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What is the point of view of the artist of this cartoon? Do you think a picture like this, in a popular magazine, could have influenced the public's views of African Americans?

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Ms. Kapp: "Men of Company E" 4th United States Colored Infanty

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Ms. Kapp: "Men of Company E" 4th United States Colored Infanty

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I am mesmerized by this photo, are you? If you had the opportunity to sit down with one of these soldiers from the 4th United States Colored Infantry and hear his story, which one would you choose? What would you expect to hear? What might you ask him about his experiences--before the war, during the war, with this Company, his sense of what lies ahead after the war?

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Even though these two acts have the same name, I believe that they meant very different things. The first act basically just strengthens the government and gives it the right to confiscate land from anyone performing insurrection against the government. This act to me seems similar to the emancipation proclamation in that it states a new rule in an area that the government doesn't really have much control over, although after the war I believe the government gets the property if it wins. The second act is also very interesting, as it represents an important step in the freedom of slaves, this act was similar to the emancipation proclamation as well, not only for the reason I mentioned above, but also because it virtually guaranteed freedom to many slaves. I say this because many men in the south at this team were committing treason at the time, which would result in their freedom.

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As a response to the question that Hekima posed above. I do believe that Lincoln kept it safe. If he had not done so he would have gotten little to none done during the war. He would have been viewed as even more radical than he already was and would of had little supporters. With little help from his party he would of had a harder time getting Proclamation and even the Thirteenth Amendment through. I believe Lincoln knew what he was doing from the beginning and simply kept the Emancipation as a "trump card" so he would have a "secret attack" during the Civil War. Even though I know most of you don't agree with me I'm sticking to this point.

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John Boston's letter is a prime example of a runaway slave who fulfilled hopes of joining the Union Army. He writes to his wife about his joy of finally being free and compares it to the Israelites being led to "the land of Canaan" a.k.a. the land of milk and honey. But the question is was this man really free? He joined the Union forces at a camp in Maryland, a border state where the Emancipation Proclamation was not in affect. Slaves in these state were not free therefore this regiment was going against policy. Since John Boston's slave owner lived and owned a plantation in Maryland the Brooklyn Regiment that he resided with was ordered to return him back to his owner. It is not know whether this letter ever reached his wife nor is it known what became of John Boston. So i leave you with these questions: Were runaway slaves who crossed Union lines really free? Did Lincoln actually care about slave seeing as border states were not affected by the Emancipation Proclamation? and Was this order given to the Brooklyn Regiment lawful?

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Professor Harris has shared a remarkable document with us about the economics of the slave trade, don't you agree? What connections do you see with the ads for Runaway slaves from the Visualizing Emancipation map? How might we learn more about southern response to the Emancipation Proclamation? Do you think slave owners expected the institution of slavery to endure?

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It strikes me that this letter from Gen. Butler provides some of the most compelling evidence that it wasn't Lincoln or Butler or Congress or the 13th Amendment that brought an end to slavery. Rather "the slaves freed themselves." Do you agree?

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Note the date that this article was published. Then note the wide variation in cost for slaves in different parts of the Confederacy.

1. What is happening to the price of slaves at this point in the war, and what does this suggest about the relative strength of the institution?

2. What other factors might affect the "standard price" of slaves in the South in mid-1863?

New York Times, August 22, 1863

MARKET PRICE OF SLAVES.

-- Slaves command a higher price in Kentucky, taking gold as the standard of value, than in any other of the Southern States. In Missouri they are sold at from forty dollars to four hundred, according to age, quality, and especially according to place. In Tennessee they cannot be said to be sold at all. In Maryland the negroes upon an estate were lately sold, and fetched an average price of $18 a head. In the farther States of the Southern Confederacy we frequently see reports of negro sales, and we occasionally see boasts from rebel newspapers as to the high prices the slaves bring, notwithstanding the war and the collapse of Southern industry. We notice in the Savannah Republican of the 5th, a report of a negro sale in that city, at which, we are told, high prices prevailed, and at which two girls of 18 years of age were sold for about $2,500 apiece, two matured boys for about the same price, a man of 45 for $1,850, and at woman of 23, with her child of 5, for $3,950. Twenty-five hundred dollars, then, may be taken as the standard price of first-class slaves in the Confederacy; but when it is remembered that this is in Confederate money, which is worth less than one-twelfth its face in gold, it will be seen that the real price, by this standard, is only about $200. In Kentucky, on the other hand, though there is but little buying or selling of slave stock going on, we understand that negroes are still held at from seven to twelve hundred dollars apiece.

