A.A.C.W.E.R.T
A.A.C.W.E.R.T
The African Americans in the Civil War Era Round Table
A 501(c)3 registered non-profit organization
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Special Announcement
If you want to serve as an Officer or Director of The African Americans in the Civil War Era Round Table, you can now submit your application, as the solicitation period is open. Submissions are due no later than December 15, 2026. You can view the submission requirements and the descriptions of the duties of a position by clicking the link below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nSpFrqa35STlgV2x8SkJeKjhcMusyhcW/view?usp=sharing
USCT Reenactors on parade in front of the White House
On Wednesday, November 18th at 7:15 Eastern Time
Dr. Chandra M. Manning
Professor/ Director of the Georgetown Institute for Global History
Will give a presentation on:
"The Day That We Began to Fight: How Half a Million Freedom Seekers Fled Slavery, Sojourned in Refugee Camps, and Helped to Win the War and Remake the Nation."
By the end of the Civil War, nearly half a million souls, many of them women and children, had fled slavery to take 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 enslaved population took almost unimaginable risks to reach them. Once there, they influenced the progress of the war, the course of emancipation, and the meaning of citizenship in the United States. Their story does not diminish the role or contributions of African American Union soldiers, but it highlights the ways that others besides soldiers are also indispensable to understanding the war and the changed nation that emerged from it.
Here is the Zoom link for the presentation.
Topic: AACWERT Presentation - Chandra Manning
Time: Nov 18, 2026 07:15 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89259208366?pwd=dmgqgbqAaJ70AFPAKhbbQjUmUlDkIb.1
Meeting ID: 892 5920 8366
Passcode: 204643
Dr. Chandra Manning teaches U.S. history, chiefly of the 19th century, including classes on the Civil War, slavery and emancipation, Lincoln, citizenship, the American Revolution, and the History of Baseball (not necessarily in that order). Her first book, What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War (Knopf, 2007) won the Avery O. Craven Prize awarded by the Organization of American Historians, earned Honorable Mention for the Lincoln Prize and the Virginia Literary Awards for Nonfiction, and was a finalist for the Jefferson Davis Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize. Her second book, Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War (Knopf, 2016), about Civil War refugee camps where former slaves allied with the Union Army and altered the course of the war and of emancipation, won the Jefferson Davis Prize awarded by the American Civil War Museum for best book on the Civil War. Eventually she intends to write something that would qualify for a prize not named for a dead Civil War president. A former National Park Service Ranger, she has also advised historical sites, museums, and historical societies, as well as community groups in search of historical perspective. She has a particular interest in neurodiversity. Above all, she is a Red Sox fan.
On Thursday. October 15th
Dr. Cheryl Renee Gooch
Gave a presentation on:
Hinsonville's Heroes:
Black Civil War Soldiers of Southeastern Chester County, Pennsylvania.
To view the recorded program click on the link before
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12j2f2FIWa7AiaWS5Nsp4iEinyzQ86c8S/view?usp=drive_link
In this compelling author talk, Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch explores the remarkable history of Hinsonville, a free Black community established in the 1830s by African Americans who migrated from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland with a determination to preserve their independence, build community, and shape their own future.
Located near present-day Lincoln University, Hinsonville became a vital center of Black agency, faith, education, and resistance. Although the community no longer appears on contemporary maps, its legacy endures at Hosanna Church and Cemetery, where ten of the community’s Civil War veterans are buried.
As documented in Dr. Gooch’s book, Hinsonville’s Heroes: Black Civil War Soldiers of Southeastern Chester County, Pennsylvania, eighteen men from the community served in the United States Colored Troops, becoming agents of emancipation. Hinsonville’s story reaches far beyond the Civil War. Its residents and their descendants were connected to the Underground Railroad and abolition, the founding of Ashmun Institute—now Lincoln University, the movement for Liberian colonization, and the broader struggle for African American advancement and self-determination.
