Fears of their fate, and thoughts of revenge, lingered. After, they worried about the families they had left behind. During battle, Black soldiers confronted crashing cannonballs. Still, Blacks were eager to fight for freedom. Unidentified African American soldier in Union corporal’s uniform. “Are our parents, wives, children and sisters to suffer, while we, their natural protectors, are fighting the battles of the nation? We leave the government and Congress to answer.” “How the authorities expect our families to live without the means to buy bread, pay house rent, and meet the other incidental expenses of living in these terrible times, we know not,” he wrote. One anonymous Black soldier with the 55th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry wrote the New York Weekly Anglo-African that, although promised $13 a month, Black soldiers were paid only $7. Of course, once they enlisted, some realized that day had not yet come. “There is a brighter day coming for the colored man.” Holland urged in a letter to an Ohio paper. “Spring forth to the call and show to the world that you are men,” soldier Milton M. Once in uniform, Blacks urged others to enlist. (Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) Broadside for “Men of Color,” Philadelphia, 1863 recruitment written by Frederick Douglass.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |