The Confederate Negro

Brewer has brought to light creditably the little known contribution of the Virginia Negroes, free and slave, to the Confederacy. In so doing, he corrects a serious historical omission while delivering a telling blow to the destruction of the stereotyped southern Negro during the war . . . .  A milestone in the history of the period and essential to any serious study of the Civil War, the Negro, and the South.’ —Journal of American History

Brewer forcefully presents his main theme that the Virginia Negro ‘contributed a sustaining effort to the War for Southern Independence and an impressive mass of facts and statistics demonstrates that the Old Dominion’s more than half a million blacks made a vital contribution to the rebel cause. . . . Professor Brewer makes his point effectively and,  in the process, adds a new dimension to the measurement of the Confederate war effort. No historian of the Civil War era can afford to ignore this book, which sheds so much new light.’ – Journal of Southern History