At the heart of Hinsonville’s history is a persistent consciousness rooted in emancipation—a determination to resist oppression, build institutions, and create opportunities for future generations.
Dr. Gooch’s commitment to Hinsonville’s legacy extends beyond her scholarship. She also serves with Friends of Hosanna AUMP, a registered Pennsylvania nonprofit dedicated to preserving the built and social history of Hosanna Church and Cemetery. Through scholarship, leadership, and historic preservation, she continues bringing Hinsonville’s extraordinary story to new generations.
Free and Determined to Be Free invites AACWERT participants to rediscover a community whose residents were not simply witnesses to history. They were agents of change who helped shape it.
Dr. Cheryl Renee Gooch
Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch is a historian, scholar, and academic leader whose research and public-history work recovers and interprets overlooked African American histories. She is the author of "Hinsonville’s Heroes: Black Civil War Soldiers of Chester County, Pennsylvania" and "On Africa’s Lands: The Forgotten Stories of Two Lincoln-Educated Missionaries in Liberia." Her historical research and interpretive planning have contributed to projects for the National Park Service, Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, and Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She served as historian and principal writer for the Delaware History Museum’s permanent exhibition, "Journey to Freedom", chronicling the Black Delaware experience from the seventeenth century to the present. Through scholarship, exhibition development, and public history, Dr. Gooch brings overlooked voices and enduring stories of freedom, resilience, community, and African American achievement to wider audiences. Her work reminds us that recovering the past is not simply about preserving history—it is about transforming how we understand ourselves, our communities, and the American story.
On Thursday. September 10th
Steve T. Phan, National Park Service Ranger
Gave a presentation on:
Birthplace of Liberty: Camp Nelson and the Civil War
Camp Nelson was established in 1863 as a U.S. Army fortified base, supply depot, and hospital in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Camp Nelson also served as a recruitment post and refugee camp for white Unionists fleeing Confederate occupation in East Tennessee. The following year, the base evolved to become one of the country’s largest recruitment and training centers for African American soldiers during the Civil War and served as a refugee camp for their wives and children.
Camp Nelson represents the courage and determination of formerly enslaved African Americans to secure their own emancipation. It also illustrates the nation’s struggle to define the meaning of freedom during and after the Civil War.
Camp Nelson National Monument became the 418th unit of the National Park Service in October 2018.
Steve T. Phan is a Park Ranger and serves as the Chief of Interpretation at Camp Nelson National Monument. He has also worked at the Civil War Defenses of Washington, Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, Rock Creek Park, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Stones River National Battlefield, Richmond National Battlefield Park, and Gettysburg National Military Park. A military history scholar of the Civil War era, Phan’s research focuses on military occupation, operational command, African American soldiers and refugees, and fortifications during the Civil War. He was nominated for the National Park Service Tilden Award for Excellence in Interpretation for the National Capital Region in 2019 and 2020, and the Excellence in Interpretation Individual Award for the Southeast Region in 2025. He holds a master’s degree in American History from Middle Tennessee State University.
Here is the link to the detailed flyer
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WumapBDjHJKmuKFbsSePrTgUXmOII1B6/view?usp=sharing
On Thursday, July 23rd at 7:15 Eastern Time
Bill Gwaltney, Vice President
of the African Americans in the Civil War Era Round Table
Bill discussed "Slave to Soldier and Soldier to Citizen Abolition to the 13th Amendment for Black Civil War Soldiers."
This program was recorded. Click on the link below to view it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dcOx2LZDWx3MMyHgmFVEYWU7SLATEwWQ/view?usp=drive_link
Here is the link to the detailed flyer
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X8kv95QHhwJeYfdIxf204MoZ17eYt8f3/view?usp=sharing
AACWERT Flyer July 23, 2026, Bill Gwaltney #1 (1).pdfOn Thursday. June 11th
Calvin Osborne, ESQ
Gave a talk on his book:
"Contraband Hearts: A Civil War Love Story"
Based on his ancestors
Click the link below to view the recorded Zoom program.
