On July 18, 1863, at dusk, the Black soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Infantry of the U.S. Army charged the walls of Fort Wagner, a fortification on Morris Island off Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. Because Fort Wagner covered the southern entrance to the harbor, it was key to enabling the U.S. government to take the city.
My experience in school was that the black regiments’ contributions to the success of the Union forces was never mentioned. Thank you for for making it come alive.
... and I never heard of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) until a few years ago ...:
"Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Most of these institutions were founded in the years after the American Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States.[1] During the period of segregation prior to the Civil Rights Act, the great majority of institutions of higher education served predominantly white students, and disqualified or limited black American enrollment.[2][3] For a century after the end of slavery in the United States in 1865, most colleges and universities in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending, while institutions in other parts of the country regularly employed quotas to limit admissions of Black people.[4][5][6][7] HBCUs were established to provide opportunities to African Americans and are largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African-American middle class.[8][9]
"There are 101 HBCUs in the United States (of 121 institutions that existed during the 1930s), representing three percent of the nation's colleges and universities,[10] including both public and private institutions.[11] Of these remaining HBCU institutions in the United States, 27 offer doctoral programs, 52 offer master's programs, 83 offer bachelor's degree programs, and 38 offer associate degrees.[12][13][14] Among the graduates of HBCUs are civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., United States Vice President Kamala Harris, United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Virginia governor Douglas Wilder, and former president of Brown University Ruth Simmons."
Years ago when I was a student at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, a prof and several of us went to North Carolina to visit Shaw University, I think in Raleigh. I don't know if it still exists. It was funded by a white man to make sure higher education remained segregated. On the way back, we stopped in Cleveland to have a meal. One of our number was a black student and we heard mutterings about civil rights workers as we went to sit down. This was in the early 60s.
The new book “The 1619 Project Book” details much of black history that was purposefully cloaked from all Americans who are not black and living black history.
My friend and fellow author, Lucian K. Truscott IV, a sixth-generation descendant of Jefferson, was the first white member of the family to bring representatives of the Hemmings wing of the family to the annual family meeting at Monticello. He's a driving force for both the official acceptance and acknowledgement of the Hemmings descendants, and for the work now done at Monticello to publicly deal with the question of slavery there.
I read about this and was so impressed. Truscott is an example of a person who embraces truth and inclusiveness. A very special person. Honest. More like him, please.
I know all about it. If you read The New York Times you will learn more about the following in today's paper: 'The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has reached a settlement with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times Magazine, after a dispute over tenure, the school said on Friday.'
“The steps taken to resolve the lingering potential legal action posed by Ms. Hannah-Jones will hopefully help to close this chapter and give the university the space to focus on moving forward,” David Boliek, chair of the university’s board of trustees, said in a statement.'
Lynell, Your comment about the 1619 Project’s historical accuracy controversy makes me realize that the 1619 Project is held to a higher threshold of accuracy than most “traditional” history taught in high schools. Yet, it has become a whipping boy for CRT conspiracy theories, and a sure-fire campaign fundraiser for the gop.
Yes. The GOP doesn’t need any messaging beyond saying “woke” or “CRT” at every opportunity. Gets them every white vote it’s possible for them to get, which is unfortunately most of them by about 20 points (40 in red states).
I have the 1619 book on my list, but haven't bought it yet. I have been to Monticello twice. I once had a long argument with someone on a thread where he assumed that I was an all out admirer of Jefferson, who I see as a very complicated man. I am well aware of Jefferson's shortcomings as I told him. It took him forever to tell me he was basing all on Zinn. That's fine, but I had read many books on slavery and one of the Hemmings. But then I am a history person and he had told my husband that he has contempt for history. What I found interesting as I read all those books on slavery was how historians wrote about it changed through the years.
I knew nothing about black soldiers or Col. Shaw until the movie Glory came out. I was both thrilled and ashamedly curious after that. It started me on several years of reading about our Civil War. The first book I read was fiction, "Killer Angels." I realized I never even really knew much about Gettysburg beyond the Address. All I knew were a few names, famous and infamous. One gorgeous day I got up and decided to make the trip to Gettysburg. I asked my mom if she would like to go. When we got there we hired an excellent guide. Both of us were kind of dazed afterwards as the horror of the battle there settled into our consciousness. Years later mom is gone and I start building a family tree. In doing so one of the surprising discoveries i made took me back to that day trip. I knew my grandfather (also from a prominent Boston family) named mom after an aunt of his. What I did not know was that the aunt was actually his great aunt that lived to be 105. Her husband and three children all dead too young, no grandchildren. My mother's namesake's only son is buried at Gettysburg, killed July 3. I wish we had known that the day we went to Gettysburg! The generations following that war sure did a good job of burying their pain in the north and shame in the south. As a result that war seems to still be spilling blood. Try as I might I do not understand people that love the Confederate flag and all it stands for.
I do not understand racists or taking pride in confederate ancestry. I wish I could offer a counter argument to you but sadly I cannot. Can you actually bask in the glory of the confederacy and not be a racist? Just as I can't believe that not all people on j6 are racists because I keep thinking of a conversation I had with a friend of mine in the fall of 2016...when I mentioned how puzzled I was by DJT voters because x, Y, z. She literally spat out the words "don't you call me a racist." I had said no such thing. It never occurred to me she would vote for him. Clearly from her reaction it was true. My mouth dropped open. I was devastated. I just got in my car and drove home. We haven't spoken since that day.
I am sorry about your friend. I am lucky. I have no close friends who are Trumpers and am 2000 miles away from where I grew up....Indiana. I had one ex-classmate tell me she wouldn't like to be educated like me....so I guess ignorance is bliss. I am sure she is so happy about Roe being reversed too. She is a religious fundamentalist and that's part of her problem. Many of the people who are racist are poorer whites who have long used this as a way to feel better about themselves and have been encouraged to do so by the power elite....who are really all about power and money and not much else. The election of Obama really got to all of them....what, a black president. I have lots of family on the lower end of the social scale in so. Indiana and Illinois. One of my great nieces has two mixed race daughters, so I am hoping that most of them are accepting. As far as I can tell my nephew and his wife are, but otherwise, his wife is sometimes down the rabbit hole. I don't know about the rest of them. My ex-brother-in-law is a proud Trumper.
"We were fighting for our freedom!" - I have heard that too many times from those who believe in "The War of Northern Aggression," as the Civil War is commonly known among white Southerners.
In Savannah we also heard it was The Late Unpleasantness. That's where the elderly docent in the house where Sherman stayed teared up when talking about what happened like the war was last week.
I wasn't aware of black regiments from the North fighting in the Civil War until I watched the movie "Glory" which is about this regiment and it's commander, Robert Gould Shaw. An excellent movie and also heart breaking.
In Brenda Wineapple's book, White Heat, Emily Dickinson's literary friend, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, enlists in the army to lead what is referred to as 'the first Union Black regiment. His bio is as follows: Harvard educated Boston Brahmin Universalist minister, Abolitionist, Feminist, radical Activist, Civil War commander of the first Union black regiment, featured Atlantic Monthly writer and prominent literary critic. Higginson wrote 'Army Life in a Black Regiment', an account of his experience as regiment commander in which he expresses extreme pride in his men.
'The 54th Massachusetts’ valor at the Battle of Fort Wagner paved the way for more African Americans to enlist. By the end of the war more than 180,000 African Americans enlisted in the U.S. Army, making up 10% of all U.S. forces for the duration of the war. Correspondents relayed the 54th Massachusetts’ heroism and devotion, even after their defeat. After visiting wounded members of the 54th, a writer for the New York Post reported “No man can pass among these sufferers…and not be inspired with the deepest abhorrence of slavery and an unquenchable desire for the freedom of their race.”[15]
'The members of the regiment lamented their heavy losses in letters home. One of the troops, Lewis Douglass, son of the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, wrote:
'Saturday night we made the most desperate charge of the war on Fort Wagner, losing in killed, wounded and missing in the assault, three hundred of our men. The splendid 54th is cut to pieces…. If I have another opportunity tonight, I will write more fully. Goodbye to all. If I die tonight, I will not die a coward.[11]'(NationalParksService)
'Douglass was later wounded and became ill, forcing him to be medically discharged from the army in 1864.[5] After the Civil War, he worked as a teacher for the Freedman's Bureau.[5] In 1866, Lewis and his brother, Frederick Douglass, Jr. went to Denver where they were hosted by Henry O. Wagoner, a friend of their father. Wagoner taught the brothers typography[6] and along with William J. Hardin, Lewis taught reading, writing, and other subjects to adult blacks in Wagoner's home.[7] Douglass married Helen Amelia Loguen in 1869 and moved to Washington D.C. where he became the first typesetter employed by the Government Printing Office.[1] Douglass's employment by the Government Printing Office as typesetter did not last long because he was unable to join the typesetters' union due to racial intimidation.'
'Like his father, Lewis Henry Douglass was a "valuable citizen" to Washington D.C. through his involvement with the New National Era and other political impact.[8] He helped establish and was the senior editor of the New National Era (1870-1874) with his father, a "well conducted" newspaper aimed at addressing the issues of the black community in D.C.[5][8' (Wikipedia) See link below.
Thank you Heather, Fern and all who add to the incredible and true stories that were missing in our history textbooks and stories. This is a time of Hope, that we can tell the Truth of History. And learn from History. Some naysayers, mostly organized in Southern states, but all over USA call this Truth, CRT, CRITICAL RACE THEORY and try to erase it from their school curriculum. We must be vigilant in preserving the truth. I’m repeating Historian-Philosopher George Santayana’s warning: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Maybe we should start viewing all this history we are now learning as CRH. Critical Race History. As in, it is critically important that we begin to learn the full history the construct of “race” has made in our country, and all the varied, heroic contributors, - especially those that kept the faith of the American Idea against oppressive odds, and dismissed worth . And also the crippling effect of disenfranchising people for everyone. We would be a culturally, judicially, financially, and emotionally richer nation if we were in fact and deed “WE the People”. Stronger nationally from the inside out.
Michele, CRH! Yes! “Maybe we should start viewing all this history we are now learning as CRH. Critical Race History. As in, it is critically important that we begin to learn the full history the construct of “race” has made in our country…”
not then.. isnt this great that Fern posted the full story .. even though i have 3 friends i have worked with who portray Frederick Douglas i did not know this story! and i have been to his home in DC where he lived as a US Marshall.. and of course sat in his lap in the park in front of Susan B Anthony's house in Rochester.. his great friend for 50 years. there is a play about them The Agitators, i can recommend highly. Fern if have McBrides in your tree from St Louis, we are related!! and Iranie thank you for giving us Santayana .. horrible apt this week esp. good night for now
All people like us. And we like them. Different times and places. May there be more of us who do the right thing, caring for all others and working for equality, equity, diversity, and honor. Thank you, Dr. R!
I just read the last message from Heather Cox Richardson. Bless her. I am in tears. It is 1:42 in the morning. My life was saved at 5 years by a middle aged crippled orphaned syphilitic daughter of a Georgia plantation slave long emancipated. She returned from her hospital to save me. I would eat for no one else. She was taken from me first when I was 20 months old. She was committed and died alone a few years later. I was raised by her. She alone touched me. Her love inspired a five year old to eat at 778 Park Avenue. We know these good people. We know the unmarked graves of Barbados. The original sin of America is rising world wide, urged by a fascist president and his millions of racist followers hawking the Big Lie.
Born Again and Newt Gingrich be damned. Trickle down be damned. SCOTUS be damned.
To Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson: thank you.
To the GOP: get help.
To Abraham Lincoln and the art of the impossible.
To Black Women, please forgive us, lead us, love us, for I love you.
I was looking for a post from you this morning and hadn't seen one, and thus replied to someone above who wished tRump tarred and feathered. I replied, like Sandy posts: he will be charged, convicted and jailed.
For those who believe in God, we must pray for change. For those who do not, I hope whatever forces of nature they do believe in, they put that energy out into the universe. Like many other people, I have experienced things that have no rational explanation--so I do believe that a mind set can give a nudge.
I would like to see the negative hopeless defeatist nature sometimes displayed in this forum to stop. Make your phone calls, send your letters and postcards, post on your social media, work your elections--yes, yes those actions are needed and valuable-- but most of all, BELIEVE that justice and good will prevail!
If we have lost our hope, we have lost.
Sandy, please keep posting your "Trump will be charged, convicted and jailed" as I hope every person that reads your posts will think on that for just a moment and that energy flows out!
And to address your loss, I have always felt that those we love are not lost as long as someone living remembers them with love and gratitude. By your testament here, you have kept her alive.
We've had awful radio/internet interference here today for some reason. Stayed because it has been an illuminating and heartening discussion and I was loathe to give up in frustration. I hung on long enough to read you, Sandy, And then I read you, clicked "heart" and was surprised to see the heart light up in red! Over the years I have gotten to know you a little, and come to appreciate you, so glad I got to heart you before I shut off and turn back to my book. Good afternoon to you, and to everyone. So many of you have made me feel seen and heard today, through sharing your own hearts.
It was this movie that brought the history of black men in battle a reality for me. That is shameful for each and every schoolteacher and school administrator who conveniently left this information from us.
I agree. It is shameful and so sad. Had more of us known more of our history … ALL of us, this time … we wouldn’t be where we are now with a country divided and so many still trying to get a fair shake in this so-called land of opportunity.
Actually, I doubt that the teachers knew the truth. They were given the curriculum and the history books. They didn’t question anything. At least that’s what I think it was like in the 50’s when I was growing up.
Lordie but you are a wonderful Historian. I've just read an essay by Barbara Tuchman on the Historian as Artist. She would loved what you are doing, giving.
“ and hoped that what they had done was worth the horrific cost. I am not one for ghosts, but I swear you could feel the blood in the floors.”
I hope we will continue to honor their courage and sacrifices and defend our constitution and country, this time through our votes, our legislation and against the rising fascism and lingering white supremacy we “battle today” much coming from the same confederate states of this and other battles. Thank you, Professor, for reminding us that our nation was built on the sacrifices of all people, all colors, (and all genders) not only the white man.
Irenie, You have voiced the determination of many American people. I would not say that White Supremacy has been 'lingering' around. It never truly went underground, but Trump and the Republican Party now and during the reigns of Nixon and Reagan, White Supremacists have been blasted out of the sewers, where many grew, as did the number and size of their militias. They joined the ranks of local, state and nationally elected governors, legislatures and other government officials. The White Supremacists are within our government, military, law-enforcement, school boards...they are everywhere.
Oh my goodness, you are so right. I just listened to an interview with Malcolm Nance & Al Franken today, (Malcolm is just back from Ukraine, but heading back soon); he was talking about his new book, They Want to Kill Americans -- all about the militias -- we cannot be asleep at the wheel (US militias & ISIS have a lot incommon) -- stuff is happening, a lot under the radar...as in Germany & Europe too; he mentioned that they are hoarding bullets -- prices quadrupling for example.
I have listened to Malcom Vance many times. Thank you for bringing up his book. I had forgotten. Yes, Jeanne, Vance has been trying to call our attention to the seriousness of this socio-political violence.
Yes, he has and for a very long time too. He feels so strongly about our nation and what Ukraine has been enduring from Putin, that he decided to help out. I admire Nance so much.
Then isn’t that a critical question of these supporters? “Do you intend to, or are you willing to, kill your country’s citizen’s to further your politics?” Is this our Second Amendment meaning?! Is THIS the “well-regulated militia” the Founders “originally” wrote the 2A for? “Is 2A for killing your neighbors?” I would imagine many of them responding “F*cking Yeah!” So what does this now demand from us?
Fern, yes,”… never truly went underground.” In truth it’s everywhere in USA and dangerous to our Democracy and the Peace of this country. Confederate flags still fly and not just the South. The PBS special, MONUMENTS, tells some of the story and the documentary begins with TFG telling the country, “There are good people on both sides”. After Charlottesville. White Supremacists are active in every state.
I remember the first time I visited rural Virginia, we passed a house that had Confederate flags hanging outside, and it felt to me, a northerner, as if I was visiting another world.
Yet here we are many years later. I live in a small town in upstate New York, and like Mike S, I see Confederate flags, T**** flags, "Don't Tread on Me," and the like in both my town and county. It still shocks me. T**** encouraged these people to crawl out from under the rocks, and it continues.
