Born into slavery in the American South, teenaged Parson Sykes flees from his enslavers and manages to reach Union lines. Along with thousands of other self-liberated Black people and freemen, Parson joins the Army and is mustered into the U.S. Colored Troops Cavalry, XXV Corps. As part of this historic unit, he plays a role in both the fate of the nation and his own journey of self-liberation, engaging in such critical 1865 campaigns as Richmond and Appomattox.
There’s great interest and appeal in the core of David J. Mason’s THE SELF-LIBERATION OF PARSON SYKES: Enlistment in the Union Army is the appreciation that enslaved African-Americans were not simply meek, oppressed victims who fled if they could or hopefully awaited freedom—but human beings with agency who fought back against their own oppression with immense courage, tenacity, and efficacy. The author is one of Sykes’s descendants, adding a human touch to the story; some of the matter is taken from the family’s oral history, as well as (in at least one instance) some of Parson’s letters. The overall story of the Civil War is also told in clear, comprehensive terms—from causes and political movements to specific battles of specific campaigns. Anyone seeking a well-contextualized overview of the 1864-65 period of the War will find it here.
However, these last two points encapsulate the major hurdle of the text: the thread of Sykes’s life is very difficult to pick out. The sourcing of specifics is vague: in many instances, the text reads “According to Parson,” “Parson often talked about,” or in the one instance, “According to Parson’s letters,” but this is often an introduction to general information about the circumstances (rather than specific events). Parson no doubt recalled, for instance, the circumstances of refugee and Army camps, including the sanitary conditions, the food, and the society of Black people congregating there; but this information could be found in plenty of other works about the Civil War. It tells very little about Parson’s specific lived experience, and the novel makes no attempt to imaginatively tell that story through expository scenes. This may be some reticence on the part of the text to diverge too far from the established historical facts, but the reality is that factual information about Sykes appears relatively thin, and it would likely benefit from more imaginative retelling. SELF-LIBERATION positions itself as a “documentary novel,” but it is almost purely “documentary.”
Without this kind of creative narrative, it becomes difficult to sustain focus on Parson Sykes himself. The text essentially becomes a history of the USCT XXV Corps—with the understanding that, since Parson Sykes was part of this unit, its actions are effectively his own. The text has its facts straight, and it’s thorough in its telling, but this means that the story ultimately devolves into a standard “drums and trumpets” history of campaigns—pages flashing by in which Parson’s name is only mentioned in order to note, “According to Parson,” such-and-such events occurred. There is, for instance, far more discussion of white generals than of Parson himself, or any other Black soldier. This may be more respectful of the historical information that survives, and the overall subject matter (the experiences of Black Americans who fled from and fought slavery) is still of great interest in itself; but the limited approach makes the story much less personally compelling than a more narrative, fictionalized biographical account would be.
Nothing diminishes the essential significance of Parson Sykes’s life, and his family should be rightfully proud of him. However, it feels too dry and general to succeed as a “novel.” With that in mind, readers will still find this a valuable resource on the actions of Black Americans in the late stages of the War.
Col. David J. Mason’s THE SELF-LIBERATION OF PARSON SYKES: Enlistment in the Union Army isn’t really the “novel” it claims to be, but it is a concise and thorough review of Black Americans’ involvement in the Civil War.
~Dan Accardi for IndieReader