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-- Slaves command a higher price in Kentucky, taking gold as the standard of value, than in any other of the Southern States. In Missouri they are sold at from forty dollars to four hundred, according to age, quality, and especially according to place. In Tennessee they cannot be said to be sold at all. In Maryland the negroes upon an estate were lately sold, and fetched an average price of $18 a head. In the farther States of the Southern Confederacy we frequently see reports of negro sales, and we occasionally see boasts from rebel newspapers as to the high prices the slaves bring, notwithstanding the war and the collapse of Southern industry. We notice in the Savannah Republican of the 5th, a report of a negro sale in that city, at which, we are told, high prices prevailed, and at which two girls of 18 years of age were sold for about $2,500 apiece, two matured boys for about the same price, a man of 45 for $1,850, and at woman of 23, with her child of 5, for $3,950. Twenty-five hundred dollars, then, may be taken as the standard price of first-class slaves in the Confederacy; but when it is remembered that this is in Confederate money, which is worth less than one-twelfth its face in gold, it will be seen that the real price, by this standard, is only about $200. In Kentucky, on the other hand, though there is but little buying or selling of slave stock going on, we understand that negroes are still held at from seven to twelve hundred dollars apiece.

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Slaves command a higher price in Kentucky, taking gold as the standard of value, than in any other of the Southern States. In Missouri they are sold at from forty dollars to four hundred, according to age, quality, and especially according to place. In Tennessee they cannot be said to be sold at all.

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On this website, I found many interesting artifacts. However, the two that stood out to me were the "Private Gordon" photograph, and the Sibley tent. This powerful Private Gordon photograph shows a runaway African-American (Private Gordon) and the many scars on his back from being beaten as a slave. This photograph symbolizes the many horrors that African-Americans had to put up with during slavery. Like their history, these scars are permanently a part of him. This photograph was sold in many states, and circulated to support the Union efforts, and support the fact that African-Americans are no longer property, and shouldn't be treated like it either. The Sibley tent, I found interesting too. The Sibley tents are tents that freed slaves set up as they crossed into union territory. The African-American ex-slaves set up so many of these, so that Lincoln could not ignore their housing problem. This was an iconic protest. It also shows that there were still protests directly post-emancipation. Not everything was solved, and their was still an ongoing struggle in hope to create a unified nation.

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Building on Skye's question: what ideas about the meaning of freedom can you discern in the sources here?

For example, what might it mean for Private Hubbard Pryor in 1864? Or the family depicted in Eastman Johnson's painting,

Ride to Liberty? Or for General Butler, or the "contraband" in his camp?

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What tone do you guys believe Lincoln voiced through his response to Greeley?

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Do you guys believe that Lincoln played it safe or was he spot on with his approach towards the war at whole and slavery as a side issue?

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In my article, Lincoln's letter response to Horace Greeley, Lincoln is trying to fulfill his duties as president of America not president of Negro America, similarly to Barack Obama. He makes it known that his most important task is saving The Union and he would be very content if that resulted in the end of slavery or the continuation of slavery.

