Allen B. Ballard

Allen Ballard

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Where I'm Bound was selected by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association as the best first novel of the year 2000!

about the author

Allen B. Ballard, Professor of History and Africana Studies at SUNY-Albany, holds an undergraduate degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from Kenyon College
in Ohio and a Ph.D. degree in government from Harvard University.

He taught government at City College of New York for many years and was the founder of the SEEK program, the first Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) program in the nation. For five years he served as Dean of Faculty of the City University where he was instrumental in the creation of the Open Admissions program for that university.

In addition to the novel Where I'm Bound, Dr. Ballard has published two nonfiction books, The Education of Black People (Harper and Row, 1973) and One More Day's Journey: The Story of a Family and a People (McGraw Hill, 1984). His articles have appeared in scholarly and popular journals, including the New York Times Magazine.

Where I'm Bound
(Click to order via Amazon)

by Allen Ballard

Format: Hardcover, 316pp.
ISBN: 0684870312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Trade
Pub. Date: October 2000

Where I'm Bound was chosen for the CWMYB Online Book Club's Reading list (Reading List December 2001)

"Built around the campaigns of the 3rd U.S. Colored Cavalry Regiment; the Civil War explodes through dimensions of history bypassed by a horde of historians. Now Allen B. Ballard has drawn back the curtain on yet another marvelous and moving epoch of the Black experience of that time in Where I'm Bound."
— John A. Williams, author of The Man Who Cried I Am

Where I'm Bound, a stunning and engaging Civil War novel, is the first work of fiction to focus solely on the soldiers of an African-American regiment. Throughout the war, more than 180,000 African-American men fought for the Union Army. Many were escaped slaves, others were freed men; yet all voluntarily enlisted for one cause: freedom. For the first time in fiction, their experiences are successfully portrayed in a manner befitting the grandeur and scope of their contributions. Inspired by the true story of a black cavalry unit in Mississippi, renowned African-American historian Allen Ballard weaves factual events with the fictional account of an escaped slave, Joe Duckett, who flees to join the Northern Army.

When Duckett escapes his life of bondage to become a cavalry scout, he grows to be more than a free man — he becomes a hero. Duckett and his hard-riding regiment roam the Mississippi Delta, freeing slaves and keeping vital waterways open for the Union. As the war approaches its final, tragic days, Duckett embarks on his most dangerous mission yet: to return to the plantation from which he escaped in order to reunite with his wife and daughter.

More than just an account of the Civil War, Where I'm Bound is an affecting portrayal of the psychological effects of war. Through the character Duckett, some of war's greatest tragedies are painfully evoked — the agonizing separation from family, the horrendous mission of having to kill another man, and the cruelty and moral corruption that occur when men's passions are their greatest weapons against one another. This story of one man's ability to meet such overwhelming challenges brings to life the noble fight for freedom as displayed by African-American soldiers as well as the effects of that fight on an entire country and culture.

Dr. Ballard's first work of fiction is a striking blend of historical fact and dramatic storytelling brilliantly illustrating the accomplishments of African-American Civil War soldiers. Where I'm Bound is destined to become a classic novel of the Civil War.