Don Troiani's Black Soldiers in America's Wars: 1754–1865

Don Troiani, John U. Rees, James L. Kochan

• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9780811773720
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: History

Using a masterful combination of artistry and accuracy, Don Troiani has dedicated his career to transforming our understanding of the military soldier. Don now turns his talents to capturing the under-recognized African-American soldiers as they fought in the French and Indian War, the War of Independence, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War. Don’s battle paintings, figure studies, and artifact collection are teamed with historian John Rees’s insightful text.

This long-needed work combines Troiani’s magnificent art—the dramatic battle paintings and authentically illustrated uniformed soldier studies—with Rees’s introductory chapters on the four wars. Using primary sources, Rees gives a true picture of the contributions of the many Black soldiers over the 100-year history.

Together Troiani and Rees provide the most comprehensive, authoritative, and well-researched study of the Black soldier in early America.

Table of contents

• Preface. “Many of our Fathers fought and died . . .”
• CHAPTER 1. “Brought to this country and sold as a slave”: From Africa to the Americas
• CHAPTER 2. “The thundering of the great guns”: French and Indian War (1754–1763)
• CHAPTER 3. “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”: The War of the American Revolution (1775–1783)
• CHAPTER 4. “If we mean to be what we ought to be”: Interwar Years through the War of 1812 (1791–1815)
• CHAPTER 5. “Our Lives for Liberty”: American Civil War Era (1842–1865)
• Afterword
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Suggested Further Reading