favorite examples of soldiering as a way of taking care of one's family comes from a missouri slave, spotswood rice. joins the union army, and he finds out that his regiment is going through the neighborhood of a woman who still owns his daughters. and the owner's name is miss kitty. he's tried to purchase his daughters from miss kitty to get them free. she wouldn't sell. so he writes her a letter that he finds that her regiment is going through her part of missouri. he says i'm taking my children and you cannot stop me because you will burn in hell if you try and prevent a man from taking care of his family. so the link between soldiering and manhood is pretty explicit in that letter. there is another thing i think the black soldiers sometimes mean when they talk about manhood of the race. i think they mean recognition of the full humanity of all slaves, of all black people. i don't think they see this as just about men, they see this about black women, about black children, that by battling against an institution that keeps southern blacks in bondage, black men see themselves as smashing the