Review: Kidnapped at Sea

Kidnappedat Sea: The Civil War Voyage of David Henry

by Andrew Sillen

There are things we know, things we don’t know and things we don’t know that we don’t know. We will never know the experience of David Henry Wight, an illiterate, free, Black, teenaged sailor from Lewes, Delaware, who on October 9, 1862 was kidnapped from the Philadelphia-based packet ship Tonawanda by Raphael Semmes, Captain of the Confederate raider CSS Alabama upon which White was enslaved until he perished during its duel with the USS Kearsarge off the coast of Cherbourg, France on June 19, 1864.

David Henry White left few written records to document his short time on Earth. And yet Dr. Andrew Sillen, a visiting research scholar in the department of anthropology at Rutgers University, has written an unconventional biography of White. Much like Sebastian Junger was able to tell the story of the Andrea Gail in his book “The Perfect Storm,” Sillen too, tells the story of David Henry White, not by his own narrative, but by the narratives of those around him, and thus by piecing together their narratives he is able to create a narrative of White’s life by the preponderance of evidence, even without a personal narrative viewpoint.

By comparing and contrasting differing narrative views, Sillen disposes of false narratives put forth by Raphel Semmes and other secondary sources who claimed that White was a contented slave, and creates a solid narrative that flows from White’s humble beginnings to his untimely death.

“Kidnapped At Sea” is well researched and well written in an easily readable style. I would highly recommend it for students of the American Civil War, slavery and maritime history.

ISBN 978-1421449517, Johns Hopkins University Press, © 2024, Hardcover, 352 pages, Photographs, Maps, Illustrations, Tables, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $32.95. To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: The North Star

The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln

by Julian Sher

When most people think about Canada’s participation in the American Civil War they naturally conclude that America’s northern neighbor served as a haven for fugitive slaves and nothing else. The truth is a much more complicated and nuanced story; Canadians either directly or indirectly participated on both sides of the conflict.

Award-winning journalist and author Julian Sher relates the true history of the Canadian involvement in the war the tore the United States apart in his book “The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against the Union.

Among those covered in “The North Star” are: George Taylor Denison III, who was an enthusiastic supporter of the Confederate cause who bankrolled Confederate operations and opened his mansion to their agents; Anderson Ruffin Abbott, the first Black Canadian to be licensed as a physician who joined the Union Army; Sarah Emma Edmonds, a New Brunswick woman who disguised herself as a man named Franklin Flint Thompson and enlisted in Company F of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and served with the Union Army as a field nurse and later a spy who travelled into enemy territory to gather information, requiring her to come up with many disguises; and Edward P. Doherty who formed and led the detachment of soldiers that captured and killed John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

“The North Star” is well researched and written, Sher’s narrative is easily read and engaging and highlights many aspects Canadian participation in the American Civil War of which many Americans and Canadians remain simply ignorant.

ISBN 978-1039000292, Knopf Canada, © 2023, Hardcover, 480 pages, Photographs, Sources and End Notes, & Index. $28.00. To purchase this book click HERE.