Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 20151018

Story very closely connected to his own personal story about this child. He began volunteering eventually where he became a seasonal, worked there for a number of years and then became a permanent historian. He has been there now 16 years, 14 years excuse me. Sharing this story. The story of the people affected by the presence of those armies has gone untold. Fortunately emmanuel has brought that story to the forefront. He is here today to talk to us about one of the other enduring legacy of war, that is, the Freedmens Bureau. The very question during the war is what is going to happen with all of these emancipated slaves. The Freedmens Bureau was an attempt to answer that, and the manual will discuss that very complicated answer. [applause] i am not sure how people deal with this traffic on the north side of richmond. It seems like just now whenever you leave richmond you better plan on a year to get where it normally takes 10 minutes to get to. I am certainly happy that i made it, i was worried this morning but i might not get here. I am looking forward to our tostion and answer period tackle the subject of the Freedmens Bureau. On november 30, 1865, captain stored ours, the superintendent of the Second District of the bureau of refugees, headquartered in petersburg, virginia, issued a circular which highlights the challenges that face the bureau in the postwar era. Wrote, assistant superintendents will at once commence commence a tour of the different counties, visit different plantations, and make themselves acquainted with the system of free labor, disabuse the minds of the friedman freed men of the many misconceptions as to their status. If the government is to give them land, the plantation property of their former masters is to be up divided among them. If they remain in their old homes they are not free, or if they hire themselves for another year in implied servitude for five years. Or that the government will feed them in idleness. By careful plane advice we will endeavor to remove any prejudices or lack of confidence that may exist between the two classes, we will protect them in person and property in all their rights and privileges, but they alone are responsible for the. Aintenance of themselves urge them all to make contracts , and befor another year prepared to ratify such contracts onsite. Explain to them the disturbed and desolated state of the country, and that generally they can do better to remain on the Old Plantation than to wander about looking for a more lucrative situation. Be pursued with vigor, reporting from time to time the general situation. During the absence of assistant superintendent, the board organized under recent orders will adjudicate any situations that may arise. Here we go. Freedreau of refugees, men, and abandoned land, short and typically to the Freedmens Bureau, had quite a huge task. That task is best summarized by historian eric for owner. Create and to education system, provide aid to the destitute, elderly, infirm, l, and mentally ill, a court system to federal disputes between blacks and whites, try to ensure equal justice, serve , andmarriage counselor somehow win confidence between the two races. This image here coming from the a singleeekly shows officer in the midst of all of from bothf chaos white and black governors. 30,bureau was created march that same day as the freedmen saving and Trust Company was created to encourage former slave to save money. It was not only to deal with issues regarding freedmen but also white refugees and any abandoned or confiscated lands. The lands were to be divided into 40 acre lots. The freedmen could read them until they were sold. The land was technically not the government. However, during the second half of 1865 president Andrew Johnson restored most of the property of almost all former confederates, despite attempts to counter this political maneuver. Lostdeology one out and he he gave almost all of the 850,000 acres and the bureaus were restored by december. The long discussed at 40 ines and a mule disappeared a matter of six months. Wilkes booth in february of 1866 he vetoed congressman congresss friedmans bureau bill which congressman congress failed to override. Vetoed bill on the 16th of july, 1866. This Time Congress did override his veto. Johnsons opposition was based on his own racial prejudices, formally he opposed the use of military during peacetime. He thought the bill was a federal encroachment into matters. He believes the bill would prevent former slaves from becoming selfsufficient. He opposed the bill because he believed congress should not. Ake provisions for slaves him inposition will have a Battle Royale with congress over the course of his term in office. You can see johnson kicking the Freedmen Bureaus bill away in his disdain. The Freedmens Bureau was headed by Oliver Howard, who had lost his right arm in june of 1862. Howard is known amongst many, certainly in the black community, for working with others to organize a university that carries his name in washington dc, for which he was the president of that university from 1869 through 1874. In different districts throughout the south, agents generally form our former our Army Officers and serve assistant superintendents. Despite the memory of white southerners bill just mentioned a few minutes ago, there were few to no federal troops during the period of reconstruction. That is a problem if youre looking for help from the Freedmens Bureau. And the laws as they are being applied to the now defeated former confederate states. The recently freed people became politically motivated, even in the midst of other crises facing them. Virginia needed a new constitution as parameters of the governments reconstruction plan. The end of may 1867, he wrote to his superior about the condition of the freedmen for the counties of smith, carol, grayson, counties and south of virginia. Threats being made to intimidate freedmen and to compel them to support men in the approaching election of delegates for the convention, to make a constitution for the state, who are not acceptable to the colored people, neither to the true union men of this district. In all such cases a we have assured the colored people they would be protected in the free exercise of all their rights. A few months later captain William Austin wrote a letter regarding political