A lovely copy of an important work, which Nevins describes as “extremely valuable as one of the few narratives written by a Negro soldier.”
Born and raised in New Bern, North Carolina, Newton (1837-1921) was born to an enslaved father and a free mother, and the first chapter of this work provides rare testimony of a free Black childhood in the South. Out of the Briars is based on the diary Newton had kept since he was a young man.
Of great importance is Newton’s sixty-page account of his war service. With the outbreak of war in 1861, he went to New York and joined the Thirteenth Regiment in Brooklyn. The New York Draft Riots prompted him to flee to Connecticut, where he eventually joined the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry Regiment as a private. The 29th was comprised entirely of Black men living in the Connecticut. They moved first to Annapolis, then further south to Hilton Head, South Carolina. Newton intersperses his account with his thoughts on the war, on the institution of slavery, and the pride of his fellow soldiers in the 29th at fighting for the Union.
“The regiment served almost entirely in Virginia, particularly in the Petersburg campaign … The unit ended its days, as did many other black regiments, roasting on the Texas-Mexico border where the last fighting of the war transpired” (Yacovone). They sailed to Texas, rounding the Florida reefs, and made stops at Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans. Rough seas took them to Brazos De Santiago, Texas, which they “found a most undesirable place … We had our headquarters at this place which was knee deep in water.”
The rest of Newton’s memoir details his life as an African Methodist Episcopal minister, “and his religious work in New England, the South, and, in particular, New Jersey” (Brignano). The final chapters of the text include some of his essays, sermons, and church resolutions. A chapter on “the Negro problem” gives Newton’s views “pertaining to my race, relative to the Civil War and the time since then.” He considers the heroic performance of Black soldiers during the War and the accomplishments of Black men and women in Reconstruction and beyond, and delivers a message of uplift, urging African Americans to work hard to advance themselves. Most of the photographic illustrations are of Newton’s clerical colleagues, but also include portraits of Col. W.P. Wooster of the 29th Connecticut, Newton in his Civil War uniform, and a portrait of the author later in life.
Rare in the trade with just three copies recorded at auction.
Not in Work or in the Library Company of Philadelphia’s Afro-Americana collection; Blockson, 3693; Brignano, 187; Dornbusch, I:3, p.26; Nevins, I, p.137; Yacovone, D., ed, Freedom’s Journey (Chicago, 2004), p.358.
