Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Thursday, July 08, 2004
A Long Text Without Links But Some Formatting
FROM SLAVES TO CONTRABANDS TO FREEMEN
BOX 3: FOLDER 2 (7?)
Slaves and War:
90 I) Butler Hanged-The Negro Freed-On Paper-1863. 1861-1865.
O> Dark Artillery; Or, How To Make The Contrabands Useful. 1861-1865.
BOX 4: FOLDER 3: American Civil War Caricatures
KKK
51) Out On Parole-Scene-A Southern Forest. 1868.
Civilization, in its career, may often be traced in the nomenclatures of successive periods. These people were first called contrabands at Fortress Monroe; but at Port Royal, where they were next introduced to us in any considerable number, they were generally referred to as freedmen. These terms are milestones in our progress; and they are yet to be lost in the better and more comprehensive designation of citizens, or, when discrimination is convenient, citizens of African descent.
The capture of Hilton Head and Bay Point by the navy, November 7th, 1861, was followed by the immediate military occupation of the Sea Islands. In the latter part of December, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase, whose fore sight as a statesman and humane disposition naturally turned his thoughts to the subject, deputed a special agent to visit this district for the purpose of reporting upon the condition of the negroes who had been abandoned by the white population, and of suggesting some plan for the organization of their labor and the promotion of their general well being. The agent, leaving New York January 13th, 1862, reached that city again on his way to Washington on the 13th of February, having in the mean time visited a large number of the plantations, and talked familiarly with the negroes in their cabins. The results of his observations, in relation to the condition of the people, their capacities and wishes, the culture of their crops, and the best mode of administration, on the whole favorable, were embodied in a report. The plan proposed by him recommended the appointment of superintendents to act as guides of the negroes and as local magistrates, with an adequate corps of teachers. It was accepted by the Secretary with a full indorsement, and its execution intrusted to the same agent. The agent presented the subject to several members of Congress, with whom he had a personal acquaintance, but, though they listened respectfully, they seemed either to dread the magnitude of the social question, or to feel that it was not one with which they as legislators were called upon immediately to deal. The Secretary himself, and Mr. Olmstcd, then connected with the Sanitary Commission, alone seemed to grasp it, and to see the necessity of immediate action. It is doubtful if any member of the Cabinet, except Mr. Chase, took then any interest in the enterprise, though it has since been fostered by the Secretary of War. At the suggestion of the Secretary, the President appointed an interview with the agent. Mr. Lincoln, who was then chafing under a prospective bereavement, listened for a few moments, and then said, somewhat impatiently, that he did not think he ought to be troubled with such details,that there seemed to be an itching to get negroes into our lines; to which the agent replied, that these negroes were within them by the invitation of no one, being domiciled there before we commenced occupation. The President then
wrote and handed to the agent the following card: 1 shall he obliged if the Sec. of the Treasury will in his discretion give Mr. Pierce such instructions in regard to Port Royal contrabands as may seem judicious. A. LINCOLN. Feb. 15, 1862.
The President, so history must write it, approached the great question slowly and reluctantly; and in February, 1862, he little dreamed of the proclamations he was to issue in the September and January following. Perhaps that slowness and reluctance were well, for thereby it was given to this people to work out their own salvation, rather than to be saved by any chief or prophet. Notwithstanding the plan of superintendents was accepted, there were no funds wherewith to pay them. At this stage the Educational Commission, organized in Boston on the 7th of Febinary, and the Freedmens Relief As sociation, organized in New York on the 20th of the same month, gallantly volunteered to pay both superintendents and teachers, and did so until July 1st, when the Government, having derived a fund from the sale of confiscated cotton left in the territory by the Rebels, undertook the payment of the superintendents, the two societies, together with another organized in Philadelphia on the 3d of March, and called the Port Royal Relief Committee, providing for the support of the teachers.
When these voluntary associations sprang into being to save an enterprise which otherwise must have failed, no authoritative assurance had been given as to the legal condition of the negroes. The Secretary, in a letter to the agent, had said, that, after being received into our service, they could not, without great injustice, be restored to their masters, and should therefore be fit d to become self-supporting citizens. The President was reported to have said freely, in private, that negroes who were within VOL. XII. 20 our lines, and had been employed by the Government, should be protected in their freedom. No official assurance of this had, however, been given.; and its absence disturbed the societies in their formation.
. But the societies, on reflection, wisely determined to do what they could to prepare them to become self-supporting citizens, in the belief, that, when they had become such, no Government could ever be found base enough to turn its back upon them. These associations, it should be stated, have been man aged by persons of much consideration in their respective communities, of unostentatious philanthropy, but of energetic and practical benevolence, hardly one of whom has ever filled or been a candidate for a political office.
. On the morning of the 3d of March, 1862, the first delegation of superintendents and teachers, fifty-three in all, of whom twelve were women, left the harbor of New York, on board the United States steam-transport Atlantic, arriving at Beaufort on the 9th. It was a voyage never to be forgotten. The enterprise was new and stran~e, and it was not easy to predict its future. Success or defeat might be in store for us and we could only trust in God that our strength would be equal to our responsibilities. As the colonists approached the shores of South Carolina, they were addressed by the agent in charge, who told them the little he had learned of their duties, enjoined patience and humanity, impressed on them the greatness of their work, the results of which were to cheer or dishearten good men, to settle, perhaps, one way or the other, the social problem of the age, assuring them that never did a vessel bear a colony on a nobler mission, not even the Mayflower, when she conveyed the Pilgrims to Plymouth, that it would be a poorly written history which should omit their individual names, and that, if faithful to their trust, there would come to them the highest of all recognitions ever accorded to angels or to men, in this life or the next, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto Me.
