John David Smith is the Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor of American History at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His many books include An Old Creed for the New South; Slavery, Race, and American History; Black Judas: William Hannibal Thomas and The American Negro; Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops; and Soldiering for Freedom (with Bob Luke). Smith has received the Mayflower Society Award for Nonfiction and The Gustavus Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America.