February 24, 1865

West, Lewis H., 1829-?

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Harriet Moore

References her letter of 28 January. Reports that he heard of the news of the fall of Charleston. Says that all the ports into the Confederacy are now closed and that Mexico is the only way to bring goods into the South now. Reports that "The rebel cavalry on the main land are hunting the negroes to drive up the country and have shot some of them. I carried off from the main, the other day a party of eighty of all ages and both sexes. There were some infants a week or two old and some very old people among them." Says he put them on a plantation on St. Catherine's Island and made a raid to…

GLC03836.86

circa 1860s

Object

Title: [Corn cob black doll]

With black dyed muslin head and hands, printed cotton dress, belt, and scarf.

GLC09188

16 May 1864

Williams, K.A., fl. 1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George Wortham

Rather than have his two captured enslaved people return home, Williams wants them to work for the Confederacy. He would prefer they be shot rather than fall into Yankee hands again. Suggests one would make a good servant for Wortham. Written at the Roanoke Post Office, Martin Country, North Carolina. Excerpt: "I understand that I have two Negro boys in Plymouth among the captured Negroes by the names of Peter & Frank. I do not want them to come home & wish you to take charge of them & work them for the Confederate Government till this war is over & should there be any…

GLC02233.39

23 July 1863

Tatum, Edward, 1821-1883

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Charles Albert Tatum

Discusses "fearfull times in N.Y." during the New York Draft Riots, which had just occured ten days earlier. Discusses an attempted robbery at a friend's house, but says the "most wicked & fearful part" of the riots "was the ill treatment of the poor colored people, several of whom were murdered by hanging & other means." Written to his son.

GLC08967

post 1865

Broadside

Title: Slavery Days.

Printing of an anti-slavery poem written from the perspective of an older male slave who is close to dying. The first verse reads, "I am thinking now to day of the years that's pass'd away, When they tied me up in bondage long ago, In old Virginia State, it was there we separate, And it filled my heart with misery and woe; They took away my boy, he was his mother's joy, From a baby in the cradle we him raised, And they put us far apart, and it broke the old man's heart, In those agonising cruel slavery days."

GLC09003

February 15, 1864

Confederate States of America. Congress

Printed document

Title: Joint Resolutions in reference to the treatment of colored troops

Confederate act resolves that the abolition of slavery is against the rules of war and that former slaves who are captured while fighting for the Union will be returned to their masters. States "emancipation of the negro slaves within the Confederate States by the enemy, is not among the acts of legitimate war; but is...among such acts as 'putting to death all prisoners in cold blood.'" With war department stamp.

GLC08979.05

circa 1880-1890

Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912

Print

Title: Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation

Depicts a menacing-looking Lincoln slumping in his chair writing the Emancipation Proclamation with his left foot sitting on top of a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Demon imagery is found throughout. The Statue of Liberty's head is covered by Lincoln's Scotch cap to simulate a baboon. Background has two paintings. One depicts the slave rebellion on Saint Domingo and the other John Brown as "St. Ossawotamie." Osawotamie is a reference to a battle at the town of Osawatomie, Kansas in August 1856 when some 250 border ruffians attacked the free-soil town. Brown defended the town with 30 men, but…

GLC00493.03

6 December 1864

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Autograph manuscript

Title: [Fragment of Lincoln's last State of the Union address concerning the thirteenth amendment]

An 11-line fragment of his last Annual Message to Congress dealing with the failure of Congress to pass the thirteenth amendment and recommending they reconsider: "At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the Constitution [inserted above: abolishing slavery throughout the United States,] passed the Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite two thirds vote in the House of Representatives. Although the present is the same Congress, and nearly the same members, and without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to recommend the…

GLC08094

January 13, 1863

Edwards, Oliver, 1835-1904

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eunice Lombard Edwards

Writes to his mother from head quarters, 37th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. Appears to have been written the same day as GLC02163.06 and .07. Notes that he received a letter from his mother upon his return (from visiting his wife, Annie). His comments suggest that Annie will visit his mother (in Springfield, Massachusetts). Remarks, "Every true woman ought to treat with scorn any able bodied young man who stays at home in a safe place to make money while his Country is in peril We have for more to do than to fight for ourselves we must fight to leave the blessing of freedom to our…

