A Stroll Down The Allée – Oak Alley Plantation

There are a number of images that go hand-in-hand with anyone’s idea of a antebellum plantation. Some of that has been influenced by movies like Gone With The Wind, others inspired by places that still exist and have been preserved. One of these places boasts a stunning picture of oaks lining a carriage lane up…

Book Review – The Secrets of Mary Bowser

The novel, The Secrets of Mary Bowser, while not historically accurate on many accounts, is a thrilling and incendiary (in a good way) story of a black woman Union spy in Richmond, Virginia. This book has it all and then some, when it comes to highlighting the racial prejudices and injustices that the black populations…

Which Was Worse?

(Disclaimer: These are my thoughts, backed up by my studies and observations of the Civil War and its ramifications) "The Vacant Chair" - representative of the lost soldier A conversation came up in my presence that made me both incensed and thoughtful. The general premise of the discussion dealt with the notion that it would…

John Washington – “Memorys” of a Slave

It’s rare to come across a first-hand slave account from an individual who lived through the emancipation. There are the famous ones, like Frederick Douglass. One that’s less known and more recently discovered belongs to a man who was born in Fredericksburg. He not only lived to see “the year of jubilee” but endured the…