WEBVTT 00:12.530 --> 00:17.330 Professor David Blight: The first formally recognized or 00:17.326 --> 00:22.196 organized black regiment in the Civil War was known as the First 00:22.199 --> 00:24.519 South Carolina Volunteers. 00:24.520 --> 00:29.960 It was organized entirely and exclusively among freed slaves, 00:29.961 --> 00:33.771 along the Sea Islands of South Carolina. 00:33.770 --> 00:40.020 It had an amazing non-commissioned officer whose 00:40.023 --> 00:46.283 name was Prince Rivers, a man who'd been a slave 00:46.277 --> 00:51.197 yesterday but a free man by 1862, 00:51.200 --> 00:56.390 and whose white commanding officer, Thomas Wentworth 00:56.394 --> 00:59.964 Higginson said, "in another land, 00:59.960 --> 01:01.920 in another time, he could command any army in 01:01.920 --> 01:02.500 the world." 01:02.500 --> 01:06.300 01:06.299 --> 01:10.129 Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an abolitionist from Worcester, 01:10.133 --> 01:13.783 Massachusetts who ended up the colonel and the commander of 01:13.778 --> 01:18.198 that regiment. Nearly 1,000 freed slaves were 01:18.196 --> 01:24.656 recruited among the roughly 35 to 40,000 former slaves along 01:24.659 --> 01:29.369 the Georgian/South Carolina Sea Islands. 01:29.370 --> 01:33.120 Higginson went on to write a great book about it called 01:33.115 --> 01:35.815 Army Life in a Black Regiment, 01:35.819 --> 01:40.579 and among the remarkable descriptions he left in that 01:40.576 --> 01:45.786 classic is this description from Thanksgiving Day 1862; 01:45.790 --> 01:48.660 so it's November '62. 01:48.660 --> 01:53.440 The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is in place but the 01:53.435 --> 01:58.205 final Emancipation Proclamation hasn't quite happened yet. 01:58.209 --> 02:01.329 It was actually the first formally, legally, 02:01.328 --> 02:04.228 federally recognized Thanksgiving Day; 02:04.230 --> 02:05.920 so decreed by Abraham Lincoln. 02:05.920 --> 02:11.110 And Higginson had his headquarters in an old 02:11.107 --> 02:13.397 plantation house. 02:13.400 --> 02:18.150 He looked out of broken windows, at this abandoned 02:18.154 --> 02:23.684 plantation in the Sea Islands, through what he described as 02:23.683 --> 02:28.793 "the great avenues of great live oaks," and he observed that 02:28.790 --> 02:31.650 quote, "All this is a universal 02:31.650 --> 02:35.640 southern panorama, but five minutes walk beyond 02:35.637 --> 02:40.667 the hovels and the live oaks will bring one to something so 02:40.665 --> 02:45.345 unsouthern that the whole southern coast at this moment 02:45.345 --> 02:49.675 trembles at the suggestion of such a thing, 02:49.680 --> 02:53.640 a camp of a regiment of freed slaves." 02:53.640 --> 02:56.850 02:56.849 --> 03:02.219 Almost two years later one of those freed slaves named George 03:02.217 --> 03:06.687 Hatton wrote a couple of letters from the front. 03:06.689 --> 03:10.559 George Hatton was a former slave. 03:10.560 --> 03:13.400 He had lived part of his life in Washington, 03:13.396 --> 03:16.756 DC, part of his life in Virginia, North Carolina; 03:16.760 --> 03:18.570 he'd been around. 03:18.569 --> 03:21.989 He was at this point, by April of 1864, 03:21.987 --> 03:27.017 a non-commissioned sergeant in Company C, First Regiment, 03:27.022 --> 03:29.992 United States Colored Troops. 03:29.990 --> 03:32.840 They were in camp New Bern, North Carolina, 03:32.843 --> 03:36.383 and he sat down to write a letter to reflect upon the 03:36.376 --> 03:39.226 circumstance that he found himself in. 03:39.229 --> 03:45.379 Hatton, his fellow soldiers, and their families had lived 03:45.383 --> 03:48.023 generations as slaves. 03:48.020 --> 03:52.860 And this is what he wrote. 03:52.860 --> 03:56.910 He says, "Though the government openly declared that it did not 03:56.908 --> 03:59.258 want the Negroes in this conflict, 03:59.259 --> 04:03.099 I look around me and see hundreds of colored men armed 04:03.097 --> 04:06.787 and ready to defend the government at any moment. 04:06.789 --> 04:12.269 And such are my feelings that I can only say the fetters have 04:12.269 --> 04:15.099 fallen, our bondage is over." 04:15.099 --> 04:18.769 A month later Hatton's regiment was in camp near Jamestown, 04:18.771 --> 04:22.761 Virginia--and he didn't miss the irony of being at Jamestown, 04:22.760 --> 04:27.200 the founding site of Virginia. 04:27.199 --> 04:33.669 And into his lines came several black freed women who all 04:33.665 --> 04:40.935 declared they had recently been severely whipped by a master. 04:40.940 --> 04:45.530 Members of Hatton's company managed to capture that slave 04:45.530 --> 04:48.480 owner, a Mr. Clayton, the man who had 04:48.481 --> 04:52.991 allegedly administered the beatings on these women. 04:52.990 --> 04:56.850 The white Virginian was stripped to the waist. 04:56.850 --> 05:02.020 He was tied to a tree and he was given 20 lashes by one of 05:02.018 --> 05:06.458 his own former slaves, a man named William Harris, 05:06.461 --> 05:10.361 who was now a member of the Union Army. 05:10.360 --> 05:16.980 In turn, each of the women that Clayton had beaten were given 05:16.978 --> 05:23.818 the whip and their chance to lay the lash on this slaveholder's 05:23.817 --> 05:27.177 back. "The women were given leave," 05:27.181 --> 05:31.761 said Sergeant Hatton--his words--"to remind him that they 05:31.759 --> 05:36.579 were not longer his but safely housed in Abraham's bosom and 05:36.583 --> 05:41.653 under the protection of the Star Spangled Banner and guarded by 05:41.652 --> 05:47.592 their own patriotic, though once downtrodden race." 05:47.589 --> 05:53.129 In Hatton's letter he once again felt lost for words to 05:53.127 --> 05:58.047 describe the transformation he was witnessing. 05:58.050 --> 06:02.230 "Oh that I had the tongue to express my feelings," he wrote, 06:02.227 --> 06:06.547 "while standing on the banks of the James River on the soil of 06:06.546 --> 06:09.936 Old Virginia, the mother-state of slavery, 06:09.944 --> 06:13.004 as a witness of such a sudden reverse. 06:13.000 --> 06:18.030 The day is clear, the fields of grain are 06:18.029 --> 06:25.069 beautiful and the birds are singing sweet melodious songs 06:25.072 --> 06:29.852 while poor Mr. Clayton is crying to his 06:29.850 --> 06:33.120 servants for mercy." 06:33.120 --> 06:36.810 That's a revolution, described in the words of a 06:36.805 --> 06:39.785 former slave, words that were trying to 06:39.785 --> 06:44.325 capture the transformations of history at the same time his 06:44.334 --> 06:48.024 actions were trying to transform history. 06:48.020 --> 06:51.890 06:51.889 --> 06:57.009 Words. Now, we will forever debate in 06:57.008 --> 07:05.538 this society the meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation. 