A Contested Terrain

AnneMarie Brosnan is Associate Professor in the History of Education at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research interests include African American history in the US South, the Civil War and Reconstruction period, and race and ethnicity in the nineteenth century.

List of Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 1 The Civil War and Early Reconstruction Period in North Carolina 11 2 To "Enjoy the Benefits of a School": Black North Carolinians and the Quest for Education 20 3 A Diverse Group of Educators: Freedpeople's Teachers in North Carolina 41 4 Answering the Call to Teach: Interrogating Teacher Motivations 68 5 The Textbooks Used in North Carolina's Schools for the Freedpeople 96 6 Life in Reconstruction North Carolina 109 Epilogue: The Struggle for Educational Equality Continues 125 Acknowledgments 131 Notes 133 Bibliography 173 Index 195

. . . A Contested Terrain makes a significant contribution to the historiography on North Carolina's Reconstruction experience. Brosnan's solid research clearly shows that early efforts to educate recently freed Black men, women, and children was often a tug of war, pulling them in many different directions over religious, social, and political ideologies.-- "Emerging Civil War Blog" A Contested Terrain stands as a significant addition to the historiography surrounding the education of freedpeople during and after the Civil War. It broadens our comprehension of the profound significance that education held for freed individuals in North Carolina, underscoring their unwavering belief in education's potential to catalyze transformative change. Beyond its wealth of evidence and eloquent prose, this book is indispensable reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of how the endeavors of freedpeople in the initial decades post-emancipation shaped the trajectory of North Carolina's future.---Christopher M. Span, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign