Chancyville Incident – Book Report

A Few weeks ago I finished a book called “Chancyville Incident. This book as stuck with me and has given me a different outlook related to the slave issues that have historically plagued our country and continue to today. It is affected me in my outline as much as the book “Black Like Me” that I read in high school. It’s not an easy book to describe but the main character is a historian with a past that includes some important and fascinating individuals. In this book he outlines things about issues that pertain to black people before, during and after the Civil War.

One of the main things I got from this book was a different outlook on the Emancipation Proclamation. Obviously it eliminated slavery. In this book it is clear that the proclamation was made with the hall that the southern states would cease the war to avoid the effect of this proclamation. The idea I got was that the southern states lay down arms they could keep their slaves. This did not work and so the slaves were “emancipated”. There was a difference between an emancipated slave and a free man.

Freemen had rights but needed papers to prove they were legitimately freemen. The sad fact they came to this book was that the emancipated slaves were not given free status across the board. Each state had rules pertaining to “Negroes” these were northern states as well as southern. An emancipated slave did not have a vote. They were required to continually prove they had legal and legitimate employment. If not they were subject to being jailed.

I remember the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The setting of this book was 100 years earlier. It’s sad that 100 years after the federal government had to step in and provide what was promised hundred years earlier. It’s also true you cannot legislate attitudes. Many of these attitudes toward Blacks continue to today. This applies to North and South. This book was very good and I look forward each day to reading further. I would highly recommend this book.