Schooling the Freed People

“This work promises to long be a touchstone for scholars and students of post-Civil War black education, of Reconstruction broadly, and of blacks' transition to actual freedom.” — Library Journal

“[Butchart] poignantly portrays both the freedmen’s enthusiasm for learning and the intensity of white resistance to black education. . . . A meticulously researched piece of scholarship of importance to specialists. Recommended.” — CHOICE

“Schooling the Freed People is both comprehensive and engaging, offering a definitive social history within a narrative that never loses the voices of educators and learners.” — The North Carolina Historical Review

“An invaluable addition to the historiography of African American education during and after the Civil War. To date, this text offers the most in-depth analysis of the teachers of freed people.” — American Historical Review

“In this concise, cogently argued book, Ronald E. Butchart presents a convincing new portrait of the women and men who served as teachers of freedpeople across the American South during Reconstruction.” — Journal of Southern History

“Butchart has written an important study. . . . It will deepen our understanding of these transformative events for years to come.” — Journal of American History

“Path-breaking research. . . . The crowning achievement of a veteran scholar, this is the definitive book on freedmen’s teachers in the South as well as an outstanding contribution to social history and our understanding of African American education. . . . Will be the benchmark by which all other work in this area of history will be judged in the future.” — Lone Star Book Review

“[Butchart] skillfully blends quantitative research with anecdotal analysis to produce a nuanced and sweeping account, rich with compassion, insight and precision.” — Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“A meticulously researched book that has made a major intervention in the scholarship on African-American education after the Civil War.” — -Journal of NC Association of Historians

“This is a significant book . . . . Butchart’s revelations fundamentally reshape our understanding of freed people’s education.” — The Historian