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Bluejackets and Contrabands
- African Americans and the Union Navy
- Narrated by: Judy A. Steffen
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
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Bluejackets and Contrabands
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Publisher's summary
One of the lesser-known stories of the Civil War is the role played by escaped slaves in the Union blockade along the Atlantic coast. From the beginning of the war, many African American refugees sought avenues of escape to the North. Due to their sheer numbers, those who reached Union forces presented a problem for the military. Fortunately, the First Confiscation Act of 1861 permitted the seizure of property used in support of the South's war effort, including slaves. Eventually regarded as contraband of war, the runaways became known as contrabands.
In Bluejackets and Contrabands, Barbara Brooks Tomblin examines the relationship between the Union Navy and the contrabands. The navy established colonies for the former slaves, and, in return, some contrabands served as crewmen on navy ships and gunboats and as river pilots, spies, and guides. Tomblin presents a rare picture of the contrabands and casts light on the vital contributions of African Americans to the Union Navy and the Union cause.
The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
"Meticulously researched, deftly organized and cogently written." (The Washington Post)
"Wide-ranging, well researched and carefully documented study." (Journal of America's Military Past)
"One of the most innovative works in recent years and an important addition to the historiograohy on African Americans in the Civil War." (The Journal of African American History)
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Story5 out of 5 stars 290
On the stormy night of August 29, 1776, the Continental Army faced annihilation after losing the Battle of Brooklyn. The British had trapped George Washington’s army against the East River, and the fate of the Revolution rested upon the shoulders of the soldier-mariners from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Serving side-by-side in one of the country’s first diverse units, they pulled off an “American Dunkirk” and saved the army by navigating the treacherous waters of the river to Manhattan.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Great Content
- By Elizabeth on 06-13-21
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Valcour
- The 1776 Campaign that Saved the Cause of Liberty
- By: Jack Kelly
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
During the summer of 1776, a British incursion from Canada loomed. In response, citizen soldiers of the newly independent nation mounted a heroic defense. Patriots constructed a small fleet of gunboats on Lake Champlain in northern New York and confronted the Royal Navy in a desperate three-day battle near Valcour Island. Their effort surprised the arrogant British and forced the enemy to call off their invasion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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well written, well read story
- By wylie smith on 04-09-22
By: Jack Kelly
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Vicksburg
- Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 21 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 273
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 231
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 230
Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the last stronghold of the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. It prevented the Union from using the river for shipping between the Union-controlled Midwest and New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. The Union navy tried to take Vicksburg, which sat on a high bluff overlooking the river, but couldn't do it. It took Grant's army and Admiral David Porter's navy to successfully invade Mississippi and lay siege to Vicksburg, forcing the city to surrender.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Revisionist & Biased & Redundant
- By DDSC on 05-26-21
By: Donald L. Miller
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The Real Hornblower
- The Life and Times of Admiral Sir James Gordon
- By: Bryan Perrett
- Narrated by: Ron Bottitta
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
In this thoroughly researched book the author argues convincingly that Forester's model was Adm. James Gordon, a flesh-and-blood hero of Nelson's navy. Gordon entered the Royal Navy as a semi-literate eleven-year-old and rose to become Admiral of the Fleet. He took part in major sea battles, frigate actions, single-ship duels, and operations far behind enemy lines. It was the fire of Gordon's ships against Fort McHenry that inspired the American national anthem.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Missing final chapter
- By Byron on 03-27-19
By: Bryan Perrett
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The Greatest Fury
- The Battle of New Orleans and the Rebirth of America
- By: William C. Davis
- Narrated by: David H. Lawrence
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
From master historian William C. Davis, the definitive story of the Battle of New Orleans, the fight that decided the ultimate fate not only of the War of 1812 but the future course of the fledgling American republic. It was a battle that could not be won. Outnumbered farmers, merchants, backwoodsmen, smugglers, slaves, and Choctaw Indians, many of them unarmed, were up against the cream of the British army, professional soldiers who had defeated the great Napoleon and set Washington, DC, ablaze.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Mispronounced names and locations
- By Mark on 06-02-22
By: William C. Davis
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1812: The Navy's War
- By: George C. Daughan
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 702
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 607
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Story4 out of 5 stars 604
At the outbreak of the War of 1812, America's prospects looked dismal. It was clear that the primary battlefield would be the open ocean but America's war fleet, only 20 ships strong, faced a practiced British navy of more than a thousand men-of-war. Still, through a combination of nautical deftness and sheer bravado, the American navy managed to take the fight to the British and turn the tide of the war.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Arghhhh!!! Not meant for audio.