07:05.540 --> 07:09.050 Over and over and over again we debate: did it really free 07:09.053 --> 07:11.303 anybody? Why did it only free the slaves 07:11.304 --> 07:12.784 in the states in rebellion? 07:12.779 --> 07:16.099 Why was Lincoln so bloody legalistic in this document? 07:16.100 --> 07:19.660 Was Richard Hofstadter right when he said it had all the 07:19.660 --> 07:23.610 eloquence of a bill of lading (which means a grocery list)? 07:23.610 --> 07:28.840 Why was it written like it was a legal brief in court, 07:28.839 --> 07:33.969 here and there laced with some remarkable phrases? 07:33.970 --> 07:38.370 Why was he so careful not to free the slaves in the Border 07:38.370 --> 07:41.150 States that hadn't left the union? 07:41.150 --> 07:46.810 And on and on. But I think we should make no 07:46.805 --> 07:50.295 mistake, the Emancipation Proclamation is a terribly 07:50.297 --> 07:52.417 important American document. 07:52.420 --> 07:55.840 Emancipation is not just the story of great documents, 07:55.839 --> 07:59.129 as I'm trying to argue, but this one's important. 07:59.129 --> 08:05.659 The second paragraph reads--and this is, by the way, 08:05.656 --> 08:10.956 Lincoln's own handwriting; this is a facsimile of the 08:10.958 --> 08:13.518 original; he wrote some three or four 08:13.515 --> 08:17.655 originals--"that on the First Day of January in this year of 08:17.657 --> 08:20.787 Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and 08:20.793 --> 08:25.233 Sixty-Three, all persons held as slaves within any state or 08:25.226 --> 08:29.936 designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then 08:29.940 --> 08:34.030 be in rebellion against the United States"--God, 08:34.029 --> 08:39.669 is this legalistic--"shall be then"--this is not 08:39.665 --> 08:45.895 legalistic--"then, thenceforward and forever free. 08:45.899 --> 08:50.419 And the Executive governments of this United States, 08:50.415 --> 08:55.275 including the military and naval authority thereof"--the 08:55.284 --> 09:00.774 Army and Navy are now bound to do this it says--"will recognize 09:00.773 --> 09:06.173 and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or 09:06.174 --> 09:11.994 acts to repress such persons, or any of them, 09:11.989 --> 09:21.469 in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." 09:21.470 --> 09:24.910 Actual freedom. 09:24.910 --> 09:36.510 09:36.509 --> 09:40.179 Now, yes, it was a limited document. 09:40.179 --> 09:43.959 It didn't free as many slaves as the Second Confiscation Act 09:43.956 --> 09:46.256 had legally already set in motion. 09:46.260 --> 09:51.310 That's true. But this is the most important 09:51.305 --> 09:54.025 thing to remember about the Emancipation Proclamation. 09:54.029 --> 10:00.089 Most black folks didn't care about the details of it. 10:00.090 --> 10:06.400 What they cared about is that the United States Government had 10:06.404 --> 10:10.964 acted and said they were going to be free. 10:10.960 --> 10:14.370 There were at least four immediate and visible effects of 10:14.367 --> 10:17.047 the Proclamation, once it went into effect on 10:17.045 --> 10:20.785 January^( )1. Every forward step of the Union 10:20.791 --> 10:25.171 armies now would be, whether some of those officers 10:25.165 --> 10:28.485 liked it or not, a liberating step. 10:28.490 --> 10:32.470 Secondly, news of this Proclamation, 10:32.467 --> 10:37.237 whatever the details and the fine print, 10:37.240 --> 10:41.730 would spread like wildfire across the South, 10:41.733 --> 10:46.753 and it would bring about--there's no question--it 10:46.749 --> 10:50.929 will bring about increased activity, 10:50.929 --> 10:54.229 increased flight, increased movement toward Union 10:54.228 --> 10:57.388 lines by freed people, where they can do it. 10:57.389 --> 11:01.929 And there's all over the record we have testimony of Confederate 11:01.926 --> 11:04.246 soldiers themselves, of Southerners, 11:04.250 --> 11:07.060 white Southerners themselves saying they first heard about 11:07.063 --> 11:09.583 the Emancipation Proclamation from their slaves. 11:09.580 --> 11:14.520 11:14.519 --> 11:17.769 Third, it committed the United States Government in the eyes of 11:17.774 --> 11:20.984 the world--and that's terribly important when we remember that 11:20.977 --> 11:23.647 Great Britain was on the verge of recognition of the 11:23.654 --> 11:26.704 Confederacy--more on that a bit later in the course, 11:26.700 --> 11:29.550 of how that foreign relationship and the problem of 11:29.548 --> 11:33.078 Civil War diplomacy is being managed by the two governments, 11:33.080 --> 11:35.250 Union and Confederate. 11:35.250 --> 11:39.000 And fourth, on the second page of the Emancipation 11:38.999 --> 11:42.669 Proclamation--or is it the third--in another very 11:42.673 --> 11:47.263 legalistic paragraph Lincoln formally authorizes once and for 11:47.264 --> 11:50.344 all, although it's already begun to 11:50.342 --> 11:55.042 happen, the recruitment of black men into the Union Armies and 11:55.043 --> 11:59.033 Navy, and it authorizes a formal 11:59.030 --> 12:06.160 process now to recruit black men to the Union uniform. 12:06.159 --> 12:12.249 And before the war will end about ten percent of all Union 12:12.253 --> 12:17.173 forces will be African-American-- approximately 12:17.171 --> 12:22.521 180,000--eighty percent of whom were former slaves, 12:22.516 --> 12:25.506 from the slave states. 12:25.509 --> 12:30.179 Now, in that fall of 1862, Frederick Douglass put down his 12:30.179 --> 12:35.009 cudgel that he'd been beating Lincoln with for a year in his 12:35.013 --> 12:39.113 editorials--and he beat him bitterly at times. 12:39.110 --> 12:43.130 At one point in late '61 he called Abraham Lincoln the most 12:43.127 --> 12:45.757 powerful slave catcher in the world. 12:45.759 --> 12:49.239 That was Douglass's opinion of that denial of asylum policy 12:49.243 --> 12:52.613 which said fugitive slaves escaping Union lines had to be 12:52.607 --> 12:55.007 returned if their owners were loyal. 12:55.009 --> 13:00.149 Douglass, like many others, saw the nonsense in that policy 13:00.145 --> 13:04.045 early on. Douglass finally put down the 13:04.047 --> 13:07.777 cudgel and he said, with lovely irony, 13:07.783 --> 13:12.343 "It is really wonderful," said Frederick Douglass, 13:12.342 --> 13:16.462 "how all efforts to evade, postpone and prevent its coming 13:16.456 --> 13:21.216 have been mocked and defied by the stupendous sweep of events"; 13:21.220 --> 13:25.850 its coming meaning black freedom. 13:25.850 --> 13:31.320 And I'll just say lastly, add a fifth to that, 13:31.316 --> 13:37.386 emancipation transformed the purpose of the war. 13:37.389 --> 13:40.769 Emancipation more than anything else will make the Civil War a 13:40.772 --> 13:44.112 war of conquest, a war of near totality, 13:44.112 --> 13:47.272 on both sides, and it meant now, 13:47.268 --> 13:53.478 now that this was going to be a war of conquest on the South's 13:53.480 --> 13:57.350 social and economic institutions, 13:57.350 --> 14:04.770 it meant it would probably only end in unconditional surrender. 