The Enslaved-Made Towel That Reveals a Hidden Civil War Story

On this episode of Our American Stories, a plain white cloth, roughly woven, unremarkable at first glance, turns out to be a powerful witness to slavery, war, and freedom. Chris Graham of the American Civil War Museum shares the story of a towel woven by an enslaved person on a South Carolina plantation during the Civil War. Long interpreted as evidence of Confederate hardship, the cloth reveals a deeper truth about forced migration, self-emancipation, and the lives of enslaved people moved inland to escape Union lines. Through this single object, a hidden chapter of the Civil War, and America’s original sin, comes into focus.

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