No kidding, Fern!! From under the rocks, they emerged with a force. Wish we had super powers to shrink them to minuscules where they can’t hurt anyone.
The Shaw memorial to the 54th regiment created by Augustus Saint Gaudens reflects your sentiments. The courage and determination of Shaw and all the Black regimental soldiers is so palpable even today, from the forward motion of their bodies to the details of their boots worn from miles of marching. A true testament to the values of equality we strive to uphold then and now.
Thank you Heather. You are a national treasure and I can’t tell you how much this truck driver’s daughter from Texas appreciates the top notch education you are offering for free. I consume ALL of the things you offer and I have one request. Please, do guns! We need a historical accounting of gun laws and gun culture to combat the crazy we are experiencing. 🙏🏻😣 ~Desperate in Texas.
while we await Heather u might wish to check out Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz whm howard zinn told to write The Indigenous Peoples history of the US... her book before that was the one on the history of the Second Amendment.. and she worked with Raoul Peck on his series re settler colonialism..( he did the " i am not your Negro" james baldwin film)
The valiant efforts of minority groups to show their "worthiness" to the white majority is almost a completely lost cause. For if they make the effort and fail, the hateful segment of the majority group can say, "I told you so." And if they make the effort and succeed, as did the members of the Mass. 54th Volunteer Infantry, and the Navajo Code Breakers, The Tuskeegee Airman, The 442nd Infantry Unit of second generation Japanese and other minority groups in WW2, then their success is threatening to the hateful segment of the white majority group, and their fine deeds must be ignored, played down, or erased.
In the end, such valiant people as comprised those minorities who fought bravely did so as so many other valiant white people did -- to maintain their honor and self-respect regardless of what anyone else may have thought.
Such valiant people are worthy in their own right and need ask no permission to participate.
It is not just in the South, though. It is alive in the North as well, a little more underground perhaps, but only to the white privileged. And less and less underground since the orange flambé promoted incivility. We are seeing the vile underbelly of our foundations. It is painful and despicable to many of us, and we need to support All The People, more than ever right now.
My experience in school was that the black regiments’ contributions to the success of the Union forces was never mentioned. Thank you for for making it come alive.
I never heard anything about Blacks in the Civil War until I was in grad school.
... and I never heard of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) until a few years ago ...:
"Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Most of these institutions were founded in the years after the American Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States.[1] During the period of segregation prior to the Civil Rights Act, the great majority of institutions of higher education served predominantly white students, and disqualified or limited black American enrollment.[2][3] For a century after the end of slavery in the United States in 1865, most colleges and universities in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending, while institutions in other parts of the country regularly employed quotas to limit admissions of Black people.[4][5][6][7] HBCUs were established to provide opportunities to African Americans and are largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African-American middle class.[8][9]
"There are 101 HBCUs in the United States (of 121 institutions that existed during the 1930s), representing three percent of the nation's colleges and universities,[10] including both public and private institutions.[11] Of these remaining HBCU institutions in the United States, 27 offer doctoral programs, 52 offer master's programs, 83 offer bachelor's degree programs, and 38 offer associate degrees.[12][13][14] Among the graduates of HBCUs are civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., United States Vice President Kamala Harris, United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Virginia governor Douglas Wilder, and former president of Brown University Ruth Simmons."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historically_black_colleges_and_universities
Years ago when I was a student at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, a prof and several of us went to North Carolina to visit Shaw University, I think in Raleigh. I don't know if it still exists. It was funded by a white man to make sure higher education remained segregated. On the way back, we stopped in Cleveland to have a meal. One of our number was a black student and we heard mutterings about civil rights workers as we went to sit down. This was in the early 60s.
Very sad about That, is't it? So much was EXCLUDED in our History books in school!!! On purpose!!!🤬🤬🤬
The movie "Glory" is an excellent dramatization of this story.
Glory (1989) Full Movie [HD]
https://m.ok.ru/video/2192740059762
I've just watched the trailer. Looks extremely well done, very moving.
It is. Got many nominations when it came out. The ending is a very realistic recreation of the Battle of Fort Wagner.
Agreed! I love that movie and bought it so I can watch it again and again.
Mary.
The new book “The 1619 Project Book” details much of black history that was purposefully cloaked from all Americans who are not black and living black history.
Monticello redefined: “A Slave Labor Camp.”
I found it by accident at my public library.
My friend and fellow author, Lucian K. Truscott IV, a sixth-generation descendant of Jefferson, was the first white member of the family to bring representatives of the Hemmings wing of the family to the annual family meeting at Monticello. He's a driving force for both the official acceptance and acknowledgement of the Hemmings descendants, and for the work now done at Monticello to publicly deal with the question of slavery there.
I read about this and was so impressed. Truscott is an example of a person who embraces truth and inclusiveness. A very special person. Honest. More like him, please.
yes i like him and his wife very much.. i met them at the Cherry Blossom festival in Marshfield Mo. please say hi from Laura X
Thank you, TC. I did not realize that about Lucian!
Thank you, TCin LA. (Heart isn't working.)
The New York Times Magazine launched the 1619 Project in August 2019, spearheaded by Nikole Hannah-Jones. The book came out on November 16, 2021.
Nicole denied tenure for her efforts to enlighten Americans about who they really are historically.
The link won’t paste so please search “Nikole Hannah Jones denied tenure” for details on America today. Not in the past.