14:04.769 --> 14:08.599 Now, it's a complicated story as to how this'll be enforced, 14:08.600 --> 14:11.680 of course. And I strongly urge you to read 14:11.678 --> 14:15.978 certain of those Lincoln documents in the Johnson reader, 14:15.980 --> 14:19.990 and more importantly, to read at least that greatest 14:19.987 --> 14:24.937 hits selection I provided in the reading packet of the documents 14:24.938 --> 14:27.338 on emancipation; which, by the way, 14:27.335 --> 14:29.115 come out of a book called Free at Last, 14:29.120 --> 14:34.450 which is itself a 500 page collection of the greatest hits 14:34.445 --> 14:38.925 of the documents of the American emancipation, 14:38.929 --> 14:43.839 which are now published in five volumes, all of which are in the 14:43.840 --> 14:45.400 National Archives. 14:45.399 --> 14:48.059 But one of those Lincoln documents I don't want you to 14:48.059 --> 14:51.069 miss, I said the other day, was the James Conkling letter. 14:51.070 --> 14:53.060 It comes in August of '63. 14:53.059 --> 14:58.049 One of the reasons that letter is interesting is that it shows 14:58.049 --> 15:02.629 us that though Lincoln could be one crafty politician; 15:02.629 --> 15:06.769 and whether emancipation will ever truly succeed in this war, 15:06.765 --> 15:10.965 of course, depends on the Union winning on the battlefield. 15:10.970 --> 15:15.560 It really depended on all those deaths at Gettysburg and at 15:15.559 --> 15:19.199 Vicksburg and so many other horrible places. 15:19.200 --> 15:23.210 And yes, it's true that large, large numbers of those Union 15:23.214 --> 15:26.884 soldiers who died didn't necessarily believe they were 15:26.882 --> 15:30.172 fighting to free slaves, nor did they even want to. 15:30.169 --> 15:34.249 But sometimes history is ahead of anyone's basic human, 15:34.254 --> 15:36.604 individual motives, isn't it? 15:36.600 --> 15:40.950 But in this Conkling letter, so called, it's a public letter 15:40.953 --> 15:45.163 that--Lincoln mastered this presidential art of the public 15:45.159 --> 15:49.659 letter more than any previous president and it was his version 15:49.660 --> 15:53.410 of the news conference, which didn't happen in those 15:53.405 --> 15:55.755 days. It was his version of an 15:55.760 --> 15:59.110 exclusive interview with Anderson Cooper, 15:59.111 --> 16:02.631 or whatever the hell it would be today. 16:02.629 --> 16:05.439 He wrote letters aimed at certain newspapers which would 16:05.444 --> 16:07.444 then be reprinted across the country. 16:07.440 --> 16:11.370 This was a letter to James Conkling, Congressman from 16:11.368 --> 16:16.018 Illinois, of his own party, who was opposing emancipation, 16:16.023 --> 16:20.133 who was at least wary of it and worried about it. 16:20.129 --> 16:23.299 The great worry about the emancipation policy, 16:23.301 --> 16:27.531 of course, was that white Northerners would not accept it, 16:27.529 --> 16:29.879 that white northern soldiers would thrown down their arms and 16:29.883 --> 16:31.613 say, "I ain't fighting to free the slaves. 16:31.610 --> 16:34.710 I'm fighting to preserve the Union, thank you very much." 16:34.710 --> 16:37.730 Lincoln had that great fear himself. 16:37.730 --> 16:42.210 But God, read that letter. 16:42.210 --> 16:49.200 It's one of Lincoln's--it's Lincoln the ironist; 16:49.200 --> 16:53.560 it's also Lincoln the persuasive lawyer. 16:53.559 --> 16:57.789 On the second page of it he says to Conkling--he's really 16:57.792 --> 17:00.742 saying this to white northerners now, 17:00.740 --> 17:03.540 because this letter got published everywhere--"You 17:03.538 --> 17:05.878 dislike the Emancipation Proclamation," 17:05.880 --> 17:09.080 he says, "and perhaps would have it retracted. 17:09.080 --> 17:11.850 You say it is unconstitutional. 17:11.850 --> 17:14.060 I think differently. 17:14.059 --> 17:17.969 I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief 17:17.969 --> 17:20.719 with the law of war, in time of war. 17:20.720 --> 17:26.440 The most that can be said, if so much, is that the slaves 17:26.438 --> 17:30.448 are property. Is there, has there ever been 17:30.445 --> 17:35.565 any question that by law of war property, both of enemies and 17:35.566 --> 17:38.806 friends, may be taken when needed?" 17:38.810 --> 17:40.970 So there's that argument. 17:40.970 --> 17:43.140 Whatever you think of the morality of this, 17:43.140 --> 17:45.310 folks, slaves are property of the enemy; 17:45.310 --> 17:47.170 I'm taking their assets. 17:47.170 --> 17:50.150 It's a legal argument. 17:50.150 --> 17:53.140 Then you go to the next page--he's also beginning to 17:53.142 --> 17:56.602 make there an argument, if you read that part of the 17:56.595 --> 18:00.135 letter carefully, it's an argument for total war, 18:00.140 --> 18:04.750 to unconditional surrender, and he's trying to condition 18:04.750 --> 18:06.930 public opinion for this. 18:06.930 --> 18:09.890 Then you go to the next page. 18:09.890 --> 18:13.660 "You say you will not fight to free Negroes. 18:13.660 --> 18:17.930 Some of them seem wiling to fight for you. 18:17.930 --> 18:20.660 But no matter, fight you then, 18:20.663 --> 18:23.683 exclusively to save the Union. 18:23.680 --> 18:27.400 I issued the Proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the 18:27.403 --> 18:29.153 Union. Whenever you shall have 18:29.153 --> 18:32.433 conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to 18:32.425 --> 18:35.975 continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for 18:35.975 --> 18:40.005 you to declare you will not fight to free Negroes." 18:40.010 --> 18:44.940 18:44.940 --> 18:49.750 All right, crawl into your cul-de-sac and say you're only 18:49.746 --> 18:54.636 fighting to save the Union, but here's another way to save 18:54.638 --> 18:58.248 the Union. And then he goes on. 18:58.250 --> 19:01.350 "I thought that in your struggle for the Union, 19:01.348 --> 19:05.658 to whatever extent the Negroes should cease helping the enemy, 19:05.660 --> 19:10.120 to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. 19:10.120 --> 19:11.890 Do you think differently? 19:11.890 --> 19:15.180 I thought that whatever Negroes can be got to do as soldiers 19:15.184 --> 19:18.424 leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving 19:18.422 --> 19:19.262 the Union." 19:19.260 --> 19:22.260 19:22.259 --> 19:26.469 It's almost as if he's appealing to Conkling's racial 19:26.473 --> 19:31.123 self-interest; does it appear otherwise to you? 19:31.119 --> 19:34.829 And then Lincoln says, "But Negroes, 19:34.826 --> 19:38.846 like other people, act upon motives. 