In December 1865, The Sun in Baltimore reported on a story from the Norfolk Virginian concerning the formation of a militia in Matthews County, Virginia. The war had ended months before, but the men of Matthews County still felt the need to protect themselves. The possibility of an insurrection of the newly autonomous group of freedmen in their area terrified the white men of Matthews...
In the year 1865, Samuel Wilson signed a Freedman's Bureau document that concerned two of his younger slaves. The document proclaimed Edmund and Farrel free boys of color. The document went on to say that the boys were age 13 and 11 and became Samuel's apprentices till the age of 21. The two boys had to faithfully serve and obey their master until their apprenticeship with Samuel came to...
In Tullahoma, Tennessee dissatisfied southerners took torches to an African-American schoolhouse, as a means to stop the education of freedmen. The Central Press from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania stated that the southerners “could find no vent for their pressing passions except by indulgence in arson.” General Thomas ordered the arsonists to rebuild the schoolhouse, an order that was...
In Mid-March of 1866, the case of Father Cummings, a parish priest from rural Missouri, versus the state of Missouri, was brought before the Supreme Court which ended returning a 5-4 decision in his favor. In 1865, when Missouri was forming their new constitution, a very popular state leader by the name of Drake passed what was called the Iron-Clad Oath. The Iron-Clad Oath was a “severe and...
Built in Glasgow, Scotland, with the name Sea King, the C.S.S. Shenandoah would continue the Confederate fight long after the Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered. Named after the valley and county in Virginia, the C.S.S. Shenandoah had a C.S.A letter of Marque to sail towards the Indian Ocean to seek out, capture, or destroy Union military and commercial vessels....
There was always a crisis in the 1850s, at least in the minds of the citizens of Charleston. On December 6, 1850, William H. Barnwell, rector of St. Peter's Church, took the pulpit to expand upon the great political question which is agitating our country. The occasion? A Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, as designated by the South Carolina legislature. The great political question? Slavery,...
According to the Freedmen’s Record report, many southerners perceived freedmen as “a hopelessly lazy, sensual creature who, if he has enough to satisfy the lowest animal wants, will be content.” They feared that freedmen would resort to theft instead of working to fulfill their needs. The Record attempted to change these perceptions by exposing the tremendous success of...
In an attempt to legitimatize the institution of slavery, many white slave owners sought justification for their dominating actions within the Bible. They believed they had found it in the Old Testament with the Curse of Ham in Genesis 9:25-27. Cursed be Canaan The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers...Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem May Canaan be the slave of Shem. These southerners...
On March 26, 1866, a member of the Digges family in New Orleans, Louisiana wrote a letter to N.A. Hanney of Rockport, Texas. The letter described the family's financial crisis as a result of the Civil War. The letter writer, whose name is obscured by damage to the document, blamed his financial problems on investment in Confederate bonds purchased in order to support the war effort. After the...
Captain Henry Wirz came to America from Switzerland in 1849. He settled in Louisiana and worked as a doctor to slaves on a plantation. At the beginning of the Civil War, he joined the Fourth Louisiana Infantry and fought for about a year before he was wounded and lost most of the use of his right arm. Since he could not fight, the army reassigned him to work at a couple of prisons and he eventually...