I know all about it. If you read The New York Times you will learn more about the following in today's paper: 'The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has reached a settlement with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times Magazine, after a dispute over tenure, the school said on Friday.'
“The steps taken to resolve the lingering potential legal action posed by Ms. Hannah-Jones will hopefully help to close this chapter and give the university the space to focus on moving forward,” David Boliek, chair of the university’s board of trustees, said in a statement.'
That's actually old news, Mike S. See today's New York Times if you want to catchup on the story.
Thank you, Fern. I read/listened to each episode. Though there is controversy about its historical accuracy, my opinion is it is a worthy project.
This link takes you directly to the first episode of five podcasts, with the fifth episode divided into two parts. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/podcasts/1619-slavery-anniversary.html
Lynell, Your comment about the 1619 Project’s historical accuracy controversy makes me realize that the 1619 Project is held to a higher threshold of accuracy than most “traditional” history taught in high schools. Yet, it has become a whipping boy for CRT conspiracy theories, and a sure-fire campaign fundraiser for the gop.
Yes. The GOP doesn’t need any messaging beyond saying “woke” or “CRT” at every opportunity. Gets them every white vote it’s possible for them to get, which is unfortunately most of them by about 20 points (40 in red states).
Thanks for this, Michele. I am not very good at vetting things, so your take is heartening.
Have read it twice now and still trying to fully absorb the real history of America .
Isabel Wilkerson's works were life changing for me. Her best book IMO is 'The Warmth of Other Suns' , 2015 or 2016.
It brought a higher level change to my understanding of American history.
This along with Wilkerson's "Caste" speak to the history and ongoing racism that pervades this country.
SO agree!!! Her writing lifts and transports! Thanks to all of you for the links and reflections!!
also "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" is worth reading to discover more of the US history we weren't taught in school
More on slavery at Montecello:
https://www.monticello.org/slavery/
Thank you.
As ever, thanks to you too Mike!!
I have the 1619 book on my list, but haven't bought it yet. I have been to Monticello twice. I once had a long argument with someone on a thread where he assumed that I was an all out admirer of Jefferson, who I see as a very complicated man. I am well aware of Jefferson's shortcomings as I told him. It took him forever to tell me he was basing all on Zinn. That's fine, but I had read many books on slavery and one of the Hemmings. But then I am a history person and he had told my husband that he has contempt for history. What I found interesting as I read all those books on slavery was how historians wrote about it changed through the years.
Thanks—have it already.
I knew nothing about black soldiers or Col. Shaw until the movie Glory came out. I was both thrilled and ashamedly curious after that. It started me on several years of reading about our Civil War. The first book I read was fiction, "Killer Angels." I realized I never even really knew much about Gettysburg beyond the Address. All I knew were a few names, famous and infamous. One gorgeous day I got up and decided to make the trip to Gettysburg. I asked my mom if she would like to go. When we got there we hired an excellent guide. Both of us were kind of dazed afterwards as the horror of the battle there settled into our consciousness. Years later mom is gone and I start building a family tree. In doing so one of the surprising discoveries i made took me back to that day trip. I knew my grandfather (also from a prominent Boston family) named mom after an aunt of his. What I did not know was that the aunt was actually his great aunt that lived to be 105. Her husband and three children all dead too young, no grandchildren. My mother's namesake's only son is buried at Gettysburg, killed July 3. I wish we had known that the day we went to Gettysburg! The generations following that war sure did a good job of burying their pain in the north and shame in the south. As a result that war seems to still be spilling blood. Try as I might I do not understand people that love the Confederate flag and all it stands for.
They love it because they are racists and white supremacists.
I do not understand racists or taking pride in confederate ancestry. I wish I could offer a counter argument to you but sadly I cannot. Can you actually bask in the glory of the confederacy and not be a racist? Just as I can't believe that not all people on j6 are racists because I keep thinking of a conversation I had with a friend of mine in the fall of 2016...when I mentioned how puzzled I was by DJT voters because x, Y, z. She literally spat out the words "don't you call me a racist." I had said no such thing. It never occurred to me she would vote for him. Clearly from her reaction it was true. My mouth dropped open. I was devastated. I just got in my car and drove home. We haven't spoken since that day.
I am sorry about your friend. I am lucky. I have no close friends who are Trumpers and am 2000 miles away from where I grew up....Indiana. I had one ex-classmate tell me she wouldn't like to be educated like me....so I guess ignorance is bliss. I am sure she is so happy about Roe being reversed too. She is a religious fundamentalist and that's part of her problem. Many of the people who are racist are poorer whites who have long used this as a way to feel better about themselves and have been encouraged to do so by the power elite....who are really all about power and money and not much else. The election of Obama really got to all of them....what, a black president. I have lots of family on the lower end of the social scale in so. Indiana and Illinois. One of my great nieces has two mixed race daughters, so I am hoping that most of them are accepting. As far as I can tell my nephew and his wife are, but otherwise, his wife is sometimes down the rabbit hole. I don't know about the rest of them. My ex-brother-in-law is a proud Trumper.
"We were fighting for our freedom!" - I have heard that too many times from those who believe in "The War of Northern Aggression," as the Civil War is commonly known among white Southerners.
In Savannah we also heard it was The Late Unpleasantness. That's where the elderly docent in the house where Sherman stayed teared up when talking about what happened like the war was last week.
So vividly and compassionately. And so proudly.
Yes. The freedom to own another human.
I wasn't aware of black regiments from the North fighting in the Civil War until I watched the movie "Glory" which is about this regiment and it's commander, Robert Gould Shaw. An excellent movie and also heart breaking.