19:38.849 --> 19:43.529 Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for 19:43.525 --> 19:46.185 them? If they stake their lives for 19:46.189 --> 19:49.749 us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive, 19:49.754 --> 19:52.014 even the promise of freedom. 19:52.009 --> 19:56.559 And the promise being made must be kept." 19:56.560 --> 20:00.530 20:00.529 --> 20:04.339 Okay, blah, blah, blah, lots of words, 20:04.336 --> 20:09.896 right? Words, words, words, words. 20:09.900 --> 20:16.130 Yes, but meanings are almost always somewhere, 20:16.132 --> 20:20.012 somehow embedded in words. 20:20.009 --> 20:24.009 Now, as I said, now every forward step of the 20:24.008 --> 20:28.368 Union armies is going to be a liberating step. 20:28.369 --> 20:31.299 And I want to show just a quick map here to illustrate 20:31.297 --> 20:31.957 something. 20:31.960 --> 20:50.670 20:50.670 --> 20:51.530 And I can zoom in on that. 20:51.534 --> 20:53.234 I hope you can see the colors here to some extent. 20:53.230 --> 20:58.040 The simple point of this map is this. 20:58.039 --> 21:01.479 It's a map that shows the conquest of the South by Union 21:01.479 --> 21:05.109 forces, it's the movement, generally speaking, 21:05.110 --> 21:09.960 of Union lines into the South in what becomes now, 21:09.960 --> 21:12.480 by '62, '63 and '64, 21:12.476 --> 21:16.796 a war of conquest, West and East. 21:16.799 --> 21:21.429 But I want to especially stress that the most important factor 21:21.427 --> 21:25.977 in when and where a slave might attain his or her freedom; 21:25.980 --> 21:29.570 the first factor had everything to do with where the armies 21:29.567 --> 21:31.957 went. It was proximity to the war 21:31.956 --> 21:36.446 that made emancipation possible in northern Virginia in 1862; 21:36.450 --> 21:38.630 Sea Islands of Georgia, South Carolina, 21:38.626 --> 21:41.006 '62; around the whole New Orleans 21:41.014 --> 21:43.654 region in '62; but not possible at all in 21:43.652 --> 21:46.442 southern Georgia until after the war was over; 21:46.440 --> 21:49.750 not possible really at all in the southern half of Alabama 21:49.749 --> 21:53.499 until the whole war was over; not possible at all in parts of 21:53.499 --> 21:56.139 Mississippi until the whole war was over. 21:56.140 --> 22:01.670 Hence, that's why the large majority of American slaves were 22:01.668 --> 22:06.448 not actually within Union lines or technically free, 22:06.446 --> 22:09.816 in any way, until the war ended. 22:09.819 --> 22:14.319 I'll make one other point about this. 22:14.319 --> 22:17.729 There's a nice book by a historian named Stephen Ash. 22:17.730 --> 22:23.050 It's called When the Yankees Came, and it's all about the 22:23.049 --> 22:27.439 process of Union occupation of parts of the South. 22:27.440 --> 22:31.620 He goes in and studies towns in Tennessee and towns in northern 22:31.617 --> 22:34.377 Georgia and towns in northern Virginia, 22:34.380 --> 22:37.050 and tries to understand, so what happened when an area 22:37.046 --> 22:39.206 of the South, an area of the Confederacy, 22:39.210 --> 22:40.770 came under Union control? 22:40.769 --> 22:43.409 And he divides the South usefully here; 22:43.410 --> 22:47.860 and it's very useful in understanding how emancipation 22:47.861 --> 22:52.901 actually happened on the ground as a human, sometimes brutal, 22:52.900 --> 22:55.840 ugly, chaotic, painful process. 22:55.839 --> 23:00.899 He divides the South into what he calls three regions: 23:00.896 --> 23:04.136 one, the "Confederate frontier"; 23:04.140 --> 23:07.210 the second he calls "no-man's land"; 23:07.210 --> 23:10.150 and the third he calls "garrisoned towns." 23:10.150 --> 23:12.200 Now that's pretty easy to understand. 23:12.200 --> 23:15.610 If you think of--just take Tennessee, up there in the 23:15.609 --> 23:19.479 middle. By 1862 Nashville became a--it 23:19.484 --> 23:26.604 was the capital of Tennessee--it became a garrisoned Union town; 23:26.599 --> 23:29.819 that is, it's occupied, its resources, 23:29.824 --> 23:32.264 its railroad, its everything, 23:32.264 --> 23:35.754 were taken over by the Union forces. 23:35.750 --> 23:39.530 And then there's the so called no-man's land, 23:39.528 --> 23:43.568 the region say between a Nashville and where the 23:43.565 --> 23:48.275 Confederate forces were, the land between the armies, 23:48.279 --> 23:52.899 which of course fluctuated a great deal back and forth. 23:52.900 --> 23:56.680 And then lastly he calls it the Confederate frontier, 23:56.680 --> 24:00.680 or at times he'll call it the Confederate hinterland, 24:00.680 --> 24:05.320 that is the land behind the lines that was never taken by 24:05.315 --> 24:08.955 Union forces, the land behind the lines where 24:08.957 --> 24:13.007 Confederate resources, relatively speaking, 24:13.007 --> 24:17.347 remained intact. They're still producing cotton 24:17.354 --> 24:21.824 crops, in the summer of '64 and the fall of '64, 24:21.819 --> 24:24.639 and they're still planting in the whole southern half of 24:24.644 --> 24:27.164 Georgia and the whole southern half of Alabama, 24:27.160 --> 24:29.960 by and large, right on into 1865. 24:29.960 --> 24:33.890 24:33.890 --> 24:38.280 But where you happen to be geographically was the first 24:38.280 --> 24:43.240 important factor of where and how emancipation might occur, 24:43.240 --> 24:48.040 in proximity particularly to the armies. 24:48.039 --> 24:52.089 Now, a second factor that would determine when and if slaves 24:52.086 --> 24:56.056 would be free was the character of the slave society in any 24:56.064 --> 24:58.784 given region. Were they in a densely 24:58.779 --> 25:03.219 populated slave region like the Sea Islands, parts of the cotton 25:03.216 --> 25:07.166 belt? Or were they in sparsely 25:07.169 --> 25:12.969 populated areas? And again, it had to do with 25:12.965 --> 25:15.555 geography. Were you in the Lower 25:15.562 --> 25:18.632 Mississippi Valley, huge concentrations of slaves? 25:18.630 --> 25:24.760 When Grant's forces move down the Mississippi and eventually 25:24.755 --> 25:29.785 take Vicksburg by July 1863, this entire region--in fact it 25:29.788 --> 25:32.088 is in the Lower Mississippi Valley; 25:32.089 --> 25:34.019 this is why some people argue that the war, 25:34.015 --> 25:36.395 the Civil War was really won and lost in the West. 25:36.400 --> 25:39.590 And I'll engage that argument after the break when we talk 25:39.586 --> 25:42.326 about Union victory and Confederate defeat and the 25:42.325 --> 25:45.675 various debates among historians trying to explain this. 25:45.680 --> 25:48.880 A lot of people have argued that the war is won and lost in 25:48.876 --> 25:52.176 the West because of the great significance of the Mississippi 25:52.183 --> 25:54.773 Valley, which had become the great 25:54.766 --> 25:56.966 cotton kingdom of the world. 