The history, philosophy and religious studies department’s November colloquium will feature David Silkenat’s "Driven Away from Home: The American Civil War Considered as a Refugee Crisis." The event is scheduled for Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Union Hidatsa room.
Silkenat said the Civil War generated one of the largest refugee crises in American history. Throughout the Confederacy, black and white Southerners fled away from and toward Union lines. Far from home, they found themselves living in refugee camps, without adequate food and shelter, and suffering from homesickness, malnutrition and epidemic disease. “A significantly understudied aspect of the American Civil War, this refugee crisis sheds light on the lived experience of thousands of civilians driven from their homes,” Silkenat said. “One of the most important and distinctive features of the Confederate refugee crisis was its diversity, as Southerners of all races, genders, classes and political alliances chose or were forced to move as a consequence of the Civil War. Recognizing the importance of these voluntary and involuntary migrations should force us to reconsider how we understand the Confederate home front when so many Southerners experienced the war away from home.”
Silkenat, assistant professor of history and education, he has taught at NDSU since 2008. His work has received recognition from the Southern Historical Association and the North Caroliniana Society. He recently published articles in the North Carolina Historical Review and Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. He is the author of Moments of Despair: Suicide, Divorce, and Debt in Civil War Era North Carolina (UNC Press, 2011).
Direct special needs requests or questions about this event to Dennis Cooley at dennis.cooley@ndsu.edu or 1-7038.