Notwithstanding our work was commenced six weeks too late, and other hiiidrances occurred, detailed in the second report of the agent, some eight thousand acres of esculents, a fair supply of food, and some four thousand five huyidred acres of cotton (after a deduction for over estimates) were planted. This was done upon one hundred and eighty-nine plantations, on which were nine thousand and fifty people, of whom four thousand four hundred and twenty-nine were fieldhands, made up of men, women, and children, and equivalent, in the usual classification and estimate of the productive capacity of laborers, to three thousand eight hundred and five and onehalf full hands. The cotton crop produced will not exceed sixty-five thousand pounds of ginned cotton.
It is fitting here that I should bear my testimony to the superintendents and teachers commissioned by the associations. There was as high a purpose and devotion among them as in any colony that ever went forth to bear the evangel of civilization. Among them were some of the choicest young men of New England, fresh from Harvard, Yale, and Brown, from the divinity-schools of Andover and Cambridge, men of practical talent and experience. There were some of whom the world was scarce worthy, and to whom, whether they are amon~ the living or the dead, I delight to pay the tribute of my respect and admiration.
Four of the original delegation have died.
On the first of July, 1862, the adininistration of affairs at Port Royal having been transferred frein the Treasury to the War Departuient, the charge of the freedmen passed into the hands of BrigadierGeneral Rufus Saxton, a native of Massachusetts, who in childhood had breathed the free air of the valley of the Connecticut, a man of sincere and humane nature and under his wise arid benevolent care they still remain. The Sea Islands, and also Pernandina and St. Augustine in Florida, are within our lines iii the Department of the South, and some sixteen or eighteen thousand negroes are supposed to be under his jurisdiction. The negroes of the Sea Islands, when found by us, had become an abject race, more docile and submissive than those of any other locality. The native African was of a fierce and mettlesome temper, sullen and untamable. The master was obliged to abate something of the
301
usual rigor in dealing with the imported slaves. A tax-commissioner, now at Port
The slave is unknown to all, even to himself, while the bondage lasts. Nature is ever a kind mother. She soothes us with her deceits, not in surgery alone, when the sufferer, else writhing in pain, is transported with the sweet delirium, but she withholds from the spirit the sight of her divinity until her opportunity has come. Not even Tocqueville ur Olmsted, much less the master, can measure the capacities and possibilities of the slave, until the slave himself is transmuted to a man.
But the features in the present condition of the freedmen bearing directly on the solution of the social problem deserve most consideration. And, first, as to education. There are more than thirty schools in the territory, conducted by as many as forty or fortyfive teachers, who are commissioned by the three associations in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and by the American Missionary Association. They have an average attendance of two thou sand pupils, and are more or less frequented by an additional thousand. The ages of the scholars range in the main from eight to twelve years. They did not know even their letters prior to a year ago last March, except those who were being taught in the single school at Beaufort already referred to, which had been going on for a few weeks.
. The eagerness for knowledge and the facility of acquisition displayed in the beginning had not abated. On the 25th of March 1 visited a school at the Central Baptist Church on St. Helena Island, built in 1855, shaded by lofty live-oak trees, with the long, pendu lous moss everywhere hanging from their wide-spreadin~ branches, and surround e(l by the gravestones of the former proprietors, which bear the ever-recurring names of Fripp and Chaplin. This school was opened in September last, but man v of the pupils had received some instruction before. One hundred and thirty one children were present on my first visit, an(h one hundred and forty-five on my second, which was a few days later. Like most of the schools on the pIanta~ tions, it opened at noon and chased a~ ~iO4 2Ysc Ireeclme at Port Royal. [September,
fisree oclock, leaving the forenoon for the children to work in the field or perform other service in which they could be useful. One class, of twelve pupils, read page 70th in Willsons Reader, on Going Away. They had not read the passage hefore, and they went through it with little spellin~ or hesitation. They had recited the first thirty pages of Towles Speller, and the multiplicationtable as high as fives, and were commencing the sixes. A few of the scholars, the youngest, or those who had come latest to the school, were learning the alphabet. At the close of the school, they recited in concert the Psalm, The Lord is my shepherd, requiring prompting at the beginning of some of the verses. They sang with much spirit hymns which had heen taught them by the teachers, as, also, My country, t is of thee, Sweet land of liberty;
Sound the loud timbrel ; also, Whittiers new song, written expressly for this school, the closing stanzas of which are, The very oaks are greener clad, The waters brighter smile; Oh, never shone a day so glad On sweet St. helens Isle!
For none in all the world before Were ever glad as we, We re free on Carolinas shore, We re all at home and free
Never has tha.t pure Muse, which has sung only of truth and right, as the highest beauty and noblest art, been consecrated to a better service than to write the songs of praise for these little children, chattels no longer, whom the Sayiour, were he now to walk on earth, would bless as his own. The prevalent song, however, heard in every school, in church, and by the way-side, is that of John Brown, which very much amuses our white soldiers, particularly when the singers roll out, The children also sang their own songs, as, Jn do mornin when I rise, Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh? ~ In do mornin when I rise, Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh?
The teacher was instructing her pupils in some dates and facts which have had much to do with our history. The questions and answers, in which all the pupils joined, were these : Where were slaves first brought to this country ? Viromnia. When ?