GLC02163.08

19 June 1864

Morey, Charles C., fl. 1830-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to parents

Writes from camp outside of the city of Petersburg. References General Ulysses S. Grant's suggestion to consolidate regiment into six companies. Describes, in detail, the troops' five-day march from Cold Harbor to present location. Expects hard fighting at Petersburg. Comments on fighting of African American soldiers: "The negro troops were engaged yesterday and did splendid service they are just as good soldiers as we have in the field they are well disciplined and make a good appearance and command the respect of the white soldiers…"

GLC03523.18.14

circa 1863

Broadside

Title: [Broadside recruiting African Americans for military service]

Color recruitment broadside depicting a Union soldier holding a United States flag with an attached banner declaring "Freedom to the Slave." In the background on one side, African American troops march holding a United States flag bearing the words "U. S. Regt. Colored Troops." On the other side, African Americans walk into a public school. The Union man stands on a Confederate flag, while a slave tears the flag in half. A broken set of shackles lay in the foreground. On verso, a printed statement declares "All SLAVES were made FREEMEN BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,…

GLC08249

1 November 1864

Broadside

Title: [Black soldiers]

"God save the republic. Never in field or tent scorn a black regiment." Issued "in commemoration of emancipation in Maryland." With George Boker's Poem 'The Black Regiment', and vignettes of colored troops in battle, slaves on the auction block, quotes from J. Q. Adams, Andrew Johnson, The Bible, Jefferson, Washington, P. Henry, Jackson, etc. Published in Philadelphia: Rigwalt and Brown

GLC08358

20 September 1864

Document signed

Title: Office of Board of Claims/For Slaves enlisted in U. S. service...

State of Maryland. Compensation claim by Joshua Johnson for a slave, Thomas Johnson, he manumitted and enlisted as a USCT, United States Colored Troops. Partially printed document.

GLC09130.01

circa 1880-1890

Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912

Print

Title: Buying a substitute in the North during the war

Image comments negatively upon the Northern policy of allowing men to find a substitute to take their place in the draft. Shows a well-dressed and dandified agent with a holstered pistol showing a timid gentleman into a low class pub where the shyster agent is displaying the men the gentleman can buy as a substitute. The door has a sign pasted to it that says "Substitutes for sale supply of ablebodied men always on hand." Volck satirizes the claim that these are "ablebodied men," by depicting lower-class drunks and card players in a pub. Two blacks also appear to among the choices the…

GLC00493.07

26 March 1910

Jenkins, James H., 1841-?

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [Words and music for the song "John Brown's Body"]

Transcription of the verses and the chorus for the song "John Brown's Body," with music. Also lists three Civil War regiments in which Jenkins served. One of these, the Twelfth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, was the unit that invented the song. Written on the verso of stationary for the Old National Bank in Oshkosh.

GLC02484.01

19 May 1865

Allison, William A., fl. 1861-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Stockton Bates

Was a prisoner of war a year ago here; has visited his old prison. Local attitudes towards the Union have changed due to Grant. "The conduct of the soldiers has been remarkable, when we consider the bitterness, the cruelty, the fiendishness with which the Southrons waged war upon us. I ascribe it to influence which intelligence and Christianity has upon the Northern people." Confederate money is worthless and the people are destitute. Freedmen act in "mutinous conduct," and the soldiers must settle disputes.

GLC03523.23.40

30 April 1861

Pamphlet

Title: Copy of Proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

Amendment to the Constitution concerning slavery. "...No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions, including that of persons held to labour or service by the laws of said State." Transmitted to the Maryland House of Delegates.