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In this beautiful painting, Kaufman acknowledges how women and children had to fend for themselves when men were taken to fight for the army during civil war. His portrayal of a group of slaves includes symbolic details that suggest the lack of either a clear path to liberty or a guarantee of what it would bring to African Americans. The figures flee toward the flag that glows but remains frighteningly close to the ongoing battle. Three of the women carry forked sticks, which a source says fugitives believed would ward off witches. Although the figures emerge from darkness into light, the anxious, scared expression on little boy's face shows the danger of their endeavor. The boulders separate the rocky path underfoot from the smooth road leading to the Union forces.
The emotion and desperation in this painting makes me question whether the Emancipation Proclamation really improved the living conditions of Blacks. Even though they were free, Blacks were not being treated well and were still providing intensive labor for little money. That's not what I call free. The real question is, How do we define freedom?

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Harriet Tubman raises an excellent point in her transcribed letter to President Lincoln. To cure the slavery issue in the south, he must first kill "the snake" that currently exists. The poisonous venom of slavery, that has been killing the nation since slavery was introduced, will continue to coarse through the veins on the nation until you cure the problem by eliminating the cause– the snake. Harriet Tubman attempt of persuading the president to abolish slavery in the union shows that "american negroes" did participate in winning their freedom. "God won’t let Master Lincoln beat the South until he does right thing"; free all the slaves and not just the ones who live in states that seceded.

Holland, to what extent do you think Harriet Tubman might have influenced Lincoln in making the Civil War a war to end slavery? (LK)

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Lincoln letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862

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Lincoln letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862

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Lincoln's Letter to Horace Greeley
NB: this was published in the NY Herald Tribune one month before the preliminary emancipation proclamation.
Primary source: Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley, letter, 1862.
Background information: President Abraham Lincoln responds on August 22, 1862, to the publisher Horace Greeley, who three days earlier criticized the government for not making emancipation a key war aim. What Greeley did not know and what Lincoln in his letter does not divulge is that a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was on Lincoln's desk as he wrote this letter to Greeley.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.

[. . . ]

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. . . .

Yours,
A. Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley, 22 August 1862, in Roy P. Basler, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, c. 1953–55).

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"A Man Knows a Man" Political Cartoon from Harper's Weekly, April 22, 1865

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"A Man Knows a Man" Political Cartoon from Harper's Weekly, April 22, 1865

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For more Information about this cartoon: http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=April&Date=22

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General Benjamin Butler's letter to Winfield Scott, May 27, 1861

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General Benjamin Butler's letter to Winfield Scott, May 27, 1861

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1. What prompted increasing numbers of slaves to flee to Union camps?

2. In what sense is this a "humanitarian" and "political" issue?

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General Benjamin F. Butler, commander at Fortress Monroe in Virginia, wrote this letter to his superiors, including General-in-Chief Winfield Scott. He asks what to do about slaves who had escaped to the Union Army camp.

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Check out the materials in NMAH exhibition (link below). What do they add to your understanding of Emancipation?

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"If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is into it."

Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1863

Lincoln's Order
On September 22, 1862, five days after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. He presented the proclamation as a wartime necessity, under his authority as Commander-in-Chief. It ordered that as of January 1, 1863, all enslaved individuals in all areas still in rebellion against the United States "henceforward shall be free," and under the protection of the military. Those willing to enlist would be received into the armed forces.

The proclamation was limited in scope and revolutionary in impact. The war to preserve the Union also became a war to end slavery.

"We are all liberated by this proclamation. Everybody is liberated. The white man is liberated, the black man is liberated, the brave men now fighting the battles of their country against rebels and traitors are now liberated."

Frederick Douglass, February 6, 1863

Self-Emancipation
For most white Americans, the Civil War was a war for the Union. But for black Americans, it was a battle for freedom. Determined to end slavery, tens of thousands of enslaved African Americans used the war to escape their bondage. As the Union Army drove into the Confederacy, enslaved people stole away and entered Union lines. These thousands of African Americans made their freedom a fact. Within two years, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and made ending slavery government policy.

"Imagine, if you will . . . an army of slaves and fugitives, pushing its way irresistibly toward an army of fighting men. . . . Their arrival among us . . . was like the oncoming of cities."