My experience, too. I feel enlightened and inspired by learning about the 54th.
In Brenda Wineapple's book, White Heat, Emily Dickinson's literary friend, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, enlists in the army to lead what is referred to as 'the first Union Black regiment. His bio is as follows: Harvard educated Boston Brahmin Universalist minister, Abolitionist, Feminist, radical Activist, Civil War commander of the first Union black regiment, featured Atlantic Monthly writer and prominent literary critic. Higginson wrote 'Army Life in a Black Regiment', an account of his experience as regiment commander in which he expresses extreme pride in his men.
I'm smarter every time I finish your writings. Thank you
'The 54th Massachusetts’ valor at the Battle of Fort Wagner paved the way for more African Americans to enlist. By the end of the war more than 180,000 African Americans enlisted in the U.S. Army, making up 10% of all U.S. forces for the duration of the war. Correspondents relayed the 54th Massachusetts’ heroism and devotion, even after their defeat. After visiting wounded members of the 54th, a writer for the New York Post reported “No man can pass among these sufferers…and not be inspired with the deepest abhorrence of slavery and an unquenchable desire for the freedom of their race.”[15]
'The members of the regiment lamented their heavy losses in letters home. One of the troops, Lewis Douglass, son of the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, wrote:
'Saturday night we made the most desperate charge of the war on Fort Wagner, losing in killed, wounded and missing in the assault, three hundred of our men. The splendid 54th is cut to pieces…. If I have another opportunity tonight, I will write more fully. Goodbye to all. If I die tonight, I will not die a coward.[11]'(NationalParksService)
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-54th-massachusetts-and-the-second-battle-of-fort-wagner.htm#:~:text=The%2054th%20Massachusetts'%20valor,the%20duration%20of%20the%20war.
dear heaven!@! did he die? it took Douglas so long to persuade Lincoln to allow Black Soldiers
'Douglass was later wounded and became ill, forcing him to be medically discharged from the army in 1864.[5] After the Civil War, he worked as a teacher for the Freedman's Bureau.[5] In 1866, Lewis and his brother, Frederick Douglass, Jr. went to Denver where they were hosted by Henry O. Wagoner, a friend of their father. Wagoner taught the brothers typography[6] and along with William J. Hardin, Lewis taught reading, writing, and other subjects to adult blacks in Wagoner's home.[7] Douglass married Helen Amelia Loguen in 1869 and moved to Washington D.C. where he became the first typesetter employed by the Government Printing Office.[1] Douglass's employment by the Government Printing Office as typesetter did not last long because he was unable to join the typesetters' union due to racial intimidation.'
'Like his father, Lewis Henry Douglass was a "valuable citizen" to Washington D.C. through his involvement with the New National Era and other political impact.[8] He helped establish and was the senior editor of the New National Era (1870-1874) with his father, a "well conducted" newspaper aimed at addressing the issues of the black community in D.C.[5][8' (Wikipedia) See link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Henry_Douglass
Thank you Heather, Fern and all who add to the incredible and true stories that were missing in our history textbooks and stories. This is a time of Hope, that we can tell the Truth of History. And learn from History. Some naysayers, mostly organized in Southern states, but all over USA call this Truth, CRT, CRITICAL RACE THEORY and try to erase it from their school curriculum. We must be vigilant in preserving the truth. I’m repeating Historian-Philosopher George Santayana’s warning: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Maybe we should start viewing all this history we are now learning as CRH. Critical Race History. As in, it is critically important that we begin to learn the full history the construct of “race” has made in our country, and all the varied, heroic contributors, - especially those that kept the faith of the American Idea against oppressive odds, and dismissed worth . And also the crippling effect of disenfranchising people for everyone. We would be a culturally, judicially, financially, and emotionally richer nation if we were in fact and deed “WE the People”. Stronger nationally from the inside out.
Michele, CRH! Yes! “Maybe we should start viewing all this history we are now learning as CRH. Critical Race History. As in, it is critically important that we begin to learn the full history the construct of “race” has made in our country…”
CRH is such a great idea! Thank you.
the computer's not allowing me to add my Heart to the number following this (Fern's) comment. Thank you, Ms Fern.
Please call me Fern. Thank you, Anne.
Dear Fern, I add my thanks to the many! 🕊
Wow. Thanks for this, Fern.
I'm glad you read it, Jeff.
No, he didn't.
(die, that is!)
not then.. isnt this great that Fern posted the full story .. even though i have 3 friends i have worked with who portray Frederick Douglas i did not know this story! and i have been to his home in DC where he lived as a US Marshall.. and of course sat in his lap in the park in front of Susan B Anthony's house in Rochester.. his great friend for 50 years. there is a play about them The Agitators, i can recommend highly. Fern if have McBrides in your tree from St Louis, we are related!! and Iranie thank you for giving us Santayana .. horrible apt this week esp. good night for now
Have been to the Shaw memorial on Boston Common. Each face of a black man is individually portrayed. It’s very moving.
Is it the same August St. Gauden’s sculpture as in the National Gallery in DC?
I believe there is a smaller copy at the national gallery. And I remember a prototype at his studio in NY.
All people like us. And we like them. Different times and places. May there be more of us who do the right thing, caring for all others and working for equality, equity, diversity, and honor. Thank you, Dr. R!
This thought crosses my mind every day. Our history waiting for us to step into it, to paraphrase Amanda Gorman.