1620. Who brought them? Dutchmen. Who came the same year to Plymouth, Massachusetts? Pilrrims. a Did they bring slaves? No. A teacher in Beaufort put these qius tions, to Which answers were given in a loud tone by the whole school: What country do you live in? United States. XAThat State ? South Carolina. What island? Port Royal. What town? Beaufort. Who is your Governor? General Saxton. Who is your President? AbrAham Lincoln. What has he done for you? He s freed us.
. There is, besides, at Beaufort an industrial school, which meets two afternoons in a week, and is conducted by a lady from New York, with some dozen ladies to assist her. There were present, the afternoon I visited it, one hundred and thirteen girls from six to twenty years of age, all plying the needle, some with pieces of patchwork, and others with aprons, pillow cases, or handkerchiefs. Though I have never been on the school-committee, I accepted invitations to address the schools on these visits, and particularly plied the pupils with questions, so as to catch the tone of their minds and I have rarely heard children answer with more readiness and spirit. We had a dialogue substantially as follows : Children, what are you going to do when you grow up?
Going to work, Sir. On what? Cotton and corn, Sir. \Vhat are you going to do with the 1863.1 Tile Freedmen at Port Royal.
Eat it. What are you going to do with the cotton? Sell it. What are you going to do with the money you get for it? One boy answered in advance of the rest, Put it in my pocket, Sir. That wont do. What s better than that? Buy clothes, Sir. What else will you buy? Shoes, Sir. What else are you going to do with your money? There was some hesitation at this point. Then the question was put, What are you going to do Sundays? Going to meeting. What are you going to do ther&? Going to sing. XVhat else? Hear the parson. Who s going to pay him? One boy said, Government pays him; but the rest answered, We s pays him. Well, when you grow up, you 11 probably get married, as other people do, and you 11 have your little children now, what will you do with them? There was a titter at this question; but the general response came, Send em to school, Sir. Well, who 11 pay the teacher? We s pays him. One who listens to such answers can hardly think that there is any natural incapacity in these children to acquire with maturity of years the ideas and habits of good citizens. The children are cheerful, and, in most of the schools, well-behaved, except that it is not easy to keep them from whispering and talking. They are joyous, and you can see the boys after school playing the soldier, with corn stalks for guns. The memory is very susceptible in them, too much so, perhaps, as it is ahead of the reasoning faculty.
Next as to industry. The laborers, during their first year under the new system, have acquired the idea of ownership, and of the security of wages, and have come to see that labor and slavery are not the same thing. The notion that they were to raise no more cotton has passed away, since work upon it is found to be remunerative, and connected with the proprietorship of land. House -servants, who were at first particularly set against it, now generally prefer it.
A superintendent on St. Helena Island said, that, if he were going to carry on any work, he should not want better laborers.
The work has heen greatly deranged by the draft, some features of which have not been very skilfully arranged, and by the fitfulness with which the laborers have been treated by the military authorities. The work both upon the cotton and the corn is done only by the women, children, and disabled men. It has been suggested that field-work does not become women in the new condition; and so it may seem to some persons of just sympathies who have not yet learned that no honest work is dishonorable in man or woman. But this matter may be left to regulate itself. Field-work, as an occupation, may not be consistent with the finest feminine culture or the most complete womanliness; but it in no way conflicts with virtue, self-respect, and social development. Women work in the field in Switzerland, the freest country of Eu rope; and we may look with pride on the triumphs of this generation, when the American negroes become the peers of the Swiss peasantry. Better a woman with the hoe than without it, when she is not yet fitted for the needle or the book.
The instinct for land to have one spot on earth where a man may stand, and whence no human being can of right drive him is one of the most conservative elements of our nature; and a people who have it in any fair degree will never be nomads or vagabonds. This developing manhood is further seen in their growing consciousness of rights, and their readiness to defend themselves, even when assailed by white men.
. Another evidence of developing manhoo(l appears in their desire for the comforts and conveniences of household life. The Philadelphia society, for the purpose of maintaining reasonable prices, has a store on St. Helena Island, which is under the charge of Friend Hunn, of the good fellowship of William Penn.. . . there is also a great demand for plates, knives, forks, tin ware, and better clothing, including even hoop-skirts
. What a market the South would open under the new system! It would set all the mills and workshops astir. Four millions of people would become purchasers of all the various articles of manufacture and commerce, in place of the few coarse, simple necessaries, laid in for them in gross by the planters. Here ]5 the solution of the vexed industrial question~ The indisposition to labor is overcome in a healthy nature by instincts and motives of superior force, such as the love of life, the desire to be well clothed and fed, the sense of security derived from provision for the future, the feeling of selfresl)ect, the love of family and children, and the convictions of (luty. These all exist in the negro, in a state of greater or l~ss development. To give one or two examples. One man brought Captain looper seventy (lollars in silver, to keep for him, which. he had obtained from selling pigs and chickens, thus providing for the future. Soldiers of Colonel Higginsons re~iment, having confidence in the same officer, intrusted him, when they were paid off, with seven hundred dollars, to be transmitted by him to their wives, and this besides what they had sent home in other ways,showing the family-feeling to be etive and strong in them. They have also the social and religious inspirations to labor. Thus, early in our occupation of Hilton Head, they took up, of their own accord, a collection to pay for the candles for their evening meetings, feeling that it was not right for the Government longer to provide them. The result was a contribution of two dollars and forty-eight cents. They had just fled from their masters, and had received only a small pittance of wages, and this little sum was not unlike the two mites which the widow cast into the treasury. Another collection was taken, last June, in the church on St. Helena Island, upon the suggestion of the pastor that they should share in the expenses of worship. Fifty-two dol lars was the result, not a K d collection for some of our Northern churches. 1 have seen these people where they are said to be lowest, and sad indeed are some features of their lot, yet with all earnestness and confidence I enter my protest against the wicked satire of Carlyle.
