author
A. H. (Alexander Herritage) Newton
b. 1837
Born free in North Carolina in 1837, this Civil War veteran turned his own hard-won life into a memoir meant to encourage younger Black readers. His writing blends personal history, wartime experience, and a minister’s sense of purpose.
1 Audiobook
Out of the Briars An Autobiography and Sketch of the Twenty-ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers
by A. H. (Alexander Herritage) Newton
About the author
Alexander Herritage Newton was an African American author, minister, and Union soldier best known for Out of the Briars (1910), an autobiography that also includes a history of the Twenty-Ninth Connecticut Volunteers. Library of Congress records identify him as A. H. Newton, born in 1837, and the book itself was published by the A.M.E. Book Concern.
Reliable historical summaries describe him as born in North Carolina to a free Black mother and an enslaved father. As a young man he moved north, later enlisted in the 29th Connecticut during the Civil War, and was wounded in service before becoming a sergeant. After the war, he entered the African Methodist Episcopal ministry.
What makes Newton especially memorable is the way he wrote about his life: not simply to record events, but to offer an example of perseverance. Out of the Briars combines memoir, military history, and religious reflection, giving readers a firsthand view of Black life before the Civil War, the experience of Black Union soldiers, and the long work of building a life afterward.