I just read the last message from Heather Cox Richardson. Bless her. I am in tears. It is 1:42 in the morning. My life was saved at 5 years by a middle aged crippled orphaned syphilitic daughter of a Georgia plantation slave long emancipated. She returned from her hospital to save me. I would eat for no one else. She was taken from me first when I was 20 months old. She was committed and died alone a few years later. I was raised by her. She alone touched me. Her love inspired a five year old to eat at 778 Park Avenue. We know these good people. We know the unmarked graves of Barbados. The original sin of America is rising world wide, urged by a fascist president and his millions of racist followers hawking the Big Lie.
Born Again and Newt Gingrich be damned. Trickle down be damned. SCOTUS be damned.
To Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson: thank you.
To the GOP: get help.
To Abraham Lincoln and the art of the impossible.
To Black Women, please forgive us, lead us, love us, for I love you.
To Suzy Jones. Bless your heart and soul
Sandy
I was looking for a post from you this morning and hadn't seen one, and thus replied to someone above who wished tRump tarred and feathered. I replied, like Sandy posts: he will be charged, convicted and jailed.
For those who believe in God, we must pray for change. For those who do not, I hope whatever forces of nature they do believe in, they put that energy out into the universe. Like many other people, I have experienced things that have no rational explanation--so I do believe that a mind set can give a nudge.
I would like to see the negative hopeless defeatist nature sometimes displayed in this forum to stop. Make your phone calls, send your letters and postcards, post on your social media, work your elections--yes, yes those actions are needed and valuable-- but most of all, BELIEVE that justice and good will prevail!
If we have lost our hope, we have lost.
Sandy, please keep posting your "Trump will be charged, convicted and jailed" as I hope every person that reads your posts will think on that for just a moment and that energy flows out!
And to address your loss, I have always felt that those we love are not lost as long as someone living remembers them with love and gratitude. By your testament here, you have kept her alive.
Thanks. Your voice in .. ear.
Thank you. Your vignette of your own history is a great teacher. I learned.
Be well.
Your heart speaks volumes, Sandy.
We've had awful radio/internet interference here today for some reason. Stayed because it has been an illuminating and heartening discussion and I was loathe to give up in frustration. I hung on long enough to read you, Sandy, And then I read you, clicked "heart" and was surprised to see the heart light up in red! Over the years I have gotten to know you a little, and come to appreciate you, so glad I got to heart you before I shut off and turn back to my book. Good afternoon to you, and to everyone. So many of you have made me feel seen and heard today, through sharing your own hearts.
Be well.
:’-( :’-)
When did we become the silent majority?
Under Nixon. He was Evil.
Bless you as well, dear Sandy, and your Georgia plantation “mother.” The light you continue to shed is selfless and life-changing.
I must have been sleeping.
The movie Glory with Matthew Broderick was about this battle
It was this movie that brought the history of black men in battle a reality for me. That is shameful for each and every schoolteacher and school administrator who conveniently left this information from us.
I agree. It is shameful and so sad. Had more of us known more of our history … ALL of us, this time … we wouldn’t be where we are now with a country divided and so many still trying to get a fair shake in this so-called land of opportunity.
Actually, I doubt that the teachers knew the truth. They were given the curriculum and the history books. They didn’t question anything. At least that’s what I think it was like in the 50’s when I was growing up.
It is very possible they didn’t know anything about it, either. Possible and quite depressing
I saw that movie in the theatre when it first came out. I cried for all the he brave men.
especially Denzel!!
Lordie but you are a wonderful Historian. I've just read an essay by Barbara Tuchman on the Historian as Artist. She would loved what you are doing, giving.
She would have loved what you are doing, giving .
Tuchman - the best historian I have yet to read.
“ and hoped that what they had done was worth the horrific cost. I am not one for ghosts, but I swear you could feel the blood in the floors.”
I hope we will continue to honor their courage and sacrifices and defend our constitution and country, this time through our votes, our legislation and against the rising fascism and lingering white supremacy we “battle today” much coming from the same confederate states of this and other battles. Thank you, Professor, for reminding us that our nation was built on the sacrifices of all people, all colors, (and all genders) not only the white man.
Irenie, You have voiced the determination of many American people. I would not say that White Supremacy has been 'lingering' around. It never truly went underground, but Trump and the Republican Party now and during the reigns of Nixon and Reagan, White Supremacists have been blasted out of the sewers, where many grew, as did the number and size of their militias. They joined the ranks of local, state and nationally elected governors, legislatures and other government officials. The White Supremacists are within our government, military, law-enforcement, school boards...they are everywhere.
Oh my goodness, you are so right. I just listened to an interview with Malcolm Nance & Al Franken today, (Malcolm is just back from Ukraine, but heading back soon); he was talking about his new book, They Want to Kill Americans -- all about the militias -- we cannot be asleep at the wheel (US militias & ISIS have a lot incommon) -- stuff is happening, a lot under the radar...as in Germany & Europe too; he mentioned that they are hoarding bullets -- prices quadrupling for example.
Nance's family has served in the armed forces in every generation since the Civil War.
Interesting—while TFG’s grandfather left Germany to avoid the draft and TFG’s physician said that he had bone spurs.
One thing different about US based militias relative to ISIS.
The Republican Party fully supports and condones American militia groups on the far right.
Hence. January 6th and all of its valuable, visible consequences.
I have listened to Malcom Vance many times. Thank you for bringing up his book. I had forgotten. Yes, Jeanne, Vance has been trying to call our attention to the seriousness of this socio-political violence.
Yes, he has and for a very long time too. He feels so strongly about our nation and what Ukraine has been enduring from Putin, that he decided to help out. I admire Nance so much.