25:56.970 --> 26:01.120 And when Union forces truly conquer the Mississippi River by 26:01.121 --> 26:04.501 the summer of 1863, there are thousands of slaves 26:04.499 --> 26:06.469 coming into Union lines. 26:06.470 --> 26:09.470 The reason that Grant and Sherman and other officers in 26:09.467 --> 26:13.017 the West began to create these things called contraband camps, 26:13.019 --> 26:15.539 for freed slaves, is because they didn't know 26:15.535 --> 26:16.845 what to do with them. 26:16.849 --> 26:20.389 And there are these amazing dispatches written by Grant, 26:20.393 --> 26:23.243 to the War Department, saying what am I going to do 26:23.239 --> 26:25.139 with all these people, how do I feed them, 26:25.142 --> 26:26.212 where do I put them? 26:26.210 --> 26:29.200 What is their status, what are they legally? 26:29.200 --> 26:33.060 And eventually that's why you get the largest contraband camps 26:33.063 --> 26:35.143 anywhere. The largest ones were not in 26:35.138 --> 26:37.938 Virginia--although there was a huge one around Washington, 26:37.943 --> 26:41.003 DC--the largest of them were in northern Mississippi at a place 26:40.995 --> 26:43.375 called Corinth. You can see it on the map right 26:43.379 --> 26:45.279 here. There was a huge contraband 26:45.276 --> 26:47.976 camp at Memphis. There was eventually one in 26:47.981 --> 26:51.641 Cairo, Illinois. All up and down this region, 26:51.643 --> 26:56.853 this is where conquest really happened first and the true 26:56.850 --> 27:01.960 disruption of southern society and the beginnings of the 27:01.964 --> 27:04.944 destruction of plantations. 27:04.940 --> 27:09.220 It will lead even to the beginnings--it's going to take 27:09.222 --> 27:13.192 another year for it to happen along the East Coast, 27:13.187 --> 27:17.157 but it begins in '63; even in '62 but especially 27:17.160 --> 27:20.910 '63--where many plantation owners in Louisiana and 27:20.911 --> 27:24.511 Mississippi started refugeeing their slaves. 27:24.509 --> 27:27.219 They would flee their plantations in the face of the 27:27.216 --> 27:29.706 Yankee armies, often going west toward Texas, 27:29.710 --> 27:33.090 sometimes just further inland, or wherever they could go, 27:33.085 --> 27:36.215 and they would try to take their slaves with them; 27:36.220 --> 27:38.200 it was called refugeeing them. 27:38.200 --> 27:41.710 And often what that meant--I'll cite some examples of that after 27:41.711 --> 27:45.301 the break. There's a famous diary memoir 27:45.299 --> 27:50.439 by a southern woman, Kate Stone, who kept a diary of 27:50.435 --> 27:54.055 her plantation called Brokenburn. 27:54.059 --> 27:56.389 At any rate, she left with some 27:56.390 --> 28:00.890 hundred-and-some slaves to try to get out of Louisiana over 28:00.894 --> 28:04.094 into Texas. By the time she got there half 28:04.085 --> 28:07.255 of them were gone, and she kept wondering why. 28:07.259 --> 28:14.069 Gee, why would they leave, what happened to their loyalty? 28:14.069 --> 28:17.679 Then thirdly, the third factor that would 28:17.678 --> 28:22.728 determine when and how and if a slave became free was, 28:22.730 --> 28:27.430 indeed, what policy was actually being enforced, 28:27.430 --> 28:31.730 at any given time, by those Union troops, 28:31.730 --> 28:34.340 or for that matter by the Confederate troops in terms of 28:34.339 --> 28:36.569 freeing the slaves or not freeing the slaves, 28:36.569 --> 28:40.059 taking them into their lines or not taking them into their 28:40.063 --> 28:43.253 lines, and establishing some kind of legal status. 28:43.250 --> 28:48.860 And then the fourth factor, of course--and this one you 28:48.858 --> 28:52.458 can't measure; you can know it when you read 28:52.461 --> 28:56.011 it and you see it and you hear it, and there's so many 28:56.008 --> 28:59.358 wonderful documents that demonstrate it--the fourth 28:59.355 --> 29:03.565 factor in when and how American slaves became free was their own 29:03.572 --> 29:06.012 ingenuity, their own initiative, 29:06.011 --> 29:08.241 their own cunning, their own bravery, 29:08.242 --> 29:10.972 their own willingness to risk everything, 29:10.970 --> 29:15.150 to try to get to something called freedom. 29:15.150 --> 29:19.010 And not knowing what that freedom would be when they got 29:19.012 --> 29:21.402 there -- would they be employed? 29:21.400 --> 29:23.110 Would they have shelter? 29:23.109 --> 29:25.169 Were they going to be able to feed their children? 29:25.170 --> 29:28.480 Could they get their wives and husbands out with them? 29:28.480 --> 29:33.230 What about women with three children, where would they go, 29:33.225 --> 29:35.635 what would their status be? 29:35.640 --> 29:37.440 Would they actually have any rights? 29:37.440 --> 29:40.930 29:40.930 --> 29:44.730 We learn so much about this--and please in the reading 29:44.732 --> 29:46.672 packet have a close look. 29:46.670 --> 29:51.710 I included some of those documents from the contraband 29:51.708 --> 29:55.418 camps where these superintendents of the 29:55.416 --> 30:00.926 contraband camps were all asked a series of questions. 30:00.930 --> 30:04.210 They were asked things about the motives of the slaves that 30:04.212 --> 30:05.742 escaped into their camps. 30:05.740 --> 30:09.050 They were asked to describe why had these people come. 30:09.049 --> 30:11.179 They were asked to describe their physical conditions. 30:11.180 --> 30:13.550 They were asked to describe what they thought, 30:13.551 --> 30:15.291 what they felt, what they said. 30:15.289 --> 30:20.559 And all these superintendents of all these contraband camps 30:20.559 --> 30:25.829 are just stunned at the way that black folk keep coming, 30:25.829 --> 30:29.279 in spite of the hardships, half clothed, 30:29.280 --> 30:31.050 half fed--if that. 30:31.049 --> 30:35.439 And they're stunned at the religiosity of escaped slaves. 30:35.440 --> 30:38.140 These superintendents write back and they say, 30:38.140 --> 30:40.780 "These people sing and they worship all night 30:40.779 --> 30:43.349 long--strange." But almost to a man, 30:43.351 --> 30:47.361 these superintendents of contraband camps when asked what 30:47.358 --> 30:50.578 were the motives, they simply fall back on the 30:50.579 --> 30:52.439 most basic of things. 30:52.440 --> 30:56.080 They say things like, "They wanted their freedom." 