Union General John Eaton

The Front Lines of Freedom
Tent cities sprang up across the South as thousands of enslaved people crossed Union lines and forced the issue of freedom. The people had spoken, using one of the few political tools available to enslaved people-the power of coming together to be heard. The sheer number of African Americans arriving in camps and cities pressured politicians, generals, and the U.S. government to act. Lincoln personally witnessed the growth of the tent cities as he crossed Washington, D.C., each day.

"Fugitive Slaves Crossing the Rappahannock River, Virginia in August, 1862"

"Contrabands Building a Levee on the Mississippi Below Baton Rouge"

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"If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is into it." Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1863 Lincoln's Order On September 22, 1862, five days after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

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CHAP. CXCV.— An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate the Property of Rebels, and for other Purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person who shall hereafter commit the crime of treason against the United States, and shall be adjudged guilty thereof, shall suffer death, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; or, at the discretion of the court, he shall be imprisoned for not less than five years and fined not less than ten thousand dollars, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; said fine shall be levied and collected on any or all of the property, real and personal, excluding slaves, of which the said person so convicted was the owner at the time of committing the said crime, any sale or conveyance to the contrary notwithstanding.

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United States Colored Troops: "Men of Company E"

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United States Colored Troops: "Men of Company E"

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Over 180,000 black men fought for the Union army during the Civil War. Most of them served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) which came into existence after the Emancipation Proclamation finally provided presidential endorsement for the much-discussed proposals for arming free blacks and former slaves in what had become the great conflict over slavery. USCT training camps in places such as Camp William Penn, located in historic La Mott (Cheltenham, Pa), provided skills and a new sense of identity to black soldiers, despite unequal pay with white soldiers and other forms of continuing discrimination in a segregated military.  More than 11,000 black soldiers mobilized for service from Camp William Penn. (By Matthew Pinsker, Dickenson College)

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Resolution on Compensated Emancipation

April 10, 1862
[No. 26.] Joint Resolution declaring that the United States ought to cooperate with, affording pecuniary Aid to any State which may adopt the gradual Abolishment of Slavery.
Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the United States ought to cooperate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

APPROVED, April 10, 1862.

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Lincoln's Entry into Richmond, April 4, 1865

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Lincoln's Entry into Richmond, April 4, 1865

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This ink-and-wash drawing depicts Lincoln's dramatic entry into Richmond, Virginia on April 4, 1865, only a day after it had fallen to Union troops in the last major battle of the Civil War. The President and his son Tad made the short journey from Washington, D.C. to the former Confederate capital to tour the ruins and celebrate victory. Although they were formally escorted by twelve U.S. sailors, an eyewitness observed that in his two-mile walk around the city, Lincoln hardly saw his guards because he was "directed by negroes." Lincoln's enthusiastic reception by newly freed slaves represented the culmination of his gradual shift of the war's aims, a process made official when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

CITE THIS DOCUMENT | Lambert Hollis, “Lincoln in Richmond,” HERB: Resources for Teachers, accessed September 22, 2013, http://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1214.

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August 06, 1861

CHAP. LX. — An Act to confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary Purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if, during the present or any future insurrection against the Government of the United States, after the President of the United States shall have declared, by proclamation, that the laws of the United States are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the power vested in the marshals by law, any person or persons, his, her, or their agent, attorney, or employe, shall purchase or acquire, sell or give, any property of whatsoever kind or description, with intent to use or employ the same, or suffer the same to be used or employed, in aiding, abetting, or promoting such insurrection or resistance to the laws, or any person or persons engaged therein ; or if any person or persons, being the owner or owners of any such property, shall knowingly use or employ, or consent to the use or employment of the same as aforesaid, all such property is hereby declared to be lawful subject of prize and capture wherever found ; and it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause the same to be seized, confiscated, and condemned.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That whenever hereafter, during the present insurrection against the Government of the United States, any person claimed to be held to labor or service under the law of any State, shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or by the lawful agent of such person, to take up arms against the United States, or shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or his lawful agent, to work or to be employed in or upon any fort, navy yard, dock, armory, ship, entrenchment, or in any military or naval service whatsoever, against the Government and lawful authority of the United States, then, and in every such case, the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due shall forfeit his claim to such labor, any law of the State or of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding. And whenever thereafter the person claiming such labor or service shall seek to enforce his claim, it shall be a full and sufficient answer to such claim that the person whose service or labor is claimed had been employed in hostile service against the Government of the United States, contrary to the provisions of this act.