There are some vices charged upon these people, or a portion of them, an(l truth requires that nothing be withheld. There is said to be a good deal of petty pilfering among them, although they are faithful to trusts. This is the natural growth of the old system, and is quite 312 The Freedmen at Port Royal. [September,
likely to accompany the transition state. Besides, the present disturbed and unorganized condition of things is not favorable to the rigid virtues. But inferences from this must not be pressed too far. When I was a private soldier in Virginia, as one of a three-months regiment, we used to hide from each other our little comforts and delicacies, even our dishes and clothing, or they were sure to disappear. But we should have ridiculed an adventurous thinker upon the character istics of races and classes, who should have leaped therefrom to the conclusion that all white men or all soldiers are thieves.
Now let me try LOTS OF TEXT
RESEARCH NEEDS
1. Read Lucy Chase letter of March 4 (1863) [Craney Is. Forwarded 3d mo.
4th [1863]] to see what she says after she talks about
Quashee. Transcribe, if useful, and consider whether a scan is needed or not.
I can truly say, white-man though I am, that I have, with the Negro, 'a
feeling sense' of this state of transition. Lo! an episode! Every hour of
my life here is strange: it is not the past; it is not the future, and
with all the chances and changes of war it does not seem to be the present,
either. Carlyle is right. Quashee does love to lie in the sun.
2. Image of Butler?
Main Author: Baker, Joseph E., ca. 1837-1914.
Title: Benj. F. Butler : Major General of U.S. Army.
Imprint: Boston : Lithographed & published by J.H. Bufford, 313 Washington
St. Boston., 1861.
Description: 1 print : lithotint ; 43 x 26 cm.
Notes: Printed area measures 36.5 x 23.1 cm.
J.E. Baker [signed on stone].
Taken from a Photograph by Southworth.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1861 by J.H. Bufford in
the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Mass.
Local Note(s): American Antiquarian Society copy 2 trimmed.
American Antiquarian Society copy 2 is chine collé print.
American Antiquarian Society copy 2 the gift of Charles H. Taylor and has
ink stamp: Taylor Lith. Coll.
Subject(s): Butler, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1893 Portraits.
Armed Forces--Portraits.
United States--Biography--Portraits.
Genre(s): Portrait prints.
Ink stamps (Provenance).
Chine collé prints.
Lithotints.
Lithographs.
Printer/Publisher(s): Bufford, John Henry, 1810-1870, copyright holder.
Illustrator/Lithographer(s): Bufford, John Henry, 1810-1870, lithographer.
Former Owner/Donor(s): Southworth, Albert S., associated name.
Taylor, Charles Henry, 1867-1941, donor.
Primary Material: Visual Material
Physical Description: Nonprojected Graphic
Call number(s): Lithf Buff Bake Butl copy 1
Lithf Buff Bake Butl copy 2
OR
Title: In memoriam of the late General Benj. F. Butler, lawyer, statesman,
soldier.
Imprint: [United States : s.n., 1893]
Description: 1 sheet ([1] p.) : ill., 1 port. ; 30 x 22 cm.
Notes: Verse in three stanzas; first line: A hero has gone to
rest.Illustration include portrait of General Butler, died 1893, a soldier
with flag, and Grand Army of the Republic medal.Printed area, including
ornamental border, measures 28.0 x 19.3 cm.
Subject(s): Butler, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1893. Butler,
Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1893 Portraits.
Genre(s): Broadsides.Elegies.Relief prints.
First line broadside verse: A hero has gone to rest.
Primary Material: Book
Call number(s): Ballads I35m 12
4. Transcribe:
Box 4, Folder 1, April 1, 1845-flirtation letter to Henry Seargent (sp?)
(SCAN says Box 2, Folder 11-check which one is right)-actually, this is the
date for the rejection letter FROM Sargeant. Find her letter back.
PHOTO OPS
Stampede of Slaves to Fortress Monroe
Engraving, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War, May 1861 p. 202
"WORK'S OVER" - SCENES AMONG THE BEAUFORT, Harpers CONTRABANDSDecember 21,
1861, page 801 (on harpweekwebsite)
Descriptive Title: Morning Mustering of the 'Contraband' at Fortress
Monroe, on their way to their Day's Work, Under the Pay and Direction of
the U.S.
Original Caption: Morning Mustering of the 'Contraband' at Fortress
Monroe, on their way to their Day's Work, Under the Pay and Direction of
the U.S.
Material Type: Wood engravings
Creator: Unidentified
Date: 1861
Source: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper; November 2, 1861; p.373.
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs
and Prints Available online at Digital Schomburg
http://149.123.1.8/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?myzw7404
Descriptive Title: Left: Freedmen's Schoolhouse at Atlanta, Georgia;
Right: Freedmen's Farm School, near Washington, D. C.
Original Caption: Left: Freedmen's Schoolhouse at Atlanta, Georgia;
Right: Freedmen's Farm School, near Washington, D. C.