- By Jonathan Love on 07-07-12
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Patriotic Fire
- Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 198
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
This audio program has all the ingredients of a high-flying adventure story. Unbeknownst to the combatants, the War of 1812 has ended. But Andrew Jackson, a brave, charismatic American general, sick with dysentery and commanding a beleaguered garrison, leads a desperate struggle to hold on to New Orleans and to thwart the army that defeated Napoleon.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Great Book About A Fascinating Battle
- By David I. Williams on 05-12-13
By: Winston Groom
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The War for All the Oceans
- From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo
- By: Roy Adkins, Lesley Adkins
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 142
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4 out of 5 stars 82
Roy Adkins, with his wife, Lesley, returns to the Napoleonic War in The War for All the Oceans, a gripping account of the naval struggle that lasted from 1798 to 1815, a period marked at the beginning by Napoleon's seizing power and at the end by the War of 1812. In this vivid and visceral account, Adkins draws on eyewitness records to portray not only the battles but also the details of a sailor's life: shipwrecks, press-gangs, prostitutes, spies, and prisoners of war.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Good material, horrid narration
- By SC Visel on 01-03-08
By: Roy Adkins, and others
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Rebels at Sea
- Privateering in the American Revolution
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
The heroic story of the founding of the US Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America's first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation's character. In Rebels at Sea, Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war.
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3 out of 5 stars
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If you can get over the narrator...
- By Toby Everett on 09-20-22
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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The British Are Coming
- The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy, Book 1)
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Rick Atkinson - introduction
- Length: 26 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,473
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,274
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,262
Rick Atkinson recounts the first 21 months of America’s violent war for independence. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. Full of riveting details and untold stories, The British Are Coming is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Where are the Maps?
- By George Reid on 07-08-19
By: Rick Atkinson
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The War of 1812, Conflict and Deception
- The British Attempt to Seize New Orleans and Nullify the Louisiana Purchase
- By: Ronald J. Drez
- Narrated by: Todd Curless
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
Perhaps no conflict in American history is more important yet more overlooked and misunderstood than the War of 1812. At the climax of the war, inspired by the defeat of Napoleon in early 1814 and the perceived illegality of the Louisiana Purchase, the British devised a plan to launch a three-pronged attack against the Northern, Eastern, and Southern US borders.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A thorough defense of the 1812 war
- By Amazon Customer on 05-13-16
By: Ronald J. Drez
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Be Free or Die
- The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero
- By: Cate Lineberry
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 219
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 199
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Story5 out of 5 stars 196
It was a mild May morning in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1862, the second year of the Civil War, when a 23-year-old slave named Robert Smalls did the unthinkable and boldly seized a Confederate steamer. With his wife and two young children hidden on board, Smalls and a small crew ran a gauntlet of heavily armed fortifications in Charleston Harbor and delivered the valuable vessel and the massive guns it carried to nearby Union forces.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book about a Great man
- By Evan on 02-19-18
By: Cate Lineberry
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Bunker Hill
- A City, a Siege, a Revolution
- By: Nathaniel Philbrick
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,036
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,791
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,788
In the opening volume of his acclaimed American Revolution series, Nathaniel Philbrick turns his keen eye to pre-Revolutionary Boston and the spark that ignited the American Revolution. In the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party and the violence at Lexington and Concord, the conflict escalated and skirmishes gave way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was the bloodiest conflict of the revolutionary war, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another Fantastic Story by Philbrick
- By Rick on 09-30-13
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Through the Perilous Fight
- Six Weeks That Saved the Nation
- By: Steve Vogel
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
In the summer of 1814, the United States of America teetered on the brink of disaster. The war it had declared against Great Britain two years earlier appeared headed toward inglorious American defeat. In a fast-paced, character-driven narrative, Steve Vogel tells the story of this titanic struggle from the perspective of both sides. Like an epic novel, Through the Perilous Fight abounds with heroes, villains, and astounding feats of derring-do.
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5 out of 5 stars
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History at its finest!
- By Anonymous User on 04-04-24
By: Steve Vogel
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With Musket & Tomahawk, Vol III
- The West Point–Hudson Valley Campaign in the Wilderness War of 1777
- By: Michael O. Logusz
- Narrated by: Dennis Johnson
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
In this third volume of Michael Logusz's epic study of the Wilderness War of 1777, a sizable British military force, augmented with German and loyalist soldiers, attacks the Northern Army's southern front in the fall of 1777 in hopes of assisting a much larger British Army that is threatened to the north of New York City in the wilderness region of Saratoga.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Historical Book not Not Boring
- By Robert Nugent on 07-08-18
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Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 221
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
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Story4 out of 5 stars 199
In the late 18th century, it was widely thought that to be a sailor was little better than to be a slave. "No man will be a sailor," wrote Samuel Johnson, "who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail. A man in jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company." If that were true, historian Nathan Miller suggests, then the record of sailing in the age of tall ships would likely be distinguished by few heroes and fewer grand narratives.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Misleading description, solid historical summary
- By M J Mills on 08-10-14
By: Nathan Miller
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Six Frigates
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,366
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,119
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,117
Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the new government. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce against the Mediterranean pirates, or drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great powers? The founders, particularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adams, debated these questions fiercely and switched sides more than once.
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3 out of 5 stars
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BE ADVISED THIS BOOK IS ABRIDGED
- By George Carpenter III on 09-11-08
By: Ian W. Toll