US Civil War
_The First Cargo of Slaves landed in the Colonies in 1620.--Slave Representation in Congress.--Opposition to the Slave-Trade.--Crispus Attucks, the First Victim of the Revolutionary War.--Bancroft’s Testimony.--Capture of Gen. Prescott.--Colored Men in the War of 1812.--Gen. A...
Springing from the highest circle of the lowest class of whites of the South, gradually rising, coming up over a tailor’s board, and all the obstacles that slaveholding society...
39. CHAPTER XXXIX--GALLANTRY, LOYALTY, AND KINDNESS OF THE NEGRO._The Nameless Hero at Fair Oaks.--The Chivalry whipped by their Former Slaves.--Endurance of the Blacks.--Man in Chains.--One Negro whips Three Rebels.--Gallantry.--Outrages on...
15. CHAPTER XV. PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM.On the 22d of September, 1862, President Lincoln sent forth his proclamation, warning the rebel States that he would proclaim emancipation to their slaves if such States did not...
44. CHAPTER XLIV--CASTE._Slavery the Foundation of Caste.--Black its Preference.--The General Wish for Black Hair and Eyes.--No Hatred to Color.--The White Slave.--A Mistake.--Stole his Thunder.--The B...
31. CHAPTER XXXI--THE MASSACRE AT FORT PILLOW._Assault and Capture of the Fort.--“No Quarter.”--Rebel Atrocities.--Gens. Forrest and Chalmers.--Firing upon Flags of Truce.--Murder of Men, Women, and Children.--Night after t...
27. CHAPTER XXVII--ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER._The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment.--Col. Shaw.--March to the Island.--Preparation.--Speeches.--The Attack.--Storm of Shot, Shell, and Canister.--Heroism of Officers and M...
4. CHAPTER IV.--SLAVE REVOLT AT SEA.The revolt on board of the brig “Creole,” on the high seas, by a number of slaves who had been shipped for the Southern market, in the year 1841, created at the time a profound...
20. CHAPTER XX.--FIFTY-FOURTH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT.The Fifty-fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was called into the service of the United States by the President, under an act of Congress, passed July 21, 1861,...
1. CHAPTER I--BLACKS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND IN 1812._The First Cargo of Slaves landed in the Colonies in 1620.--Slave Representation in Congress.--Opposition to the Slave-Trade.--Crispus Attucks, the First Victim of the Revolutio...
42. CHAPTER XLII--ILL TREATMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE SOUTHHaughty and scornful as ever; regarding themselves as overpowered, but not conquered; openly regretting their failure to establish a Southern Confederacy; backed up by President...
12. CHAPTER XII--GENERAL BUTLER AT NEW ORLEANS.When Major-Gen. Butler found himself in possession of New Orleans, he was soon satisfied of the fact that there were but few loyalists amongst the whites, while the Union feelin...
30. CHAPTER XXX--BATTLE OF POISON SPRINGS, ARKANSAS._Hand-fought Battle.--Bravery of the Kansas Colored Troops.--They die but will not yield.--Outnumbered by the Rebels.--Another severe Battle.--The heroic Negro, after being woun...
23. CHAPTER XXIII--BATTLE OF PORT HUDSON._The Louisiana Native Guard.--Capt. Callioux.--The Weather.--Spirit of the Troops.--The Battle begins.--“Charge.”--Great Bravery.--The Gallant Color-bearer.--Grape, Canister, an...
33. CHAPTER XXXIII.--BATTLE OF HONEY HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA._Union Troops.--The March.--The Enemy.--The Swamp.--Earthworks.--The Battle.--Desperate Fighting.--Great Bravery.--Col. Hartwell.--Fifty-fifth Massachusetts.--The Dying and the...
35. CHAPTER XXXV--WIT AND HUMOR OF THE WAR._Negro Wit and Humor.--The Faithful Sentinel.--The Sentinel’s Respect for the United-States Uniform.--The “Nail-kag.”--The Poetical Drummerboy.--Contrabands on Sherman’s March.-...
38. CHAPTER XXXVIII--FOURTH-OF-JULY CELEBRATION AT THE HOME OF JEFF. DAVIS.By invitation of the Committee of Arrangements, a party of teachers and their escorts, and other friends of the freedmen, embarked on board “The Diligent,” on the morning of the...
14. CHAPTER XIV--THE BLACK BRIGADE OF CINCINNATI.Hatred to the negro is characteristic of the people of Cincinnati; more so, probably, than any other city in the West. Mobs in which the colored citizens have been the victims h...
9. CHAPTER IX--INTELLIGENT CONTRABANDS_James Lawson.--His Bravery.--Rescue of his Wife and Children.--He is sent out on Important Business.--He fights his Way Back.--He is Admired by Gens. Hooker and Sickles.--Rhett...
24. CHAPTER XXIV--GENERAL BANKS IN LOUISIANA.Gen. Banks’s antecedents were unfavorable to him when he landed in New Orleans. True, he was from Massachusetts, and was a Republican; but he belonged to the conservative portio...
36. CHAPTER XXXVI--A THRILLING INCIDENT OF THE WAR._Heroic Escape of a Slave.--His Story of his Sister.--Resides North.--Joins the Army and returns to the South during the Rebellion.--Search for his Mother.--Finds her.--Thrillin...
29. CHAPTER XXIX--BATTLE OF OLUSTEE, FLORIDA.The battle of Olustee was fought in a swamp situated thirty-five miles west of Jacksonville, and four miles from Sanderson, in the State of Florida. The expedition was under the...