Material Type: Wood engravings
Creator: Unidentified
Date: 1867
Source: Harper's Weekly, Vol. XI, No. 535, March 30 1867, p. [193]
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs
and Prints Division
Subjects: Schools--Georgia--Atlanta
Schools--Washington D. C.
http://149.123.1.8/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?myzw7404
Descriptive Title: St. Philip's Church, Richmond, Virginia -- School for
African-American children.
Original Caption: St. Philip's Church, Richmond, Virginia -- School for
colored children
Material Type: Wood engravings
Creator: Unidentified
Date: 1867
Source: Harper's Weekly, Vol. XI, No. 543, p. 321.
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs
and Prints Division.
Subjects: Churches--Virginia--Richmond
Schools--Virginia-Richmond
http://149.123.1.8/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?myzw7404
Descriptive Title: Emancipated Slaves, White and Colored. Back row
(adults) left to right: Wilson Chinn, Mary Johnson, Robert Whitehead. Front
left to right: Charles Taylor, Augusta Broujey, Isaac White, Krebecca
Huger, Rosina Downs.
Original Caption: Emancipated Slaves, White and Colored. The Children
are from the Schools Established in New Orleans, by Order of Major- General
Banks.[Left to Right: Wilson Chinn, Mary Johnson, Robert Whitehead.
Material Type: Wood engravings
Creator: Unidentified
Date: 1864
Source: Harper's Weekly, January 30,1864 p.69.
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs
and Prints Division.
http://149.123.1.8/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?myzw7404
Descriptive Title: Top: Scenes in Memphis, Tennessee, During the
Riot-Burning a Freedmen's School-House. Bottom: Scenes in Memphis,
Tennessee, During the Riot-Shooting Down African Americans on the Morning
of May 2, 1866.
Original Caption: Scenes in Memphis, Tennessee, During the Riot.
Material Type: Wood engravings
Creator: Sketched by A.R.W.
Date: 1866
Source: Harper's Weekly, May 26,1866, p. 321.
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs
and Prints Division.
http://149.123.1.8/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?myzw7404
Descriptive Title: Top: Children playing outside primary school; Bottom:
all ages in class at primary school for Freedmen.
Original Caption: Noon at the Primary School for Freedmen, Vicksburg,
Mississippi; Primary School for Freedmen in charge of Mrs. Green, at
Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Material Type: Wood engravings
Creator: A.R.W. [A.R. Waud]
Date: 1866
Source: Harper's Weekly, June 23, 1866, p. 392.
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs
and Prints Division
http://149.123.1.8/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?myzw7404
Freedmen's Schools, Harpers, June 23, 1866, page 392
Descriptive Title: Marriage of an African-American soldier at Vicksburg by
Chaplain Warren of the Freedmen's Bureau.
Original Caption: Marriage of a colored soldier at Vicksburg by Chaplain
Warren of the Freedmen's Bureau.
Material Type: Wood engravings
Creator: Unidentified
Date: 1866
Source: Harper's Weekly, June 30, 1866, p. 412.
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs
and Prints
http://149.123.1.8/schomburg/images_aa19/aa19c_info.cfm?myzw7404
Caption on front of picture: Contrabands coming into camp in consequence of
the proclamation, drawn by Mr. A. R. Waud. Appeared in Harper's Weekly,
January 31, 1863, Pg. 68.
Caption on front of picture: Contrabands coming into our lines under the
proclamation. Appeared in Harper's Weekly, May 9, 1863, Pg. 293. Artist
unknown.
Caption on front of picture: Contraband news. Appeared in Harper's Weekly,
April 30, 1864, Pg. 280. Artist unknown.
Caption on front of picture: The War in the Southwest-Adjutant-General
Lorenzo Thomas addressing the Negroes in Louisiana on the duties of
freedom. Caption on back of picture: Federal General Lorenzo Thomas
addressing Negroes on the duties of freedom. Appeared in Harper's Weekly,
November 7, 1863, Pg. 721. Artist unknown.
CHECK-GOOD POSSIBILITIES
Caption on front of picture: Revival of the old slave laws of Louisiana-A
scene in New Orleans: Arrest of contrabands on the night of January 30.
Appeared in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 7, 1863, Pg. 381.
Artist unknown
The riot in New Orleans-siege and assault of the convention by the police
and citizens, sketched by Theodore R. Davis. Appeared in Harper's Weekly,
August 25, 1866, Pg. 536.
Negroes Building Stockades Under the Recent Act of CongressHarper's
WeeklyAugust 30, 1862Vol. VI, No. 296Pages: 545 - 560Illustrations in
Issue:SEE DETAIL Brigadier General Michael Corcoran, Late 69th Regiment New
York State MilitiaSEE DETAIL John Morgan's Highwaymen Sacking a Peaceful
Village in the WestSEE DETAIL Town of Stevenson, Alabama, Held by Union
ForcesSEE DETAIL Negroes Building Stockades under the Recent Act of Congress
New Year's Day Contraband Ball, 1857, "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper"
LOWER POSSIBILITIES
Courtesy of The Gilder Lehrman Collection, New York
Return to Previous Page
28 1866 11x14 1 B&W copy print none
Caption on front of picture: The excitement in New Orleans-view on St.
Charles Street. Caption on back of picture: Federal troops, St. Charles
Street, New Orleans. Appeared in Harper's Weekly, August 18, 1866, Pg. 516.
Artist, A. R. Waud.
