Robert Smalls was born on April 5, 1839. It was never clear who his father was; the plantation owner, Patrick Smalls could've been his father, but also, John McKee could've been his father, and McKee was Smalls’s owner. The McKee family favored Smalls more than they did any of the other slave children. Lydia, Smalls’ mother, was worried he would reach “manhood” without realizing the horrors of slavery. To help him realize the horrors of slavery, she had him sent to work at the fields, and to watch the slaves at “the whipping post”. The results led him to defiance, and he found himself in Beaufort jail; his mother's plan worked too well, so fearing for her sons safety, she asked McKee to send Smalls to Charleston to be bought for work. Fearing for her sons safety, …show more content…
Smalls didn't have the $700 to buy his family's freedom, but the U.S. Congress passed an private bill telling the Navy appraise the Planter, and award Smalls and his crew with half the supplies for rescuing it from enemies of the Government. Smalls received $1,500, but according to the Naval Affairs Committee his pay should have been higher. After Smalls escaped the Confederates put a $4000 bounty on him. People had a hard time explaining how slaves pulled off the escape. Aide-de-Campe Ravenel intimidated his commander that two white men and an white women were aboard the boat. There was no record of any white passengers aboard the boat on May 13. Smalls and his crew acted alone on the escape. Smalls was considered an hero in the North, and personally lobbied the secretary of War Edwin Stanton. After Lincoln acted in few months later, Smalls recruited 5,000 soldiers by himself. Smalls was engaged in seventeen military actions, including the April 7, 1863, assault on Fort Sumter and at Folly Island Creek, S.C.. Smalls was promoted captain himself, he earned $150 a month making him one of the highest paid black soldiers. When the war ended
The Confederate General Earl Van Dorn's objective was to "have St. Louis - then Huzza!" He hoped to accomplish this by going north from his headquarters at Pocahontas to the Boston Mountains, where the Union forces under command of General Samuel Curtis had taken up camp. After a nine-day march, Van Dorn finally made it to the mountains. There, he met up with McCulloch and Price, two of his officers. This Confederate Army of the West marched rapidly to Fayetteville on Telegraph Road and then went on to Bentonville in an attempt to overwhelm the Federal troops of Genera...
On July 25, 1946, two young black couples- Roger and Dorothy Malcom, George and Mae Murray Dorsey-were killed by a lynch mob at the Moore's Ford Bridge over the Appalachee River connecting Walton and Oconee Counties (Brooks, 1). The four victims were tied up and shot hundreds of times in broad daylight by a mob of unmasked men; murder weapons included rifles, shotguns, pistols, and a machine gun. "Shooting a black person was like shooting a deer," George Dorsey's nephew, George Washington Dorsey said (Suggs C1). It has been over fifty years and this case is still unsolved by police investigators. It is known that there were atleast a dozen men involved in these killings. Included in the four that were known by name was Loy Harrison. Loy Harrison may not have been an obvious suspect to the investigators, but Harrison was the sole perpetrator in the unsolved Moore's Ford Lynching case. The motive appeared to be hatred and the crime hurt the image of the state leaving the town in an outrage due to the injustice that left the victims in unmarked graves (Jordon,31).
The First Louisiana Native Guards became the first Black regiment to receive official recognition from the government. The Union brass had initially prevented the Blacks from seeing action in the war. Colonel Robert Shaw and his men of the Massachusetts 54th had to overcome fear, mockery and racism before they were allowed to fight. By the end of 1863, many thousands Blacks found employment in the Union Army. There were some 50, 000 Black soldiers in the ranks. Although Black soldiers were promised $13 a month, they were insulted with an offer of $7 a month. Black soldiers and sailors became indispensable elements in a war that could not have been won without their help. The triumph of the Union forces was due to a number of factors, including Northern technology and the spirit of the age. But the most preeminent factor was the contribution of slaves and freedmen who provided the margin of difference that turned the tide against the Confederate forces in 1864 and 1865. According to official records, there were 185, 000 Black soldiers in the Union Army. Their mortality rate was disproportionately high, 21% of the total number of Black soldiers. Equally visible and heroic were the sailors in the Union Navy. One out of every four Union sailors was black, they served on Union ships as coal heavers, stewards, boatswains, firemen and gunners. In addition the North was forwarded by more than 200,000 civilians, mostly freed slaves. They served as spies and scouts. The most remarkable of all Union spies was a woman named Harriet Tubman.
three years in jail just because he was black. A truth to the Kerner Commission
groups ultimately resulted in the need for the Little’s to relocate from their home a couple
Following the defeat of the Confederacy and to lift the morale of a shattered people momentum gathered to enshrine the Myth of the Lost Cause which would transform the Southern soldier living and dead, into a veritable hero.
... were a big help to the Civil War. Of the 190,000 were in the Civil War, an amazing 16 of them got the Medal of Honor, fourteen received the honor as a result of their actions at New Market Heights.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
...details the transformation of a slave to a man. The institution of slavery defined a slave as less than human, and in order to perpetuate that impression, slaveholders forbade slaves the luxury of self definition. Therefore, when Douglass finally rejects the notions about his identity forced on him by slavery, and embraces an identity of his own creation, he has completed his journey from slave to man. He no longer defines himself in terms of the institution of slavery, but by his own thoughts regarding what his identity is. Through the metamorphosis of his identity as “an animal” to an author who fights for the abolitionist movement, Douglass presents his narrative not simply as a search for freedom, but also a search for himself.
In the story The Garies and Their Friends by Frank Webb, one man is responsible for the race riot. The prosecution charges Mr. George Stevens with Inciting a Riot and Seditious Conspiracy. We intend to prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt. We will do this by presenting overwhelming evidence of his guilt. He manipulated people and circumstances to his full advantage to implement his plan. His agenda was one of violence against innocent Black men and women. These already oppressed citizens, became tragically disenfranchised as a result of his actions. He has torn the fabric of their livelihood into pieces, leaving many homeless. His wanton destruction and ruthless actions deserve harsh punishment by this jury.
The jury was full of white men because the blacks were kept away.(scottsboro boys trial)
John Brown was a white abolitionist who wanted to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a US arsenal at Harpers Ferry. He wanted to recruit black slaves, freed slaves and fugitive slaves for the raid against the south. There were many people who told him he was a dead man or that he couldn't do it but John Brown thought he could, therefore moved onto the next person for recruiting. There was an anonymous letter sent by David J. Gue of Springdale, Iowa, his brother and someone else trying to warn the government about the raid John Brown was planning to Secretary of War John B Floyd but they didn't believe them. This caused President Buchanan to send out a reward for John Browns capture but not the right one. When the time came to begin the raid John Brown left four people behind to act as a rear guard at the K...
five men who died, none where white. Four of the five men that died where
On March 25 1931 nine African American teenagers were caught riding a train illegally at Scottsboro, Alabama they would have been sent away with a minor charge but got in to a fight with white teenagers, they successfully scared them off but one still remained. After the train started picking to a dangers level the one left was hanged out of the train. The other parts of the gage went to the local police station to report them. But after closer examination the deputies found 2 white women Ruby Bates and Victoria Price aboard. None of them would answer any questions Do to the pressure on them they told police they have been raped by 6 of the nine.
After killing several other white family slave owners, Turner and his crew were approached by 18 men who appeared to be under the rule of Captain Alexander P. Peete. When he realized who he was dealing with he tried to get his men to run, but some were shot as a result of trying to escape when they had been caught. Most of the white families had fled so there was no one left for them to murder. (pg. 16.)