11. CHAPTER XI--HEROISM OF NEGROES ON THE HIGH SEAS.In the month of June, 1861, the schooner “S. J. Waring,” from New York, bound to South America, was captured on the passage by the rebel privateer “Jeff. Davis,” a prize-crew pu...
3. CHAPTER III.--THE NAT TURNER INSURRECTION.The slave insurrection which occurred in Southampton County, Na., in the year 1831, although not as well planned as the one portrayed in the preceding chapter, was, nevertheless...
34. CHAPTER XXXIV--BEFORE PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND.When the mining assault on Petersburg failed, with such fearful loss in killed and wounded, the cry went through the land that it was owing to the cowardice of the negro troops;...
13. CHAPTER XIII--THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FREE.For many years previous to the Rebellion, efforts had been made to induce Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, without success. The “negro-pens” which adorne...
5. CHAPTER V--GROWTH OF THE SLAVE-POWER.The introduction of the cotton-gin into the South, by Whitney of Connecticut, had materially enhanced the value of slave property; the emancipation societies of Virginia and Mar...
37. CHAPTER XXXVII--PROGRESS AND JUSTICE.The month of May, 1864, saw great progress in the treatment of the colored troops by the Government of the United States. The circumstances were more favorable for this change t...
17. CHAPTER XVII.--ARMING THE BLACKS.The Northern regiments stationed at the South, or doing duty in that section, had met with so many reverses on the field of battle, and had been so inhumanly treated by the rebe...
32. CHAPTER XXXII--INJUSTICE TO COLORED TROOPS.When the War Department commenced recruiting colored men as soldiers in Massachusetts, New Orleans, and Hilton Head, it was done with the promise that these men should receive t...
26. CHAPTER XXVI.--HE NORTHERN WING OF THE REBELLION._The New-York Mob.--Murder, Fire, and Robbery.--The City given up to the Rioters.--Whites and Blacks robbed in Open Day in the Great Thoroughfares.--Negroes murdered, burned, an...
43. CHAPTER XLIII--PROTECTION FOR THE COLORED PEOPLE.In attempting to form a Southern Confederacy, with slavery as its corner-stone, by breaking up the Union, and repudiating the Constitution, the people of the South compelled the...
2. CHAPTER II--THE SOUTH-CAROLINA FRIGHT.An undeveloped discontent always pervaded the black population of the South, bond and free. Many attempts at revolt were made: two only, however, proved of a serious and alarmin...
6. CHAPTER VI.--THE JOHN BROWN RAID.The year 1859 will long be memorable for the bold attempt of John Brown and his companions to burst the bolted door of the Southern house of bondage, and lead out the captives b...
16. CHAPTER XVI.--THE NEW POLICY.Attorney-Gen. Bates had already given his opinion with regard to the citizenship of the negro, and that opinion was in the black man’s favor. The Emancipation Proclamation was o...
25. CHAPTER XXV--HONORS TO THE NOBLE DEAD.The death of Capt. André Callioux created a profound sensation throughout Louisiana, and especially in New Orleans, where the deceased had lived from childhood. This feeling of...
45. CHAPTER XLV--SIXTH REGIMENT UNITED-STATES VOLUNTEERS.The Sixth Regiment United-States colored troops was the second which was organized at Camp William Penn, near Philadelphia, by Lieut.-Col. Louis Wagner, of the Eighty-eighth Pen...
7. CHAPTER VII--THE FIRST GUN OF THE REBELLION._Nomination of Fremont.--Nomination of Lincoln.--The Mob Spirit.--Spirit of Slavery.--The Democracy.--Cotton.--Northern Promises to the Rebels.--Assault on Fort Sumter.--Call fo...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.--BATTLE OF MILLINERS BEND.On the 7th of June, 1863, the first regular battle was fought between the blacks and whites in the valley of the Mississippi. The planters had boasted, that, should they meet th...
10. CHAPTER X--PROCLAMATIONS OF FREMONT AND HUNTER.While the country seemed drifting to destruction, and the Administration without a policy, the heart of every loyal man was made glad by the appearance of the proclamation of Ma...
19. CHAPTER XIX--RAISING BLACK REGIMENTS AT THE NORTH.In the struggle between the Federal Government and the rebels, the colored men asked the question, “Why should we fight?” The question was a legitimate one, at least for those r...
40. CHAPTER XL--FALL OF THE CONFEDERACY, AND DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.Jefferson Davis and his cabinet had hastily quitted Richmond, on Sunday, the third day of April, 1865; the Union troops had taken possession the day following; and Abraham Linco...
28. CHAPTER XXVIII--THE SLAVE-MARTYR._The Siege of Washington, N.C.--Big Bob, the Negro Scout.--The Perilous Adventure.--The Fight.--Return.--Night Expedition.--The Fatal Sandbar.--The Enemy’s Shells.--“Somebody’s...
21. CHAPTER XXI--BLACKS UNDER FIRE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.The Department of the South, under Major-Gen. Hunter, was the first in which the negro held the musket. By consent of the commanding-general, I give the following interesting re...
22. CHAPTER XXII--FREEDMEN UNDER FIRE IN MISSISSIPPI.While the people along the banks of the Mississippi, above New Orleans, were discussing the question as to whether the negro would fight, if attacked by white men, or not. Col....
8. CHAPTER VIII--THE UNION AND SLAVERY BOTH TO BE PRESERVED.At the very commencement of the Rebellion, the proslavery generals in the field took the earliest opportunity of offering their services, together with those under their command...