Praise for The Road Was Full of Thorns:
"A capacious reimagining of the spirit that animated the Civil War."
–Publishers Weekly "Tom Zoellner vividly recounts the dramatic experience of men and women who seized freedom during the Civil War. Their resourceful courage overcame prejudice, abuse, and violence to help Union forces win a hard-fought war."
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Alan Taylor, author of American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873 and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 "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."
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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."
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Keisha N. Blain, co-editor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls "With style, urgency, and clarity, Tom Zoellner tells the story of the flight of enslaved people to U.S. lines in the Civil War's early days . . . a compelling and beautiful book covering an under-told and necessary
part of the country's past and the ways it impacts the present."
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Gregory P. Downs, author of After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War "Grippingly written and intrepidly researched."
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Calvin Schermerhorn, author of Unrequited Toil: A History of United States Slavery