Caption on front of picture (Copy 1): Return of a foraging party of the
Twenty-Fourth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, with their spoils, to Baton
Rouge, having captured horses, carts, wagons, mules, contrabands,
provisions, etc. Appeared in Leslie's Illustrated History, Pg. 289. Caption
on front of picture (Copy 2): Return of a foraging party of the
Twenty-Fourth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, with their spoils, to Baton
Rouge, having captured horses, carts, wagons, mules, contrabands,
provisions, etc., from a sketch by our special artist with Gen. Grover's
division. Caption on back of picture: Return of a foraging party of the
24th Regt., Conn. Vol. to Baton Rouge. Appeared in Frank Leslie's
Illustrated Newspaper, March 14, 1863, Pg. 393.
Caption on front of picture: Registered enemies taking the oath of
allegiance at the office of Gen. Bowen, at New Orleans, from a sketch by
Mr. J. R. Hamilton. Caption on back of picture: New Orleans citizens
registering their oath of allegiance to the United States in order to save
their property from Federal confiscation. Appeared in Harper's Weekly, June
6, 1863, Pg. 357.
Caption on front of picture: The Grandmothers. Caption on back of picture:
Poverty was everywhere. Appeared in Harper's Weekly, December 24, 1864, Pg.
825. Artist unknown.
Caption on front of picture: The plantation police or home-guard examining
Negro passes on the levee road below New Orleans. Caption on back of
picture: Home-guard examining slave passes. Appeared in Frank Leslie's
Illustrated Newspaper, July 11, 1863, Pg. 252. Artist, F. B. Schell.
Caption on back of picture: General B. F. Butler's public works program in
New Orleans. Appeared in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 7,
1863, Pg. 380.
Caption on front of picture: The explosion of the steamer "Princess" at
Conrad's Point on the Mississippi. Appeared in Harper's Weekly, March 12,
1859, Pg. 165. Artist unknown.
Caption on front of picture: The trial of John Brown, at Charlestown,
Virginia, for treason and murder, sketched by Porte Crayon. Caption on back
of picture: Trial of John Brown on charges of treason against Virginia,
inciting a slave insurrection, and murder, at Charlestown, Virginia. He was
convicted and hanged. Appeared in Harper's Weekly, November 12, 1859, Pg. 728.
November 14, 1863
Click to enlarge
Matthew Brady Praised for Making Photographic History Vol. VII, No.
359Pages: 721 - 736Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL The War in the
Southwest-Addressing the Negroes in Louisiana on the Duties of Freedom
May 10, 1862
Union Takes New Orleans Vol. VI, No. 280Pages: 289 - 304Illustrations in
Issue:SEE DETAIL Major General O. M. MitchellSEE DETAIL A Rebel Captain
Forcing Negroes to Load Cannon under the Fire of Berdan's Sharpshooters
August 30, 1862
General Corcoran, Taken Captive at the Battle of Bull Run, Released Vol.
VI, No. 296Pages: 545 - 560Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL Brigadier
General Michael Corcoran, Late 69th Regiment New York State MilitiaSEE
DETAIL John Morgan's Highwaymen Sacking a Peaceful Village in the WestSEE
DETAIL Town of Stevenson, Alabama, Held by Union ForcesSEE DETAIL Negroes
Building Stockades under the Recent Act of Congress
May 7, 1864
Click to enlarge Click to enlarge
Union Convention Called at Baltimore - Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebrated
Vol. VIII, No. 384Pages: 289 - 304Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL Cover:
Union Scouts in LouisianaNO DETAIL YET Map Showing Pleasant Hill,
LouisianaNO DETAIL YET Map Showing Plymouth, North CarolinaSEE DETAIL
Negroes Escaping out of Slavery
Top of FormJuly 12, 1862
Click to enlarge Click to enlarge
Battle at St. Charles - Food Aid to New Orleans Arrives Down River Vol. VI,
No. 288Pages: 433 - 448Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL Major General
Lewis WallaceSEE DETAIL Brigadier General George P. ShepleySEE DETAIL
Battle at St. Charles, White River, ArkansasñExplosion of the "Mound
City"SEE DETAIL The Rebel Flee (Political Cartoon)SEE DETAIL The Surgeon at
Work at the Rear during an EngagementSEE DETAIL Bird's Eye View of Richmond
and the VicinitySEE DETAIL The Old Hampton Church, at Hampton, VirginiaSEE
DETAIL The Army of the Potomac-A Foraging PartySEE DETAIL Centerfold: The
War for the Union-A Bayonet ChargeSEE DETAIL Major General Benjamin F.
ButlerSEE DETAIL Contrabands Escaping to the United States
Bottom of Form
August 30, 1862
Click to enlarge
General Corcoran, Taken Captive at the Battle of Bull Run, Released Vol.
