African Canadians in Union Blue

Richard M. Reid’s engaging and well-researched examination of the nearly 2,500 African Canadians who served in the Union Army is a must-read for anyone interested in the black experience during the American Civil War… thanks to Reid’s fascinating and important study, the sacrifice, courage, and determination of these African Canadians can now find their proper place in the history of the American Civil War.

Harvey Amani Whitfield, author of Blacks on the Border: The Black Refugees in British North America, 1815-1860:
African Canadians in Union Blue is a book about black agency, black participation in one of the most significant events of the nineteenth century, how black people crossed the transnational border, and how permeable it had become by 1861. It is richly documented, compellingly argued, and promises to have a place on the shelves of every historian of the black experience in North America and historians of the American Civil War.

James W. St.G. Walker, author of The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870:
Richard Reid tells the story of a group of men whose commitment to “Liberty, Justice, and Equality” gave them the strength to overcome legal sanctions as British subjects and racial discrimination in the United States to enlist for the cause. Told with verve and conviction, African Canadian in Union Blue brings to light their extensive contributions to the northern victory.

John David Smith, author of Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops:
Despite access to a huge body of scholarship on black military service in the Civil War, we have, until now, known almost nothing of the Afro-Canadians who served in the United States Colored Troops. Richard Reid’s earlier work on the recruitment of the USCT, black veterans, and the medical history of black units has prepared him especially well for writing this fresh, original book. African Canadians in Union Blue will attract considerable attention.