APPROVED, August 6, 1861.

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Captain C.B. Wilder's Testimony Before the Freedman's Commission, 1863

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Captain C.B. Wilder's Testimony Before the Freedman's Commission, 1863

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A Union Army Captain Testifies Before the Freedman's Commission
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In May, 1861, Union General Benjamin Butler offered military protection to runaway slaves in Virginia, declaring them wartime "contraband." In every region touched by the war, African-American men, women, and children flocked to the protection offered by Union encampments. In exchange they provided manual labor and information about local terrain and Confederate troop movements. By the end of the war, nearly a million ex-slaves were under some kind of federal protection, many in the so-called "contraband camps" established by Union commanders beginning in 1862. Life in the camps was often harsh. Provisions for food, clothing, shelter, and medicine were inadequate, given the number of former slaves who sought refuge and the desperate condition in which many of them arrived.

Question: How many of the people called contrabands, have come under your observation?

Answer: Some 10,000 have come under our control, to be fed in part, and clothed in part, but I cannot speak accurately in regard to the number. This is the rendezvous. They come here from all about, from Richmond and 200 miles off in North Carolina. There was one gang that started from Richmond 23 strong and only 3 got through. . . . .

Q: In your opinion would a change in our policy which would cause them to be treated with fairness, their wages punctually paid and employment furnished them in the army, become known and would it have any effect upon others in slavery?

A: Yes . . . I found hundreds who had left their wives and families behind. I asked them “Why did you come away and leave them there?” and I found they had heard these stories, and wanted to come and see how it was. “I am going back again after my wife” some of them have said “When I have earned a little money” ...and I have had them come to me to borrow money, or to get their pay, if they had earned a month's wages, and to get passes. “I am going for my family” they say. “Are you not afraid to risk it?” “No I know the way” Colored men will help colored men and they will work along the by-paths and get through. . . . they do not feel afraid now. The white people have nearly all gone, the blood hounds are not there now to hunt them and they are not afraid, before they were afraid to stir.

. . . Now that they are getting their eyes open they are coming in. Fifty came this morning from Yorktown who followed Stoneman’s Cavalry when they returned from their raid. . . . they would leave their work in the field as soon as they found the Soldiers were Union men and follow them sometimes without hat or coat. They would take the best horse they could get and everywhere they rode they would take fresh horses, leave the old ones and follow on and so they came in. I have questioned a great many of them and they do not feel much afraid; and there are a great many courageous fellows who have come from long distances in rebeldom. Some men who came here from North Carolina, knew all about the [Emancipation] Proclamation and they started on the belief in it; but they had heard these stories and they wanted to know how it was...

Q: Do I understand you to say that a great many who have escaped have been sent back?

A: Yes Sir, The masters will come in to Suffolk in the day time and with the help of some of the 99th carry off their fugitives and by and by smuggle them across the lines and the soldier will get his $20. or $50...
SOURCE | Excerpts from testimony of Capt. C.B. Wilder before the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, 9 May 1863, National Archives, from University of Maryland History Department, Freedmen and Southern Society Project, http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/wilder.htm

CITE THIS DOCUMENT | American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, “A Union Army Captain Testifies Before the Freedman's Commission,”HERB: Resources for Teachers, accessed September 22, 2013, http://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/817.

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What information about emancipation do these images and texts provide?

