# Now or Never!: Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry's War to End Slavery - Hardcover

by **Ray Anthony Shepard** (Author)

**Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book**

**Here is the riveting dual biography of two little-known but extraordinary African-American Union soldiers in Civil War history--George E. Stephens and James Henry Gooding.**

Stephens and Gooding not only served in the Massachusetts 54th Infantry, the well-known black regiment, but were also war correspondents who published eyewitness reports of the battlefields. Their dispatches told the truth of their lives at camp, their intense training, and the dangers and tragedies on the battlefield. Like the other thousands of black soldiers in the regiment, they not only fought against the Confederacy and the inhumanity of slavery, but also against injustice in their own army. The regiment's protest against unfair pay resulted in America's first major civil rights victory--equal pay for African American soldiers. This fresh perspective on the Civil War includes an author's note, timeline, bibliography, index and source notes.

### Author Biography

**Ray Anthony Shepard** is the grandson of a slave and was the first African American editor-in-chief of a major educational publishing house. He holds an MAT from Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he received a Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. He has taught at Phillips Andover Academy and Brandeis University. He lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts. rayanthonyshepard.com

**Number of Pages:** 144

**Dimensions:** 1 x 9.3 x 6.2 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** October 10, 2017

**Accelerated Reader:**

**Quiz Name:** Now or Never! 54th Massachusetts Infantry's War to End Slavery

**Interest Level:** Upper Middle Grades, 6 and up

**Reading Level:** 8

**Point Value:** 5

## Details

- **Price:** 17.95 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 17.95 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Now or Never!: Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry's War to End Slavery - Hardcover

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