My Children Is My Own

This chapter considers the lives of African American fathers and children in freedom prior to, during, and after the Civil War and emancipation. Ongoing challenges, including postwar violence and abusive labor practices, undermined patriarchal status and underscore the ways in which normative definitions of fatherhood and family limit a full understanding of the African American experience. Although the promise of emancipation remained incomplete, caretaking fathers used their newfound freedom to reconstitute their families and attempt to assert their paternal rights.