Tasting Freedom

By Daniel R. Biddle, Murray Dubin,

Book cover of Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America

Book description

Octavius Valentine Catto was an orator who shared stages with Frederick Douglass, a second baseman on Philadelphia's best black baseball team, a teacher at the city's finest black school and an activist who fought in the state capital and on the streets for equal rights. With his racially-charged murder, the…

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1 author picked Tasting Freedom as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In September 2017, a new statue was unveiled on the south side of Philadelphia’s City Hall. In contrast to the equestrian statues of Union generals–and former mayor Frank Rizzo (now removed)–to the north of City Hall, this statue commemorated a young Black man who rose to leadership in the South Street neighborhoods of Civil War Philadelphia before he was assassinated during an election riot in 1871.

Biddle and Murray, veteran reporters at the Philadelphia Inquirer, tell a sweeping story of crisis, war, and reconstruction, reaching from the city out across the country, in a powerful narrative focusing on Octavius V.…

From John's list on the North during the Civil War.

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