Warriors for Liberty – William Dollarson and Michigan’s Civil War African Americans

Michigan’s African-Americans played critical roles in winning the Civil War and setting millions of fellow Americans forever free. The 1st Michigan Colored Infantry Regiment, more than 1,500 strong, helped overwhelm their enemies on the battlefield.

Alongside the soldiers, civilian Black men and women contributed in previously unrecognized ways to defending and extending human liberty. This first-ever complete recounting coincides with the 160th anniversary of the Michigan regiment mustering into the U.S. Army. 

Warriors for Liberty sheds unprecedented light on the heroism, patriotism, and fortitude of Michiganders of African descent during this tumultuous era in American history.

All proceeds from the sale of this book goes toward the Michigan Monument at Antietam project.

Availability: Coming Fall 2024 

Praise for Warriors for Liberty

“Warriors for Liberty is a multifaceted gem that sparkles with both the individual story of the remarkable, formerly enslaved William Dollarson and the collective story of resistance to slavery in antebellum Michigan. It illuminates Dollarson’s extraordinary fight against American slavery, which began with his own escape from enslavement, continued as he built a life for himself and his family, and intensified when war came and the elderly man risked his own life and family’s security to join the military destruction of slavery by serving as a Union Army cook. Moreover, Warriors for Liberty roots Dollarson’s story of conviction and resistance in a rich antebellum history of abolitionism and free Black activism in Michigan.”

—Chandra Manning, professor of history, Georgetown University, winner of the Avery

O. Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians for the most original book on the Civil War years, and expert on slavery and emancipation

“A marvelous saga of courage, Warriors for Liberty recalls to life the story of William Dollarson, a self-emancipated Black Virginian who rose to become the leader of Detroit’s Black community before risking his life by serving in slaveholding Maryland or near Confederate lines while on the staff of General Alpheus S. Williams. Exhaustively researched and extremely well-written.”

—Douglas R. Egerton, author of Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That

Redeemed America, professor of history, LeMoyne College