Facebook Live: Troubled Refuge with Dr. Chandra Manning

COVID-19 and closures won’t stop us from sharing the incredible lessons we can learn from studying medical care during the Civil War!

Join us on Wednesday, February 10 at 1:00 PM on Facebook Live for a virtual program hosted by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. You can tune in live by visiting facebook.com/civilwarmed/live at the scheduled time.

Education Coordinator John Lustrea will talk with Dr. Chandra Manning about her book Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War. By the end of the Civil War, nearly half a million slaves had taken refuge behind Union lines, in what became known as “contraband camps.” These refugee camps were crowded, dangerous places, yet some 12-15 percent of the Confederacy’s slave population took almost unimaginable risks to reach them, and they became the first places many Northerners came to know former slaves en masse.

Ranging from stories of individuals to those of armies on the move to the debates in Congress, Dr. Chandra Manning in her book, explores what the camps were really like and how former slaves and Union soldiers warily united there to help end slavery, win the war, and forge a new version of citizenship that would matter not just for former slaves, but for all Americans.

Dr. Chandra Manning is an accomplished historian and author of Troubled Refuge and When this Cruel War Was Over. She graduated summa cum laude from Mount Holyoke College in 1993 and received the M.Phil from the National University of Ireland, Galway, in 1995. She took her Ph.D. at Harvard in 2002. Manning has taught history at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and currently is a Professor of History at Georgetown University.

Like these programs? Consider supporting our efforts by becoming a member or donating to the Museum! Your efforts ensure that we can continue sharing the story of Civil War medicine in this crucial time. In history, we can find hope amid our struggle against COVID-19.