The novel takes place during the American Civil War. The Civil War was a conflict between the Northern United States of America (“the Union”) and the Confederacy, a group of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union to form their own government. The schism had its roots in the issue of enslavement. The Southern economy relied on large-scale agriculture that utilized the labor of enslaved Black people, while the economy of the North was largely based on manufacturing and less reliant on enslavement. As abolitionist sentiment grew in the North, tensions between the North and the South increased, culminating in the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. The war lasted from April 1861 to April 1965, when the Confederacy surrendered to the Union.

Though the Civil War is one of the most well-known conflicts in American history, most of the narratives in popular books center on white soldiers and civilians. In their Author’s Note, Edwards and Richman state that The Thread Collectors aims to “explore the Civil War experience through two underrepresented lenses” (311).

William, one of the novel’s main characters, is a Black man who serves in the 3rd Louisiana Native Guard, one of the first all-Black units of the Union Army.