Broken Promises: Black Women, Sexual Violence, and the Denial of Justice in the Civil War

The Civil War is often remembered as a fight for freedom and union. Still, for countless Black women, it was also a time of unimaginable danger, betrayal, and silence. Broken Promises uncovers the forgotten stories of women whose voices were stifled, whose pain was dismissed, and whose search for justice was denied.

Through vivid case histories and gripping narrative, this book reveals how the courts, the army, and even the nation itself consistently failed to protect Black women from sexual...