{"id":47968,"global_id":"www.thexradio.com\/news?id=47968","global_id_lineage":["www.thexradio.com\/news?id=47968"],"author":"7","status":"publish","date":"2026-09-30 11:18:10","date_utc":"2026-09-30 16:18:10","modified":"2026-09-30 11:25:04","modified_utc":"2026-09-30 16:25:04","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/calendar\/47968-somewhere-toward-freedom-speaker-on-enslaved-people-freed-by-shermans-march\/","rest_url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/events\/47968","title":"Somewhere Toward Freedom – Speaker On Enslaved People Freed By Sherman’s March","description":"

Sherman\u2019s march to the sea was more than a military triumph during the Civil War.\u00a0 It was also a liberation that allowed thousands of people to throw off the chains of slavery, as author Bennett Parten will explain.\u00a0 He’ll be speaking at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 7.<\/span><\/p>\n

Parten, an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University, is the author of \u201cSomewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman’s March and the Story of America’s Largest Emancipation.\u201d\u00a0 The book has received rave reviews both for its clear, compelling description of the march and for its focus on the men and women who were able to escape enslavement as U.S. troops blazed a path across Georgia.\u00a0 Parten also examines the messy aftermath of the march for the newly freed, including being granted land to begin their new lives and then having that land taken away by the government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kirkus Reviews called the book \u201cfresh and illuminating.\u201d\u00a0 The Wall Street Journal said it presents a story of \u201cexhilaration and dashed hopes, of suffering and survival.\u201d\u00a0 The New Yorker said it may be the first book \u201cto make freed people its sole focus, and to claim that they were essential to the march\u2019s meaning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Audience members will also be able to visit the special exhibit \u201cThe Second American Revolution,\u201d which examines the war\u2019s aftermath, the attempts to give African Americans an equal role in the South and the successful movement to reverse most of those gains for the next century.\u00a0 The exhibit includes the pen Abraham Lincoln used when signing the Emancipation Proclamation, artifacts from racial terror groups and short films explaining the forces that reversed Reconstruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs America marks its 250th birthday, the ALPLM has examined the impact left by Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.\u00a0 \u2018Somewhere Toward Freedom\u2019 fits in wonderfully with this effort.\u00a0 It takes a famous moment of the war, looks at it from the perspective of enslaved people and then shows what happened next,\u201d said Christina Shutt, the ALPLM executive director.<\/span><\/p>\n

The march began in November 1864 after forces led by Gen. William T. Sherman captured the city of Atlanta.\u00a0 Rather than pursuing Confederate troops, Sherman decided to cut the Confederacy in half and isolate Robert E. Lee\u2019s army from support in the deep South by driving southeast until he reached the coast.\u00a0 Sherman\u2019s 60,000 troops would forage for food, seize livestock and destroy rail lines as they went.\u00a0 At the end of the march, on Dec. 22, Sherman sent a telegram to Lincoln:\u00a0 \u201cI beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition and about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The march passed through territory where some 150,000 people were being held in slavery.\u00a0 Some of these people, now freed by U.S. troops, went to work as laborers for the army.\u00a0 Nearly 20,000 followed the army, braving uncertainty, food shortages and bad weather to find somewhere to begin their new lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

The event is free, but reservations are required.\u00a0 To register, visit https:\/\/presidentlincoln.illinois.gov\/Events.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is to inspire civic engagement through the diverse lens of Illinois history and share with the world the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.\u00a0 We pursue this mission through a combination of rigorous scholarship and high-tech showmanship built on the bedrock of the ALPLM\u2019s unparalleled collection of historical materials \u2013 roughly 13 million items from all eras of Illinois history.<\/span><\/em><\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"somewhere-toward-freedom-speaker-on-enslaved-people-freed-by-shermans-march","image":false,"all_day":true,"start_date":"2026-10-07 00:00:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2026","month":"10","day":"07","hour":"00","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2026-10-07 23:59:59","end_date_details":{"year":"2026","month":"10","day":"07","hour":"23","minutes":"59","seconds":"59"},"utc_start_date":"2026-10-07 05:00:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2026","month":"10","day":"07","hour":"05","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2026-10-08 04:59:59","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2026","month":"10","day":"08","hour":"04","minutes":"59","seconds":"59"},"timezone":"America\/Chicago","timezone_abbr":"CDT","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"$","currency_code":"USD","currency_position":"prefix","values":[]},"website":"","show_map":false,"show_map_link":false,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[{"name":"Community Calendar","slug":"community-calendar","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":40,"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","description":"","parent":0,"count":2678,"filter":"raw","id":40,"urls":{"self":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories\/40","collection":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories"}}],"tags":[],"venue":[],"organizer":[],"custom_fields":[],"json_ld":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"Somewhere Toward Freedom – Speaker On Enslaved People Freed By Sherman’s March","description":"<p>Sherman\u2019s march to the sea was more than a military triumph during the Civil War.\u00a0 It was also a liberation that allowed thousands of people to throw off the chains […]<\/p>\\n","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/calendar\/47968-somewhere-toward-freedom-speaker-on-enslaved-people-freed-by-shermans-march\/","eventAttendanceMode":"https:\/\/schema.org\/OfflineEventAttendanceMode","eventStatus":"https:\/\/schema.org\/EventScheduled","startDate":"2026-10-07T00:00:00-05:00","endDate":"2026-10-07T23:59:59-05:00","performer":"Organization"}}