The Fire of Liberty in their Hearts : the Diary of Jacob E. Yoder of the Freedmen's Bureau School Lynchburg Virginia 1866-1870

About this book

In the tumultuous days after the close of the Civil War a young teacher of Pennsylvania Mennonite background made his way to the city of Lynchburg to become an instructor in the Freedmens Bureau schools. At the close of his long days teaching Jacob Eschbach Yoder often stole a few minutes to record his experiences in a journal. The diaries published here for the first time provide a remarkable glimpse of daily life in the postwar South and the personal musings of a young man coming of age in a time of great social change. His eyewitness account of the struggle for freedom is enhanced with 20 black-and-white illustrations.