South in the era of the Civil War and Emancipation. Her first book, The Divided Family in Civil War America, explored the image and reality of families divided by national loyalties in the Civil War period. Her current book project, a study of the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who fled slavery during the Civil War, examines how their experiences in so-called “contraband” camps shaped the way emancipation unfolded in the United States. Read Amy Murrell Taylor's essay.