March 19, 2013
The College of Southern Maryland is pleased to announce that the fifth Civil War 
Book Discussion will be held Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at the College of Southern Maryland, LaPlata campus, Center for Business and Industry, BI-113E, 8730 Mitchell Road, LaPlata, MD. This is a five part series sponsored in part by the Maryland Humanities Council, in which three books are discussed. Loaner copies of the book are available on a first-come, first-serve basis in the LaPlata campus library.
Civil War Book Discussion: America’s War Anthology Part V
The final conversation focuses on the emancipation of four million people who had been held in slavery for over two centuries. Following the conclusion of the war at Antietam, President Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation, allowing Frederick Douglass to rally black men to the defense of the United States, because it is now fighting for their freedom. While the Gettysburg Address, given in November 1863, does not speak of slavery directly, its potent language frames the purpose of the war as freedom understood in its broadest terms. After finally being able to enlist, 200,000 African American men joined the service in just two years. Emancipation was not a single event but a long and uneven series of struggles on plantations and farms, in cities and towns, all across the South. In a final essay on Images of the War, America’s War illuminates drawings from artists who were able to see firsthand, army camps in the midst of battle and enabled the public to picture the war as it progressed and to help us make sense of the American Civil War today.
Admission is free. For more details, please call 301-934-7606 or visit smsc@csmd.edu.