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Harriet Tubman's words written down by Lydia Maria Child

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Harriet Tubman's words written down by Lydia Maria Child

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Harriet Tubman Warns "Kill the Snake Before It Kills You"

Harriet Tubman was among the best known conductors of the Underground Railroad, a network of enslaved people, free blacks, and white sympathizers that assisted thousands of runaway slaves escape north. During the Civil War, Tubman offered her services to the Union army, first as a nurse and cook, and later as an armed scout and spy. In the allegory below, Tubman warns that the Confederacy would never be defeated unless slavery was defeated first. Tubman could not read or write, but her words were written down by Lydia Maria Child, an abolitionist and women's rights activist from Massachusetts. Child met Tubman in a Union camp in Hampton, Virginia where both women volunteered helping "contraband" slaves.

[The North] may send the flower of their young men down South, to die of the fever in the summer, and of the ague in the winter. They may send them one year, two year, three year, till they tired of sending, or till they use up all the young men. All no use!...

God won’t let Master Lincoln beat the South until he does right thing. Master Lincoln, he’s a great man, and I’m a poor Negro but this Negro can tell Master Lincoln how to save money and young men. He can do it by setting the Negroes free. Suppose there was an awful big snake down there on the floor. He bites you. Folks all scared, because you may die. You send for doctor to cut the bite; but the snake rolled up there, and while doctor is doing it, he bites you again. The doctor cuts out that bite; but while he’s doing it, the snake springs up and bites you again, and so he keeps doing it, till you kill him. That’s what Master Lincoln ought to know

.CITE THIS DOCUMENT | Harriet Tubman, “Harriet Tubman Warns "Kill the Snake Before It Kills You", 1862 HERB: Resources for Teachers, accessed September 22, 2013, http://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1760.

Full citation: Harriet Tubman quoted by Lydia Maria Child (21 January 1862), in William Friedheim, with Ronald Jackson, Freedom's Unfinished Revolution, American Social History Project (New York: The New Press, 1996), 62.

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A Runaway Slave Predicts "Freedom Will Reign"

During the Civil War, John Boston, like many other slaves, took advantage of the nearby presence of Union troops to runaway. But in this case, Boston had run into a Union camp in Maryland, a slave state fighting on the side of the Union. This meant that the regiment from Brooklyn that was providing him sanctuary was defying Union policy. Boston's master was a loyal Unionist in a border state that had sided with the North. Maryland authorities seized this letter, either before or after Boston's wife received it. These officials then demanded that the Union Army return Boston to his owner. It is not known what happened to him. But the courage of John Boston—and that of thousands of others who fled to Union lines to escape slavery—became a tremendous moral example that helped move northern war policy from the goal of union to that of freedom.

My Dear Wife:

It is with great joy that I take this time to let you know where I am. I am now in the safety of the 14th Regiment of Brooklyn. This day I can address you thank God as a free man. I had a little trouble in getting away, but as the Lord led the children of Israel to the land of Canaan so he led me to a land where freedom will reign despite earth and hell. Dear you must make yourself content that I am free from the slaver's lash. And as you have chosen the wise plan of serving the Lord serve him with all my heart. I am with a very nice man and have all that heart can wish. But my dear I can't express my great desire that I have to see you. I trust the time will come when we shall meet again. And if we don't meet on earth we will meet in heaven where Jesus reigns....

John Boston

Give my love to father and mother

CITE THIS DOCUMENT | John Boston, “A Runaway Slave Predicts "Freedom Will Reign",” HERB: Resources for Teachers, accessed September 22, 2013, http://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1762.

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Souvenir Photograph, "Contraband" of Civil War, 1861-65

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Escaped slave from Georgia, before and after enlistment in US Colored troops, 10.10.1864

"Once you let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.

--Frederick Douglass, 1863

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Eastman Johnson, Ride to Liberty, 1863

Inscription on back: “A veritable incident in the civil war seen by myself at Centerville, on the morning of McClellan’s advance towards Manassas, March 2nd, 1862.” (Manassas Virginia, was a Confederate stronghold until this moment, when simultaneous defeats in Kentucky and Tennessee forced southern troops to begin a voluntary retreat.)

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Theodore Kaufman, On to Liberty, 1867