Description
Book SynopsisWith a focus on Fort Davis, Wilkie brings attention to the Black enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. She explores the complexities of post life, racialized relationships, Black masculinity, and citizenship while also exposing the structures and practices of military life that successfully obscured these men’s stories for so long.
Trade ReviewWilkie's study of the Buffalo soldiers and military life at Fort Davis is bold and innovative. She reveals a complex web of material and social entanglements that illustrate the military's complicity in anti-black racism while highlighting the various ways that black men--as soldiers, husbands, friends, and fathers--navigated an especially difficult terrain to demonstrate their humanity and rights to citizenship."—Maria Franklin, contributor to
Unlocking the Past: Celebrating Historical Archaeology in North America "Wilkie's skillful use of the archaeological and documentary records provides much-needed nuance for understanding the lives of Buffalo soldiers. This book provides a much-needed corrective and complicates previously dichotomous thinking to more accurately represent the challenges and rewards of their military lives."—Edward González-Tennant, author of
The Rosewood Massacre: An Archaeology and History of Intersectional ViolenceTable of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Important Persons in This Work
- Prologue
- Chapter One. Black Soldiering Matters at Fort Davis: Taking an Archaeological Approach to Frontier Life
- Chapter Two. Corporal Williams's Tent: Frontier Military Spaces
- Chapter Three. Private Stevenson's Pocketknife and Company K's Tumbler
- Chapter Four. Sergeant Hewey's Stick
- Chapter Five. Private Johnson's Letters
- Chapter Six. Sergeant Sample's Eyesight
- Chapter Seven. Daniel Tallifero's Cap
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