VI, No. 296Pages: 545 - 560Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL Brigadier
General Michael Corcoran, Late 69th Regiment New York State MilitiaSEE
DETAIL John Morgan's Highwaymen Sacking a Peaceful Village in the WestSEE
DETAIL Town of Stevenson, Alabama, Held by Union ForcesSEE DETAIL Negroes
Building Stockades under the Recent Act of CongressSEE DETAIL Centerfold:
The Battle of Cedar Mountain, Fought August 9, 1862SEE DETAIL Man Rubbing
his Hands TogetherSEE DETAIL "A mystery in his own house, under his own
nose! What does it mean?"SEE DETAIL Late General R. L. McCookSEE DETAIL
Rebel General Stonewall JacksonSEE DETAIL City of Baton Rouge, LouisianaSEE
DETAIL Army of Virginia-Sigel's Corps Being Reviewed by Major General
PopeSEE DETAIL Army of Virginia-Contrabands Coming to Colonel Cluseret's
Headquarters
Top of Form
January 31, 1863
Click to enlarge
Army of the Potomac Again on the Move - Jeff Davis Gives Annual Message
Vol. VII, No. 318Pages: 65 - 80Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL Cover:
Army BeefSEE DETAIL Contrabands Coming into Camp in Consequence of the
Proclamation
Bottom of Form
March 21, 1863
Click to enlarge Click to enlarge
Congress Adjourns: Gives Absolute Power to President Vol. VII, No.
325Pages: 177 - 192Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL Hon. John Van BurenSEE
DETAIL James T. 6, Esq.NO DETAIL YET An Adventure in Mexico (Cartoon)SEE
DETAIL Cutting the Levees at ProvidenceNO DETAIL YET The Canal at Lake
ProvidenceNO DETAIL YET A "Contraband" Volunteer
Top of Form
May 9, 1863
Click to enlarge
Debt Reaches $1 Billion Vol. VII, No. 331Pages: 289 - 304Illustrations in
Issue:SEE DETAIL Cover: On Picket Duty in the Swamps of LouisianaNO DETAIL
YET Map Showing the Theatre of General Banks's CampaignSEE DETAIL Brashear
City, Berwick's Bay, LA, Base of General Banks's OperationsSEE DETAIL The
Iron-Clad "Barrataria" Snagged in Amite River, Louisianna and Attacked by
Rebel GuerrillasSEE DETAIL Contrabands Coming into Our Lines Under the
Proclamation
Vicksburg Surrenders to United States Forces Vol. VII, No. 342Pages: 449 -
464Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL Cover: The Bombardment of Port
Hudson-the 100ñPound Parrot Gun of the "Richmond" at WorkSEE DETAIL The
Bombardment of Port Hudson-a Mortar Schooner at WorkSEE DETAIL General
Paine's Assault on Port Hudson-Carrying off Our Dead and Wounded under Flag
of TruceSEE DETAIL The Late MajorñGeneral John F. ReynoldsSEE DETAIL
Invasion of the North-Destruction of the Bridge over the Susquehanna, at
Columbia, PASEE DETAIL Centerfold: The Result of War-Virginia in 1863NO
DETAIL YET Map showing the Seat of the War in Pennsylvania and MarylandSEE
DETAIL The Invasion of the North-Street Scenes in PhiladelphiaNO DETAIL YET
The Coal MenNO DETAIL YET The Bulletin BoardNO DETAIL YET The Union
LeagueNO DETAIL YET To Arms! To Arms!NO DETAIL YET The Contrabands
Maximillian to Accept Mexican Throne Vol. VIII, No. 383Pages: 273 -
288Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL (military men toasting at banquet
table)NO DETAIL YET In the FairSEE DETAIL Admiral Porter's FlotillaSEE
DETAIL Map of Fort De RussySEE DETAIL The Steam-Ram "Switzerland"SEE DETAIL
Centerfold: The Press on the FieldNO DETAIL YET Our ArtistNO DETAIL YET
Contraband News
January 30, 1864
IMPORTANT
Compania at Santiago, Chile Burns: Illumination of the Madonna Engulfs
Thousands Vol. VIII, No. 370Pages: 65 - 80Illustrations in Issue:SEE DETAIL
Ruins of the Church of the Compania, at Santiago, Chili, After the
Conflagration (3 illus)SEE DETAIL The Church of the Compania in the
DistanceSEE DETAIL The Church of the CompaniaSEE DETAIL Snowy Morning - On
PicketSEE DETAIL Emancipated Slaves, White and Colored - Children from the
Schools in New OrleansLetter to Editor: The group of emancipated slaves
whose portraits I send you were brought by Colonel Hanks and Mr. Philip
Bacon from New Orleans, where they were set free by General Butler. Mr.
Bacon went to New Orleans with our army, and was for eighteen months
employed as Assistant-Superintendent of Freedmen, under the care of Colonel
Hanker. He established the first school in Louisiana for emancipated
slaves, and these children were among his pupils. He will soon return to
Louisiana to resume his labor. REBECCA HUGHES is eleven years old, and
was a slave in her father's house, the special attendant of a girl a little
older than herself. To all appearance she is perfectly white. Her
complexion, hair, and features show not the slightest trace of negro blood.
In the few months during which she has been at school she has learned to
read well, and writes as neatly as most children of her age. Her mother and
grandmother live in New Orleans, whets they support themselves comfortably
by their own labor. The grandmother, an intelligent mulatto, told Mr. Bacon
that she had "raised" a large family of children, but those are all that
are left to her. ROSINA DOWNS is not quite seven years old. She is a
fair child, with blonde complexion and silky hair. Her father is in the
rebel army. She has one sister as white as herself, and three brothers who
are darker. Her mother, a bright mulatto, lives in New Orleans in a poor
hut, and has hard work to support her family. CHARLES TAYLOR is eight
years old. His complexion is very fair, his hair light and silky. Three out
of five boys in any school in Now York are darker than he. Yet this white
boy, with his mother, as he declares, has been twice sold as a slave. First
by his father and "owner," Alexander Wethers, of Lewis County, Virginia, to
a slave trader named Harrison, who sold them to Mr.Thornhill of New
Orleans. This man fled at the approach of our army, and his slaves were
liberated by General Butler. The boy is decidedly intelligent, and though
he has been at school less than a year he reads and writes very well. His
mother is a mulatto; she had one daughter sold into Texas before she
herself left Virginia, and one son who, she supposes, is with his father in
Virginia. These three children, to all appearance of unmixed white race,
came to Philadelphia last December, and were taken by their protector, Mr.