30:56.080 --> 31:01.860 31:01.859 --> 31:04.969 Now, emancipation also would depend, here and there, 31:04.973 --> 31:07.053 on a whole lot of other factors, 31:07.049 --> 31:11.269 but again they come under these categories I've already given 31:11.274 --> 31:13.954 you--the close proximity to the war. 31:13.950 --> 31:18.040 Now, for example, when the war moved into Georgia 31:18.044 --> 31:21.804 in '63 and '64, when Sherman invaded northern 31:21.797 --> 31:26.827 Georgia and the war really went to the deep hinterland, 31:26.829 --> 31:30.029 the heart of the southeast, Confederates were all 31:30.029 --> 31:33.629 ready--and they were already doing this in Virginia, 31:33.630 --> 31:36.780 they were beginning to do it out in the West, 31:36.776 --> 31:41.136 they surely did it in the city of Mobile and other Confederate 31:41.138 --> 31:45.498 held cities--Confederates had begun to employ or impress their 31:45.500 --> 31:49.030 slaves into service, thousands of them. 31:49.029 --> 31:51.799 About 3000 slaves were put to work in Mobile, 31:51.802 --> 31:54.262 Alabama, building its fortifications. 31:54.259 --> 31:57.189 Slaves, hundreds upon hundreds of slaves, were put to work 31:57.188 --> 31:59.138 building fortifications of Richmond. 31:59.140 --> 32:04.420 An estimated 5,000 slaves were put to work building the 32:04.417 --> 32:08.907 fortifications all around Atlanta, by late '63, 32:08.913 --> 32:12.533 to try to stop Sherman's advance. 32:12.530 --> 32:16.250 Very often they were hired out; that is, they were supposed to 32:16.253 --> 32:19.433 be paid--or their owners were supposed to be paid--for their 32:19.428 --> 32:21.998 service. They were used as teamsters and 32:21.997 --> 32:26.017 nurses and cooks and boatmen and blacksmiths and laundresses and 32:26.016 --> 32:27.416 so on and so forth. 32:27.420 --> 32:30.070 If you saw a Confederate Army from 1862 to '64, 32:30.069 --> 32:32.199 you'd see hundreds of black people. 32:32.200 --> 32:36.570 32:36.569 --> 32:40.689 Well, and as those armies moved, sometimes those slaves 32:40.685 --> 32:42.815 had opportunities to flee. 32:42.819 --> 32:46.899 In the wake of battles, on any scale, 32:46.896 --> 32:50.516 some slaves would always flee. 32:50.519 --> 32:56.999 They were often used as the burial crews, 32:56.998 --> 33:01.358 on both sides. They were also hired out--and 33:01.361 --> 33:04.971 this was really significant in Virginia--to the ironworks in 33:04.966 --> 33:07.386 Richmond. The Tredagar Ironworks at one 33:07.389 --> 33:10.649 point employed almost 4,000 slaves who tended to be hired 33:10.652 --> 33:14.092 out from the western parts of Massachusetts and the northern 33:14.090 --> 33:15.780 parts of North Carolina. 33:15.779 --> 33:19.409 That movement of people, movement of slaves, 33:19.407 --> 33:23.197 on this scale had never happened in the South, 33:23.204 --> 33:26.414 and in the midst of that movement. 33:26.410 --> 33:30.130 Linda Morgan wrote a fine book on emancipation in Virginia and 33:30.126 --> 33:32.376 she showed this for the first time, 33:32.380 --> 33:35.930 that all this movement of hired out slaves to Richmond--and 33:35.930 --> 33:38.830 other small ironworks, by the way, over in the 33:38.829 --> 33:42.439 Shenandoah Valley--meant a certain percentage of them began 33:42.436 --> 33:46.176 to flee, and escape, further north. 33:46.180 --> 33:48.260 They worked on railroad crews. 33:48.259 --> 33:52.569 It was estimated that in northern Georgia, 33:52.572 --> 33:57.202 during Sherman's campaign against Atlanta, 33:57.200 --> 34:01.460 that about forty percent of all the women working as nurses in 34:01.459 --> 34:05.649 Confederate hospitals all over the state were slave women. 34:05.650 --> 34:08.170 That means they'd been taken off their plantations, 34:08.174 --> 34:09.994 their farms, or out of their domestic 34:09.992 --> 34:11.732 situations, wherever they were, 34:11.728 --> 34:13.478 and put to work in the hospitals. 34:13.480 --> 34:17.020 34:17.019 --> 34:20.869 So the point is, movement of the armies meant 34:20.866 --> 34:25.846 movement of slaves as well, and that moment of freedom, 34:25.849 --> 34:28.899 that moment of escape, that opportunity might come 34:28.903 --> 34:30.963 when you would least expect it. 34:30.960 --> 34:34.440 And that American slave had to make a choice, 34:34.439 --> 34:38.709 every time--do I go and risk everything or do I not? 34:38.710 --> 34:41.200 Let me tell one little story amidst that. 34:41.199 --> 34:44.099 It's the other half of this book I just did. 34:44.099 --> 34:49.029 This young slave named Wallace Turnage. 34:49.030 --> 34:55.250 He was born on a little tobacco farm in North Carolina in 1846, 34:55.254 --> 34:57.904 Green County, North Carolina, 34:57.896 --> 35:02.586 sold by his indebted owner to a Richmond, Virginia slave-trader 35:02.593 --> 35:05.833 named Hector Davis, who was one of the largest 35:05.828 --> 35:08.908 slave-traders in the United States and kept enormous 35:08.906 --> 35:11.696 records. He spent about six months in 35:11.701 --> 35:16.121 1860 working in the three-story slave jail/auction house in 35:16.116 --> 35:18.886 Richmond. His job every day was preparing 35:18.887 --> 35:21.697 the slaves in what was called the dressing room, 35:21.703 --> 35:24.163 to take them out to the auction floor. 35:24.159 --> 35:28.019 And one day he's simply told, "Boy, you're in the auction." 35:28.019 --> 35:31.469 And he was sold to an Alabama cotton planter named James 35:31.469 --> 35:33.699 Chalmers. Seventy-two hours later by 35:33.700 --> 35:36.840 train he found himself on a huge cotton operation near 35:36.841 --> 35:40.751 Pickensville, Alabama, which is right about 35:40.749 --> 35:47.079 there, right on the Mississippi border, a plantation with about 35:47.075 --> 35:49.315 eighty-five slaves. 35:49.320 --> 35:53.450 And the narrative he left us, which was discovered and lopped 35:53.446 --> 35:57.656 into my lap a few years ago, the extraordinary narrative he 35:57.663 --> 36:01.903 left, is the story largely of his five attempts to escape in 36:01.897 --> 36:05.497 the midst of the war, from the age of fourteen to 36:05.495 --> 36:07.365 seventeen. He was one 36:07.370 --> 36:12.480 passionate--half-crazy, one might say--no doubt 36:12.476 --> 36:19.356 traumatized--teenage slave who just couldn't be controlled. 36:19.360 --> 36:23.290 He ran away four times into Mississippi, the second two of 36:23.289 --> 36:27.119 which, certainly at least, he was always trying to get up 36:27.122 --> 36:30.422 to northern Mississippi to get to the Union armies, 36:30.420 --> 36:34.010 which he knew had controlled the whole northern tier of 36:34.009 --> 36:37.639 Mississippi by late spring 1862; in fact three of his escapes 36:37.644 --> 36:38.924 over there were really--. 36:38.920 --> 36:42.850 He would always go up the Mobile and Ohio Railway Line. 36:42.849 --> 36:45.449 And one time he was at large for four and a half months, 36:45.452 --> 36:48.242 hiding in other slave cabins and hiding in woods and forests 36:48.244 --> 36:50.094 and gullies wherever he could hide, 36:50.090 --> 36:51.910 and he was always captured. 