Author Interview--Jonathan Noyalas (Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley) Part 4

Hello H-CivWar readers,

today we continue our multipart video interview series with Jonathan Noyalas. Our focus today is on how Enslaved and Free People of Color experienced the war be that fearful of kidnapping by rebel forces or how African Americans were reluctant to support the United States.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Jonathan Noyalas via Zoom. We talked about his new book Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, which was released by the University Press of Florida. The interview is broken up so that you can easily use the material in class.

Jonathan Noyalas is a graduate of Virginia Tech and Director of the McCormick Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University. He is the author or editor of eleven books on the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley. He has written over a hundred articles in both scholarly and popular publications. 

These videos are also available on this Playlist

We start today with a question related to the kidnapping of free people of color by Confederate forces:

Based on this dilemma, we turn to how an occupation army can win the hearts and minds of people:

We shift to the USCT and the difficulty of finding recruits in the Shenandoah Valley:

And we close today with a look at Sheridan, his military endeavors in the Valley, and the interaction with Enslaved people: