First Fruits of Freedom

“An important contribution to a previously neglected topic.” — H-Civil War

“This study may serve as a window on the migration north of a specific group of freedmen and the degree to which they became integrated into a new community. . . . Highly recommended.” — CHOICE

“A magisterial narrative that tells an incredibly moving and often tragic story about Reconstruction.” — Projo.com

“A significant contribution. . . . A remarkable work of historical scholarship that tells an incredibly moving and often tragic human story. Greenwood’s methodology — uncovering the ties between Civil War units from Worcester County and Northern migration movements through the diligent mining of census records, military records, and city data — provides future historians with a model for uncovering additional migration networks throughout New England.” — New England Quarterly

“A valuable case study for American migration.” — Journal of Enterprise & Society

“This is a wonderfully human and humanized story. Not only does Greenwood achieve a holistic interweaving of usually separated stories, but she also brings characters to life in each segment and keeps them in focus over the course of decades. In North Carolina and then in Worcester, in war and then in peace, Greenwood peoples her story with those who embodied the freedom struggles of the second half of the nineteenth century. Her literary skill and human empathy bring us to know and care about her subjects.” — Sydney Nathans, Emeritus, Duke University

“Beautifully written, deeply researched, and humane, this book chronicles the struggles of ordinary black people in the South and the North during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Greenwood reveals the interconnections of missionaries, teachers, and Northern soldiers fighting in the South and in tracing black migration to Worcester reveals the persistence and transformation of southern social ties and identities in the post-Civil War North.” — Elizabeth Pleck, University of Illinois