36:51.909 --> 36:55.149 He was trying to actually get to Corinth, and the big 36:55.153 --> 36:58.583 contraband camp in Corinth, and he almost made it on his 36:58.584 --> 37:02.314 fourth try. He kept being captured by slave 37:02.305 --> 37:05.895 patrols, Confederate patrols and so on. 37:05.900 --> 37:10.460 His master would always come after him because he was so 37:10.458 --> 37:12.218 valuable. He'd been sold, 37:12.219 --> 37:15.619 by the way, for $950 the first time, out of North Carolina. 37:15.619 --> 37:18.849 He was sold for $1000 to old Chalmers in Richmond. 37:18.849 --> 37:23.499 And Chalmers now got fed up in early '63 of constantly trying 37:23.498 --> 37:27.598 to retrieve this kid, and he took him down to Mobile, 37:27.600 --> 37:31.640 Alabama and sold him at the slave jail in Mobile in the 37:31.643 --> 37:33.743 spring of 1863 for $2000. 37:33.739 --> 37:39.699 That's about the price today of a good Mercedes-Benz; 37:39.699 --> 37:41.849 well as opposed to a bad Mercedes-Benz, 37:41.853 --> 37:43.783 I'm not sure what that would be. 37:43.780 --> 37:48.690 37:48.690 --> 37:51.570 And Wallace's fifth and final escape attempt, 37:51.570 --> 37:55.170 the one that succeeded, came after a vicious beating. 37:55.170 --> 37:58.440 He'd been beaten many more times than he could count and 37:58.440 --> 38:02.190 he'd been put in neck braces and leg chains and ankle chains and 38:02.186 --> 38:05.686 wrist chains and every kind of--he'd experienced about every 38:05.694 --> 38:09.444 kind of brutality slavery could wreak upon a teenage kid. 38:09.440 --> 38:13.620 One day, he crashed his master's carriage and the master 38:13.619 --> 38:17.419 got so angry that he took him to the slave jail, 38:17.420 --> 38:21.360 hired the jailer to give him thirty lashes with the ugliest 38:21.356 --> 38:24.336 whip they had, this contraption they had that 38:24.342 --> 38:26.992 would make you bleed on every lash. 38:26.989 --> 38:29.689 At the end of it he's standing there naked, bleeding, 38:29.687 --> 38:31.397 and his master says, "Go home." 38:31.400 --> 38:34.350 And instead of going home he put his clothes back on and he 38:34.351 --> 38:36.591 walked right through the Confederate Army, 38:36.590 --> 38:40.020 a garrison of 10,000 troops, where he was no doubt simply 38:40.017 --> 38:42.647 mistaken for yet another black camp hand, 38:42.650 --> 38:46.400 and at dusk he just crossed through the Confederate camp and 38:46.398 --> 38:48.048 he walked out of Mobile. 38:48.050 --> 38:52.260 And his final escape is a three-week trek, 38:52.262 --> 38:56.272 which he narrates in remarkable ways, 38:56.269 --> 38:59.719 a three-week trek down the western shore of Mobile Bay for 38:59.722 --> 39:03.052 twenty-five miles through a snake and alligator invested 39:03.054 --> 39:05.994 swamp, now known as the Fowl River 39:05.992 --> 39:07.852 Estuary. I've been there, 39:07.850 --> 39:11.770 I've seen the alligators and the snakes, from a large ferry 39:11.769 --> 39:12.309 boat. 39:12.310 --> 39:15.630 39:15.630 --> 39:18.420 And he describes one day praying especially hard when he 39:18.422 --> 39:20.202 got out to the tip of Mobile Bay, 39:20.199 --> 39:23.359 and the tide brought in an old rickety rowboat, 39:23.355 --> 39:27.415 and he tipped over the rowboat, took a plank of wood and he 39:27.417 --> 39:30.077 just started rowing out into the ocean. 39:30.079 --> 39:33.639 And in quite dramatic form he--which is no doubt a little 39:33.644 --> 39:37.274 embellished--he describes how a wave is about to swamp his 39:37.271 --> 39:39.901 little boat, and he hears oars, 39:39.900 --> 39:44.730 and the oars were a Union gunboat with eight sailors. 39:44.730 --> 39:46.260 They said, "Jump in." 39:46.260 --> 39:49.840 He jumped in. And he said as he sat down in 39:49.835 --> 39:55.125 their boat, he said the Yankee sailors were struck with silence 39:55.126 --> 39:57.256 as they looked at him. 39:57.260 --> 40:00.670 And I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't doubt it, 40:00.668 --> 40:04.018 they probably were struck with silence, wondering who he was 40:04.019 --> 40:05.439 and how he got there. 40:05.440 --> 40:09.220 They took him to a Sand Island fort and clothed him and fed 40:09.221 --> 40:12.871 him, the first kind acts by a white person that seventeen 40:12.871 --> 40:15.611 year-old Turnage had ever experienced. 40:15.610 --> 40:18.600 And the next day they took him to Fort Gaines on Dauphin 40:18.601 --> 40:21.921 Island, which is the big, beautiful sandbar island out at 40:21.920 --> 40:25.080 the mouth of Mobile Bay, and he was brought before the 40:25.083 --> 40:27.773 Union commander of all forces in the area, 40:27.769 --> 40:30.009 Gordon Granger, who interrogated him, 40:30.007 --> 40:33.547 probably because they wanted intelligence about Mobile, 40:33.550 --> 40:36.800 and Granger gave him two choices. 40:36.800 --> 40:40.850 He could either join a black regiment that they were forming 40:40.845 --> 40:44.745 at that very time in the Gulf region, or he could become a 40:44.754 --> 40:46.884 servant to a white officer. 40:46.880 --> 40:51.840 And Wallace chose the latter; didn't tell us why but probably 40:51.838 --> 40:55.098 because he'd had enough suffering. 40:55.099 --> 41:00.429 He'd seen enough of his own war with the Confederates. 41:00.429 --> 41:04.749 And he served out the war for another year as the mess cook 41:04.752 --> 41:09.152 for a captain from a Maryland regiment whose name was Junius 41:09.150 --> 41:11.840 Turner. And Wallace was with that 41:11.841 --> 41:15.811 regiment in Baltimore, Maryland in August of 1865 when 41:15.808 --> 41:17.528 it was mustered out. 41:17.530 --> 41:21.580 He lived three years in Baltimore and then moved to New 41:21.575 --> 41:24.945 York City where he lived the rest of his life, 41:24.946 --> 41:28.236 until 1916. But by 1870 I found him in a 41:28.239 --> 41:33.039 census manuscript living in the 300-block of Thompson Street in 41:33.043 --> 41:36.223 what you and I call Greenwich Village. 41:36.219 --> 41:39.649 He got his mother, his four siblings, 41:39.654 --> 41:45.384 somehow, out of North Carolina, and they were all living in a 41:45.377 --> 41:49.907 tenement house, surviving, as part of the first 41:49.912 --> 41:54.482 generation of a black working class, former slaves, 41:54.480 --> 41:56.860 in a northern city. 41:56.860 --> 41:59.110 He lived till 1916. 41:59.110 --> 42:02.100 He's buried in Cyprus Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn, 42:02.100 --> 42:04.860 New York. The point of all of that is 42:04.855 --> 42:09.415 that these slaves escaping were real people, with real names, 42:09.421 --> 42:12.391 real family, real hopes and desires. 42:12.389 --> 42:17.599 And those who--some of those who survived told us what it 42:17.596 --> 42:20.676 meant. Now, the war, 42:20.679 --> 42:29.859 of course, raged on, and at the end of the day--this 42:29.855 --> 42:37.405 is a photograph, by the way, taken in 1862, 42:37.412 --> 42:42.452 I believe, in Virginia. 