Many of you have been following my tweets re: my current book project on Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Well, things have taken a turn, in part, thanks to my #BookSquad buddies who read and commented on my proposal last week. In short, I am no longer writing a biography of Shaw.

From the beginning what struck me most was Shaw's time in and around Port Royal, SC between June/July 1863. Shaw and the men of the 54th Mass. found themselves in the middle of a radical experiment that aided thousands of enslaved people to transition from slavery to freedom.

I was interested in Shaw's trajectory over the course of the first two years of the war, including how his understanding of the war evolved and how commanding a black regiment in South Carolina further challenged his assumptions about race and what the war was about.

I was fascinated by his interactions with other people with very different backgrounds, who also found themselves on the Sea Coast Islands during the war. Shaw was not the only one impacted by and whose life was significantly changed as a result of the Port Royal Experiment.

Turns out that place or how and why various people converged on a particular place is (and has long been) my primary interest. During our meeting on Fri. night my #BookSquad colleagues kept coming back to reinforce this point. Even they saw it as a result of reading the proposal.

I've been sketching out ideas all weekend, but one possible approach is to try to tell the story of Port Royal through the lives of a small number of people who found their way there during the war. It will also explore how PR influenced the course of their respective futures.

It's a story about how the course of the war & the earliest years of Reconstruction in SC shaped individuals lives and how these very same people contributed to the larger narrative. The list of characters will certainly change moving forward, but this should give you some idea:

1. Col. Robert Gould Shaw, 54th Mass.
2. Charlotte Forten, African American reformer from Phila.
3. Col. James Montgomery, Col. 2nd SC (black regiment)
4. Confederate General Johnson Hagood
5. Port Royal slave/freedmen, TBD
6. Corporal James Henry Gooding, 54th Mass.

7. Northern reformer, TBD

The list will likely change, but I am excited about the way the project has evolved. I've never visited Port Royal and the new Reconstruction Era National Park so that will be my 1st research stop once this madness is over.

Let me know what you think.