Then isn’t that a critical question of these supporters? “Do you intend to, or are you willing to, kill your country’s citizen’s to further your politics?” Is this our Second Amendment meaning?! Is THIS the “well-regulated militia” the Founders “originally” wrote the 2A for? “Is 2A for killing your neighbors?” I would imagine many of them responding “F*cking Yeah!” So what does this now demand from us?
"...blasted out of the sewers". I misspelled 'Confederates' as 'Confederats' on purpose yesterday.
Olof, While you were at it why, didn't you emphasize your point? 'ConfederRATS', What do you think?
I don't really enjoy smearing, and like to give the laugh to those who discover the spelling mistake and make the meaning themselves.
You did 'smear' when you monkeyed with their descriptor.
Yes, of course I did, but I like to share the 'doing'. Besides, I was using conventional prejudice against rats, which is rather insulting to rats.
Good one!
Fern, yes,”… never truly went underground.” In truth it’s everywhere in USA and dangerous to our Democracy and the Peace of this country. Confederate flags still fly and not just the South. The PBS special, MONUMENTS, tells some of the story and the documentary begins with TFG telling the country, “There are good people on both sides”. After Charlottesville. White Supremacists are active in every state.
I live in a “liberal” northern State.
A quarter mile from my farm is a pole carrying both the Confederate Flag and a giant Trump flag.
A half a mile away is another Confederate Flag. And many more.
I have decided not to call them White Supremacists.
They are just Americans. Not distinguishable at the grocery store from you or me.
But.
The problem with America IS Americans.
I remember the first time I visited rural Virginia, we passed a house that had Confederate flags hanging outside, and it felt to me, a northerner, as if I was visiting another world.
Yet here we are many years later. I live in a small town in upstate New York, and like Mike S, I see Confederate flags, T**** flags, "Don't Tread on Me," and the like in both my town and county. It still shocks me. T**** encouraged these people to crawl out from under the rocks, and it continues.
You are so right about them being indistinguishable, but I call them traitors
It is indeed.
Tfg should be tarred and feathered, at the very least
I have been looking for Sandy Lewis this morning, not seeing any posts. So I will post for him:
Trump will be charged, convicted and jailed!
THAT is the energy we need to send out into the universe, especially this week!
Fern,
Sadly you are so correct. It is shameful to realize this and ignore it because this is today’s and yesterday’s reality.
JPD
It has been a defining characteristic of this country's identity for centuries, J. P. Centuries!
I've just been listening to Chomsky (i/v from February this year): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsIDRiJY_2Q
Including in much of the media--perhaps out of ignorance or the "both sides" stance that is so prevalent today.
Indicative of our downfall, perhaps. Free press, my arse
No kidding, Fern!! From under the rocks, they emerged with a force. Wish we had super powers to shrink them to minuscules where they can’t hurt anyone.
Unfortunately, that's been my realization lately too -- they are everywhere and I didn't see them.
Like a cockroach infestation - they suddenly run when a bright light is shone on them.
The swamp. Drained.
Everywhere
You're a fine writer and a wonderful historian, Heather. Thank you. We ar all inspired to keep going.
The Shaw memorial to the 54th regiment created by Augustus Saint Gaudens reflects your sentiments. The courage and determination of Shaw and all the Black regimental soldiers is so palpable even today, from the forward motion of their bodies to the details of their boots worn from miles of marching. A true testament to the values of equality we strive to uphold then and now.
That last line gave me a chill. Seriously.
Thank you Heather. You are a national treasure and I can’t tell you how much this truck driver’s daughter from Texas appreciates the top notch education you are offering for free. I consume ALL of the things you offer and I have one request. Please, do guns! We need a historical accounting of gun laws and gun culture to combat the crazy we are experiencing. 🙏🏻😣 ~Desperate in Texas.
while we await Heather u might wish to check out Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz whm howard zinn told to write The Indigenous Peoples history of the US... her book before that was the one on the history of the Second Amendment.. and she worked with Raoul Peck on his series re settler colonialism..( he did the " i am not your Negro" james baldwin film)
Thank you! I will check it out! I am reading Howard Zinn’s book now. 🙌🏻🤗
wow, another interesting name on this list.. are you related to our mayor in SF?? London Breed is her name..Lauira X
I doubt it. I was born and raised in Texas as was my husband. But I love San Fran! 🤗
Eloquent and haunting ❤️❤️😢
The valiant efforts of minority groups to show their "worthiness" to the white majority is almost a completely lost cause. For if they make the effort and fail, the hateful segment of the majority group can say, "I told you so." And if they make the effort and succeed, as did the members of the Mass. 54th Volunteer Infantry, and the Navajo Code Breakers, The Tuskeegee Airman, The 442nd Infantry Unit of second generation Japanese and other minority groups in WW2, then their success is threatening to the hateful segment of the white majority group, and their fine deeds must be ignored, played down, or erased.
In the end, such valiant people as comprised those minorities who fought bravely did so as so many other valiant white people did -- to maintain their honor and self-respect regardless of what anyone else may have thought.
Such valiant people are worthy in their own right and need ask no permission to participate.
yes, and i think the japanese american group was the most decorated in the ww2!
Yep...that last line. The South is full of ghosts.
It is not just in the South, though. It is alive in the North as well, a little more underground perhaps, but only to the white privileged. And less and less underground since the orange flambé promoted incivility. We are seeing the vile underbelly of our foundations. It is painful and despicable to many of us, and we need to support All The People, more than ever right now.