fragmentary, microcosmic representation of slave life. Read together, they offer a sweeping composite view of slavery in North America, allowing us to explore some of the most compelling themes of nineteenth-century slavery, including labor, resistance and flight, family life, relations with masters, and religious belief.

This column previously addressed the importance of the 1870 U. S. census in African-American research. As noted in that article, this was the first federal census after the end of the Civil War, and therefore the first record group to record personal information about former slaves nationwide. It was not, however, the earliest record group to do so in many localities. Many similar record groups were created that provide information about former slaves between 1865 and 1870.

"World History : HyperHistory Online navigates through 3 000 years of World History with links to important persons of world historical importance; civilization timelines; events and facts; and historical maps"

The PBS program "American Experience" is a wonderful series of documentaries about the history of the United States. The series also has a remarkable online presence, often creating unique sites for each episode of the series.