42:42.449 --> 42:46.779 The photographer simply called it "A Group of Contrabands." 42:46.780 --> 42:50.260 42:50.260 --> 42:51.480 The war raged on. 42:51.480 --> 42:56.210 And of course in the spring of 1863 the Union armies will 42:56.211 --> 42:58.241 invade Virginia again. 42:58.239 --> 43:02.999 I'll come back to lots of this after the break when we get back 43:02.999 --> 43:07.609 to the military history and try to explain how the Union side 43:07.605 --> 43:11.245 won this war. They'll fight a horrible battle 43:11.245 --> 43:13.805 at a place called Chancellorsville, 43:13.807 --> 43:16.667 near Fredericksburg in May of 1863, 43:16.670 --> 43:20.360 which will be another smashing victory by Robert E. 43:20.359 --> 43:24.489 Lee and Stonewall Jackson, over a Union Army commanded by 43:24.491 --> 43:28.841 Joseph Hooker. It will give Lee his occasion 43:28.835 --> 43:34.965 for his second invasion of the North, the riskiest of all, 43:34.969 --> 43:37.459 which will lead him up through northern Virginia, 43:37.459 --> 43:40.049 across into Maryland, and eventually all the way in 43:40.052 --> 43:42.822 to Pennsylvania, and will lead to the fateful 43:42.822 --> 43:45.922 battle at Gettysburg, the first three days of July, 43:45.915 --> 43:48.625 1863; arguably the most important 43:48.626 --> 43:51.496 military turning point of the war. 43:51.500 --> 43:55.620 But it is in those same first six and seven months of 1863 43:55.615 --> 43:59.295 that this war has now been transformed into a war of 43:59.298 --> 44:04.408 unconditional surrender, a war of all out attempt, 44:04.406 --> 44:11.566 at least, all out mobilization at home, and conquest in the 44:11.568 --> 44:14.498 South. It is during this period that 44:14.500 --> 44:16.760 black soldiers are being recruited. 44:16.760 --> 44:19.160 The 54^(th) Massachusetts, the famous regiment from 44:19.155 --> 44:22.025 Massachusetts about which the movie Glory was made, 44:22.030 --> 44:27.120 was recruited that winter, and spring, of course, 44:27.124 --> 44:32.854 and marched off to South Carolina to its fate in May of 44:32.854 --> 44:36.644 1863. They will reach their fate at 44:36.641 --> 44:42.501 Fort Wagner within a week of the Battle of Gettysburg back up 44:42.501 --> 44:45.731 north. But just as a way to take this 44:45.730 --> 44:49.180 out today, go back with me to January 1^(st), 44:49.178 --> 44:53.958 1863, the day the Emancipation Proclamation actually went into 44:53.958 --> 44:56.618 place. I said at the outset that for 44:56.615 --> 45:00.205 most black folk they didn't really care about what actually 45:00.206 --> 45:03.236 the details or the words of the document were. 45:03.239 --> 45:08.349 The point was that now somehow the United States government was 45:08.346 --> 45:10.566 sanctioning emancipation. 45:10.570 --> 45:14.210 45:14.210 --> 45:18.700 And go back with me to Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 45:18.699 --> 45:22.809 This is Higginson's description of Emancipation Day. 45:22.809 --> 45:26.349 On Hilton Head Island, in South Carolina, 45:26.354 --> 45:28.924 near Beaufort, South Carolina, 45:28.924 --> 45:34.514 he was given orders to read the Emancipation Proclamation to the 45:34.507 --> 45:37.807 people, to the freedmen. 45:37.809 --> 45:40.509 And this, by the way, became a policy throughout the 45:40.511 --> 45:42.521 Union Army. Thousands of copies of the 45:42.524 --> 45:45.684 Emancipation Proclamation were given to Union officers who were 45:45.681 --> 45:47.771 ordered to spread it around the South. 45:47.769 --> 45:51.069 Higginson not only spread it, he held a ceremony. 45:51.070 --> 45:54.220 They build a little stage. 45:54.219 --> 45:57.409 And this is his description of what happened. 45:57.409 --> 46:02.149 He's describing the scene: "All this was according to the 46:02.153 --> 46:04.613 program," writes Higginson. 46:04.610 --> 46:08.490 "Then followed an incident so simple and so touching, 46:08.485 --> 46:12.505 so utterly unexpected and startling that I can scarcely 46:12.509 --> 46:17.239 believe it on recalling it, though it gave the key note to 46:17.239 --> 46:20.919 the whole day. The very moment the speaker had 46:20.918 --> 46:24.658 ceased, and just as I took and waved the flag, 46:24.659 --> 46:28.989 which now for the first time meant anything to these poor 46:28.988 --> 46:33.238 people, there suddenly arose close beside the platform a 46:33.239 --> 46:36.689 strong male voice, but a little cracked and 46:36.690 --> 46:40.920 elderly, into which two women's voices instantly blended, 46:40.920 --> 46:46.240 singing, as if by an impulse that could no more be repressed 46:46.241 --> 46:50.031 than the morning note of a song sparrow. 46:50.030 --> 46:55.300 'My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, 46:55.301 --> 46:59.531 of thee I sing.' People looked at each other, 46:59.528 --> 47:03.708 and then at us on the platform to see whence came this 47:03.710 --> 47:07.260 interruption, not put down in the program. 47:07.260 --> 47:11.530 Firmly and irrepressibly the quavering voices sang on, 47:11.534 --> 47:15.004 verse after verse, 'my country 'tis of thee, 47:15.002 --> 47:17.182 sweet land of liberty.' 47:17.179 --> 47:19.469 Others of the colored people joined in. 47:19.469 --> 47:22.339 Some whites on the platform began, but I motioned to them to 47:22.336 --> 47:24.996 be silent. I never saw anything so 47:25.003 --> 47:29.493 electric. It made all words cheap. 47:29.489 --> 47:33.189 It seemed the choked voice of a race at last unloosed. 47:33.190 --> 47:36.270 Nothing could be more wonderfully unconscious. 47:36.269 --> 47:41.409 Art could not have dreamed of a tribute to the day of jubilee; 47:41.410 --> 47:43.840 it should be so affecting. 47:43.840 --> 47:46.050 History will not believe it. 47:46.050 --> 47:49.790 And when I came to speak of it, after it was ended, 47:49.793 --> 47:51.593 tears were everywhere. 47:51.590 --> 47:57.780 If you could've heard how quaint and innocent it all was. 47:57.780 --> 48:00.860 Just think of it, the first day they'd ever had a 48:00.857 --> 48:04.317 country, the first flag they'd ever seen which promised 48:04.320 --> 48:06.180 anything to their people. 48:06.179 --> 48:09.479 And here, while mere spectators stood in silence, 48:09.484 --> 48:14.364 waiting for my stupid words, these simple souls burst out in 48:14.363 --> 48:18.813 their way, as if they were by their own hearths, 48:18.810 --> 48:23.230 at home. When they stopped there was 48:23.234 --> 48:26.264 nothing to do but to try to speak. 48:26.260 --> 48:31.710 And I went on. But the life of that whole day 48:31.705 --> 48:36.885 was in those unknown people's simple song." 48:36.890 --> 48:39.000 Have a good spring break.