Bacon, to the St. Lawrence Hotel on Chestnut Street. Within a few hours,
Mr. Bacon informed me, he was notified by the landlord that they must
leave. The children, he said, had been slaves, and must therefore be
colored persons, and he kept a hotel for white people. From this hospitable
establishment the children were taken to the "Continental," where they were
received without hesitation. WILSON CHINN is about 60 years old, he was
"raised" by Isaac Howard of Woodford County, Kentucky. When 21 years old he
was taken down the river and sold to Volsey B. Marmillion, a sugar planter
about 415 miles above New Orleans. This man was accustomed to brand his
negroes, and Wilson has on his forehead the letters "V. B. M." Of the 210
slaves on this plantation 105 left at one time and came into the Union
camp. Thirty of them had been branded like cattle with a hot iron, four of
them on the forehead, and the others on the breast or arm. AUGUSTA
BROUJAY is nine years old. Her mother, who is almost-white was owned by her
half brother, named Solamon, who still retains two of her children. MARY
JOHNSON was cook in her master's family in New Orleans. On her left arm are
scars of three cuts given to her by her mistress with a rawhide. On her
back are scars of more than fifty cuts given by her master. The occasion
was that one morning she was half an hour behind time in bringing up his
five o'clock cup of coffee. As the Union army approached she ran away from
her master, and has since been employed by Colonel Hanks as cook. ISAAC
WHITE is a black boy of eight years; but none the less intelligent than his
whiter companions. He has been in school about seven months, and I venture
to say that not one boy in fifty would have made as much improvement in
that space of time. ROBERT WHITEHEAD - the Reverend Mr. Whitehead perhaps
we ought to style him since he is a regularly ordained preacher-was born in
Baltimore. He was taken to Norfolk, Virginia, by a Dr. A. F. N. Cook, and
sold for $1525; from Norfolk he was taken to New Orleans, where he was
bought for $1775 by a Dr. Leslie, who hired him out as house and ship
painter. When he had earned and paid over that sum to his master, he
suggested that a small present for himself would be quite appropriate. Dr.
Leslie thought the request reasonable, and made him a donation of a whole
quarter of a dollar. The reverend gentleman can read and write well, and is
s very stirring speaker. Just now he belongs to the church militant, having
enlisted in the United States army. A large photograph of the whole group
which you reproduce has been taken, and cartes de visite of the separate
figures. They are for sale at the rooms of the National freedman's Relief
Association, No. 1 Mercer Street, New York, or I will send them by mail on
receipt of the price: $1 for the large picture, 25 cents each for the small
ones. The profits to go to the support of the schools in Louisiana. C. C.
Lama.
Morning mustering of the "Contrabands" at Fortress Monroe, on their way
to their day's work. As a living illustration of one of the aspects of
the Civil War, a sketch is given above of the contrabands "Niggers" going
to their daily work at the Fortress Monroe. The variety of the Ethiopian
countenance is capitally given, and while some remind us of the merry phiz
of George Christy in his sable mood, others wear the ponderous gravity of a
New Jersey justice. The colored men had a comparatively pleasant time under
their state of contraband existence. (471K)
Freedmen's Schools
June 23, 1866, page 392 view enlargement back to Culture page
Noon at the primary school for Freedmen, Vicksburg, Mississippi
Primary school for Freedmen, in charge of Mrs. Green, at Vicksburg, Mississippi
FREEDMEN'S SCHOOL AT VICKSBURG
One of the most noticeable features of these schools for freedmen is the
cleanliness and good clothing of a majority of the scholars. Of course
there are ragged and rough specimens, but these are not the rule. It is one
of the many evidences I have found in Mississippi of the general well-being
of the negroes, and their capacity to take care of themselves. These
scholars, embracing all ages from the grandma down to the infant, are
attentive, and master their tasks without any appearance indicating that
the labor is irksome. The lady teachers, with a little tact, do almost any
thing with them; and, although all teaching is a wearisome business, I
should judge that these people showed the average intelligence displayed in
the New York public schools. The Superintendent of the schools, Chaplain
Warren, considers that in all that pertains to language they are, perhaps,
ahead of white children in quickness of apprehension. How far their
capacity for education would carry them is doubtful. That these schools
will vastly improve the colored people there is no room for doubt; the
evidence is conclusive on that point. The school-house is a dilapidated
affair, and the owner is anxious to get it into his possession again. The
location of the school will have to be changed. The prejudice of the
Southern people against the education of the negroes is almost universal.
Bottom of Form
2. The Hospital at Fort Monroe, Harper's Weekly, June 7, 1862
This is a Text Test
Perhaps I screwed up my last posting by trying to include a picture. This
time it's text all the way.
.
Friday, June 25, 2004
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Bentley speaks!
Received a Letter from the Rec. Sec. of Antiquarian Society in which he informs me I was elected a Member, Feb. 3 & at last Meeting, Councellors [sic in printed ver.] among seven. I have not yet the history of this Association, its Constitution, its Members or the act of its Incorporation, nor perhaps the political origin of it.