Click this link to open the flyer with details.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11-fDVDQSKd3fr8qqGztMMNLaT8C7dpTw/view?usp=sharing
Calvin Osborne, ESQ.
On Thursday. April 23rd
Dr. Rebecca Capobianco Toy
Gave a talk on her book
Landscapes of Freedom
View the recorded presentation by clicking the link below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ClALg64MHatsu7JvCFk-CdCPVMPZg9_A/view?usp=drive_link
Rebecca Capobianco Toy received her PhD from William and Mary in 2021 and holds an MA in public history from Villanova University. She currently serves as an Interpretation and Engagement Coordinator at the Washington Office of the National Park Service. Toy's research focuses on the history of the Civil War, post Civil War era, commemoration, and public space. She is a co-editor of Emilie Davis’s Civil War: The Diaries of a Free Black Woman in Philadelphia, 1863–1865 and contributor to Women and the American Civil War: North-South Counterpoints.
In Landscapes of Freedom, Rebecca Capobianco Toy tells the story of an emblematic community of freedpeople during the Civil War era. Some of the earliest acts of wartime emancipation happened in the Tidewater of Virginia, where enslaved people voted with their feet and escaped the Confederacy by crossing into US Army lines. At Yorktown, Virginia, freedpeople developed their own self-governing enclave near (and in some cases on) the Revolutionary War battlefield. Toy describes that Black community, its formation, and its development well into the twentieth century. She traces the effect of Reconstruction policy and the consequences that its subsequent rollback had on the lives of Black citizens.
Toy also documents the Black community's attempts to commemorate its members' role in the Civil War. The Black community fought to retain that memory, one that challenged not only the Lost Cause interpretation of the war but also the federal government's efforts to privilege the Revolutionary memory of Yorktown while ignoring its ongoing role in the story of American freedom.
A Tribute to Glory
The USCT reenactors who were cast as members of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment gather on Zoom to recall their experiences filming the epic movie Glory.
If you missed the Tribute to Glory program on February 26th, you can view it by clicking on the two links below
Bill Gwaltney introduces the AACWERT
What is the AACWERT?
What is the AACWERT?
The AACWERT is a part of the Civil War Round Table (CWRT) community. These round tables have existed for decades and have traditionally brought like minded individuals who have an interest in America's Civil War together for monthly or quarterly meetings at brick and mortar locations in cities across the nation. Experts in academia, in a multitude of focus areas, in a variety of subjects, within the time period of struggle, have presented lectures to these C WRT members.
This CWRT is unique in that the focus is placed on the African American experience during the time period (1850-1877) all presentations are provided through a web-based communications platform enabling global participation.
African Americans in the Civil War era
100% Virtual Presentations (accessible worldwide)
As a Civil War Round Table dedicated to the subject of the African American experience this forum provides a platform for often untold stories. We purposefully conscious of the roles that racism, enslavement, discrimination and racial violence played in the era. Often overlooked are the powerful uplifting stories too; those of hope, bravery, family, and community. War, emancipation, famine, and pandemics had an effect on the African American community far more powerful than any other ethnic group. The role of African Americans in the military is also one of heroism, hope, struggle for equality, acceptance, and discrimination. These stories and more that are the focus of this CWRT.
What to expect?
What to expect?
We are dedicated to documented history, rather than inventive theories and wishful thinking.
The presentations provided by this Civil War Round Table are based on first-rate research; are well-organized, and are professionally presented. Our African Americans in the Civil War Era Round Table, Inc. is a place for accomplished researchers and historians to share what they have learned, through primary and secondary sources, with interested parties from around the nation and around the world.
What else does the AACWERT provide?
Our AACWERT provides more than just Zoom presentations. We plan to add to this central hub links to high quality USCT and African Americans in the Civil War information and agencies such as those from libraries, National Archives, US Library of Congress, US Army Center for Military History, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Genealogy, etc.
Sample Zoom CWRT Presentation (Steward Henderson)
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