Slavery In Clover Bottoms: John Mcclines Narrative (Voices of the Civil War)

ISBN: 1572334533

Author: Furman, Jan

Condition: New

Born into slavery on a Tennessee plantation, John McCline escaped from bondage, worked for the Union Army in the Civil War, and eventually found a new life in the American West. Slavery in the Clover Bottoms is his own story, recollected in later years, of his life as a slave and as a free man.McClines memoirs, completed in the 1920s and now published for the first time, vividly describe the James Hoggatt plantation in Davidson County: the work and routine of slaves; their religious, family, and social life; the behavior of the overseers; and the atmosphere of violence under Mrs. Hoggatts omnipresent whip. McCline tells of how he worked with livestock, a boy doing a mans job, until he ran away with the Thirteenth Infantry of Michigan late in 1862, when he was little more than ten years old. For the next two-and-a-half years, young John worked as a teamster and officers servant, and during that time he witnessed some of the Civil Wars most famous battles-such as Murfreesboro, Chickamauga Creek, and Lookout Mountain-as well as Shermans march through Georgia.McCline worked in Michigan, Chicago, and St. Louis after the war. He eventually made his way to Colorado, where his skill with horses helped him find employment with James John Hagerman, whose son Herbert would later be appointed governor of New Mexico Territory. McCline lived in Santa Fe from 1906 until his death in 1948 and became a leader in that citys black community. During that period Herbert Hagerman encouraged McCline to write his memoirs and contributed an introduction that also appears in this volume. Jan Furmans introduction puts McClines story in context, and her notes to the text clarify references.Slavery in the Clover Bottoms joins an important body of newly published slave narratives. It provides a vast amount of firsthand detail about slavery and the Civil War and is particularly notable for presenting a former slaves perspective on Shermans march. Its compelling story spans a continent and tells us much about relationships between the races in the middle and late nineteenth century.