William Hannibal Thomas (1843–1935) served with distinction in the U.S. Colored Troops in the Civil War (in which he lost an arm) and was a preacher, teacher, lawyer, state legislator, and journalist following Appomattox. In many publications up through the 1890s, Thomas espoused a critical though optimistic black nationalist ideology. After his mid-twenties, however, Thomas began exhibiting a self-destructive personality, one that kept him in constant trouble with authorities and always on the run. His book The American Negro (1901) was his final self-destructive act. Attacking African Americans in gross and insulting language in this utterly pessimistic book, Thomas blamed them for the contemporary “Negro problem” and argued that the race required radical redemption based on improved “character,” not changed “color.” Vague in his recommendations, Thomas implied that blacks should model themselves after certain mulattoes, most notably William Hannibal Thomas. Black Judas is a biography of Thomas, a publishing history of The American Negro, and an analysis of that book’s significance to American racial thought. The book is based on fifteen years of research, including research in postamputation trauma and psychoanalytic theory on selfhatred, to assess Thomas’s metamorphosis from a constructive race critic to a black Negrophobe. John David Smith argues that his radical shift resulted from key emotional and physical traumas that mirrored Thomas’s life history of exposure to white racism and intense physical pain.
The 51st Regiment, Tennessee Infantry was organized at Henderson Station, Tennessee, in January, 1862. The 52nd was also organized at the same time with men from Tipton, Fayette, Shelby, Madison, and Jackson counties. A detachment of the 52nd was captured at Fort Donelson, then in October it was active in the fight at Perryville. Later the unit was assigned to D.S. Donelson's, M.J. Wright's, Vaughan's, and Palmer's Brigade. During April, 1862, it was consolidated with the 52nd Regiment and called the 51st Consolidated. However, the consolidation was declared illegal and during April, 1863, it was reorganized as the 51st and 52nd Consolidated Regiment and each unit kept separate records. It participated in many battles of the Army of Tennessee from Murfreesboro to Atlanta, returned to Tennessee with Hood, and was involved in the North Carolina Campaign.
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