GLC09040

12 April 1864

Gibson, John McKinley, fl. 1860

Autograph letter signed

Title: [to Tobias Gibson]

He discusses a recent letter from home and the Currency Bill passed by the Confederate Congress which discounts notes at approximately 83 %. He also writes his views on slavery, "There is no such thing as satisfying a negro without slavery. They do not know their own wants and unless there is some one to teach them, they are but as little children I hope they may in some way be made to feel that they are not the superiors of the whites." Reports that his brother Hart is in a prison camp in Ohio. Written near Dalton, Georgia. In part: "Have you seen the "Currency Bill" passed by the C[…

GLC04501.094

14 April 1864

Gibson, Tobias, fl. 1861-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: [to Loula Gibson]

The recipient is inferred from the content of the letter. Gibson completed an "unpleasant affair" (settled a contract) with the hands who will work on the plantation. He bitterly complains of being under the rule of the Provost Marshall and Federal occupation, "American ideas of liberty have totally changed since this Negro War began & education for them is soon to be the order of the Day by Regular Military order. Whilst as far as I know the white [2] Children are to grow up in ignorance or mix in the same cabin with the Negro with the same Yankee Marm for the teacher! How much…

GLC04501.095

3 August 1864

Gibson, Tobias, fl. 1861-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Sarah [Gibson] Humphreys

He writes that "The blacks are getting worse every day & at the end of this year I think they will be intolerable on account of bad work and the condition of the crops. I told them they must work on Saturday evening last - but they would not do it, and a dozen of the best men, Wesley at the head, went off to Thibodeux (wouldn't go to Capt Lee) and last night got back with a paper from Genl Cameron requiring them [2] to go to work till the Provost Marshall had investigated the matter..." He believes that he will lose half his cotton crop. He notes that Southern feelings will become…

GLC04501.097

30 July 1863

French, William Henry, 1815-1881

Manuscript

Title: [Circular reporting troop mobilization to New York City]

Official copy signed clerically by W[illiam].F.A. Torbert as adjutant and Albert Ordway and countersigned by J.H. Chase. Reports the march of the 20th Regiment Indiana Volunteers and the 1st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers to New York City during the Draft Riots. Copy made 16 December 1863

GLC08523.01

30 July 1863

Meade, George Gordon, 1815-1872

Printed document

Title: [Extract of Special Orders, No. 202]

Partially printed document countersigned by W.F.A. Torbert with the clerical signature of S. Williams. Orders the senior officer accompanying troops to New York to telegraph the number of soldiers to the Chief Quartermaster General so he may provide adequate transportation. Written on Third Army Corps letterhead. "Third Army Corps" has been struck and replaced with "Army of the Potomac."

GLC08523.02

3 August 1863

French, William Henry, 1815-1881

Manuscript

Title: [Circular coordinating transportation to New York City]

Official copy signed clerically by W[illiam].F.A. Torbert as adjutant and Albert Ordway and countersigned by J.H. Chase.Orders all troops being sent to New York to report to Warrenton for transportation to that city. The regiments affected are the 2nd and 12th New Hampshire, 20th Indiana, and 1st Massachusetts. Copy made 16 December 1863.

GLC08523.03

1897

Hammond, B.F., fl. 1897

Print

Title: Afro-American Monument

Oil process chromo-lithographic poster. A picture of an angel putting her hand on the head of a slave, surrounded by nine vignettes depicting scenes from slavery to results of emancipation. Includes pictures of Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass, the death of Crispus Attucks, the initial arrival of African slaves in 1619, and Abraham Lincoln "breaking the chain of bondage," among other scenes. There is also related statistical information.

GLC08941

May 1863

Calvin, Agnes, fl. 1863

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Petition of a free black to become a slave of a master of her choice]

Petitions for the right to choose her master. States that since she is "a free person of Africa descent" she is entitled to "choose a master for herself and two said children," and the "petitioner makes choice of J.S.H. Hossack to become her master." Though free, Calvin has been struggling so badly to get by that she is willing to have a master of her choosing in exchange for subsistence for herself and her family. Petition made "to the honorable B. W. Gray." Signed by Calvin wih her mark. For related documents see GLC03840, GLC06375, and GLC09123.

GLC08955