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Sometimes, I see a quotation in a text like this:

[F]ollowing the Civil War, departed from the Southern United States...

What does the [F] signify? I thought that it might be for a quote which was taken mid sentence, so the editor inserted a grammatical necessity. So the original sentence would be something like:

Many freedmen, following the the Civil War, departed from the Southern United States...

I also see full words, like:

[freed slaves] departed from the Southern United States...

Am I right? Is there a style guide these conventions are following? Is this good practice?

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As to your first example, you are correct. The earlier writer wrote a longer sentence, in which "following" appeared all in lower-case. The later writer quoted a portion of that sentence, starting at that word, which therefore needs a cap F because it starts a sentence. The later writer puts the F in brackets to indicate that it was not a cap F in the original.

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  • In the second case, the original may have read ...they departed..., or been part of a much longer sentence, and the author has supplied the actual subject of the clause in brackets to make the meaning clear.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Feb 19, 2023 at 8:57
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    It should perhaps be added that the use of square brackets to indicate a change of capitalisation (as in the OP's first example) is not universally required, unlike their use to indicate insertion of words that are not in the original (as in the OP's second example), which is always required. Where utmost accuracy is expected, as in scholarly and legal texts, writers will use square brackets when they change capitalisation, but in more casual writing such changes are often made quietly, without being marked in any way (as long as no other changes made).
    – jsw29
    Commented Feb 20, 2023 at 17:15

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