In a series of columns published in the African American newspaper
The Christian Recorder, the young, charismatic preacher Henry
McNeal Turner described his experience of the Civil War, first from
the perspective of a civilian observer in Washington, D.C., and
later, as one of the Union army's first black chaplains. In the
halls of Congress, Turner witnessed the debates surrounding
emancipation and black enlistment. As army chaplain, Turner dodged
""grape"" and cannon, comforted the sick and wounded, and settled
disputes between white southerners and their former slaves. He was
dismayed by the destruction left by Sherman's army in the
Carolinas, but buoyed by the bravery displayed by black soldiers in
battle. After the war ended, he helped establish churches and
schools for the freedmen, who previously had been prohibited from
attending either. Throughout his columns, Turner evinces his firm
belief in the absolute equality of blacks with whites, and insists
on civil rights for all black citizens. In vivid, detailed prose,
laced with a combination of trenchant commentary and
self-deprecating humor, Turner established himself as more than an
observer: he became a distinctive and authoritative voice for the
black community, and a leader in the African Methodist Episcopal
church. After Reconstruction failed, Turner became disillusioned
with the American dream and became a vocal advocate of black
emigration to Africa, prefiguring black nationalists such as Marcus
Garvey and Malcolm X. Here, however, we see Turner's youthful
exuberance and optimism, and his open-eyed wonder at the momentous
changes taking place in American society. Well-known in his day,
Turner has been relegated to the fringes of African American
history, in large part because neither his views nor the forms in
which he expressed them were recognized by either the black or
white elite. With an introduction by Jean Lee Cole and a foreword
by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Freedom's Witness: The Civil War
Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner restores this important
figure to the historical and literary record.
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