by Tom Zoellner
New Press
9/30/2025, hardcover
SKU: 9798893850086
A radical retelling of the drama of emancipation, from New York Times bestselling author and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
In the opening days of the Civil War, three enslaved men approached the gates of Fort Monroe, a U.S. military installation in Virginia. In a snap decision, the fort's commander "confiscated" them as contraband of war.
From then on, wherever the U.S. Army traveled, torrents of runaways rushed to secure their own freedom, a mass movement of 800,000 people--a fifth of the enslaved population of the South--that set the institution of slavery on a path to destruction.
In an engrossing work of narrative history, critically acclaimed historian Tom Zoellner introduces an unforgettable cast of characters whose stories will transform our popular understanding of how slavery ended. The Road Was Full of Thorns shows what emancipation looked and felt like for the people who made the desperate flight across dangerous territory: the taste of mud in the mouth, the terror of the slave patrols, and the fateful crossing into Union lines. Zoellner also reveals how the least powerful Americans changed the politics of war--forcing President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and opening the door to universal Black citizenship.
For readers of The 1619 Project--and anyone interested in the Civil War--The Road Was Full of Thorns is destined to reshape how we think about the story of American freedom.
Reviews:
"This powerful and inspiring book reveals the pivotal role contraband camps played in the dismantling of slavery. Through gripping narratives, it highlights the bravery and determination of African Americans who took bold steps toward freedom and self-governance--bringing the nation closer to its founding ideals." -- Marjoleine Kars, author of Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom on the Wild Coast, winner of the 2021 Cundhill History Prize and co-winner of the 2021 Frederick Douglass Prize
"A vital, illuminating, and beautifully written book that affirms that Black people freed themselves. While American public memory often valorizes Abraham Lincoln or other political leaders in the fight for emancipation, Tom Zoellner places African Americans at the center of the narrative to show how they were the architects of their own destiny."
-- Keisha N. Blain, co-editor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls
About the Author:
Tom Zoellner is the author of nine nonfiction books, including Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for the best nonfiction book of 2020. He works as a professor at Chapman University and as an editor-at-large for the Los Angeles Review of Books. He lives in Los Angeles.