activity political clubs had been formed in nearly all the counties. Through the influence of these clubs, the majority of the freedmen had been instructed in their rights and issues and and issues on the decision in which they will have the voice. They will learn not to fear and interchange their views and assert what they believe are their rights. They feel as long as they behave peaceably they have the protection of the government. They have always conducted themselves quietly and will in their meetings. It would not serve them well with most white virginians. Captain austan, writing again from this corner of virginia from blacks being discharged for supporting republicans. In may 1867, lieutenant hector reported that the feeling between the whites and blacks is apparently good. In reality it is bad. The whites dont want the blacks to vote, unless they vote as the whites tell them. They do not want them to hold meetings. Southern part of the state, november 1867. He also said that numerous other is rumored to be discharged have not yet learned their names. Here you see this struggle. Elderly black man voting. Sort of the next generation in a former union. He did not illustrate all of the back and forth that the Bureau Agents were discussing in their reports. The bureau also involved itself with Family Affairs of the recently freed. One of its greatest achievements was documenting the marriages of former slaves. In february 1866, the virginia General Assembly enacted a law, which made it such that former slaves who married during slavery would be entitled to the rights and privileges of married couples. The superintendents created a register of color purple of colored persons cohabitating as husband and wife. To document these couples and their children, they were left with the cliques of court and retained in the records. Surviving the cohabitation registers exist for the following counties. Augusta, caroline, culpepper, floyd, hanover, montgomery, press and word, Richmond County prince edward, Richmond County, warren, washington. They can be accessed through the virginia memory. Ages, place of birth, residence, occupation, last owners city. The names of children with the ages of each and the date of commencement with cohabitation. They are extremely important records for black virginians who are trying to document their families history. We hit the 1870 brick wall, where it is difficult to get past that because Previous Data did not list individual names of enslaved people. Most people in the south were enslaved. One of the more interesting of these cohabitation records i looked at came from the Caroline County register, which included the notation of two old people. John baptist and his wife were both 89 years old. They had been owned by Joseph Chandler of Caroline County. They claimed to have been a couple since 1791. Whether that is true or not you cant say for sure. They did have three surviving daughters. Ellen age 49 and agnes at 45. It is clear this couple had been committed to each other for potentially more than seven decades before anyone legally recognized their marriage. All the time you ask me where slaves marry, they recognize their marriage. The state of virginia did not and this particular register did not make it possible for it to be. The bureau also attempted to aid blacks in locating family members. The patient spencer had come to him wishing to locate her 15yearold son and 11yearold daughter and maria spencer. She handed the children head out into the woods in the summer of 1861. Hunger compelled her to return to the house or food when they were seized and carried off. At that time they were taken by john mitt chill in lynchburg but she was never able to find out to whom they have been sold. Jackson hoped the two men she thought may know something would be able to provide details. Neither john mitchell, who had sold them, nor amount nor another man, new what became what became of her children. At the end of the war Margaret Byrd was emancipated and destitute. In mid october 1865 she saw the attention of the superintendent of the bureau located at city point. The year of 1862 had likely been the worst year of her life. She was the mother of four children. Clayton wrote to find her transportation to be relocated with her children. Numerous assistant superintendents dealt with making family members and took care of their spouse and children, ruling on matters of the behavior of free people. A literate freedmen wrote to lieutenant hs that his sister had died after having a baby. Napoleon informed the lieutenant his brotherinlaw had deserted the family and refused to take care of his wife and their children. To see to his childrens financial wellbeing. Apprenticeships forced upon black children are often considered orphans because of a lack of a father, even though the mother was alive and well created another test for the bureau. In alexandria at the agent wrote that if black children had to be removed from apprenticeship by force or even bloodshed, let it be done. Musturpose of the bureau and shall be carried out. At the same time the bureau endorsed apprenticeships when they were unsure if the parent or parents could support their children. Such as the agent in lynchburg. The officials were ordered to bind out the child in any case where the parents received government support. For those parents who are unhappy with each other they looked to the bureau to assist them as well. Merry wind murder turned to the freedmens court the father, to whom she wasnt married to, wanted to keep the children to in to secure an indenture for them. He said he offered to take her back since the war but she refused to live with me. Mary fought back, exclaiming that john had never done anything for me. She went on, saying i could not live with him if he was always drunk and worthless. She went on to say that he did nothing for the children. They went their separate ways and that the children are all the support i have. I had worked hard to raise these children. I do not know what would become of me if they were taken away from me. The court affirmed that she would retain custody of the children and that their father had no claim to them whatsoever. And another case in staten he wrote on the behalf of Daniel Collins regarding his wife, hannah. She left to visit her mother in 1867. In august of 1868 she is still not home. Jackson received a reply that hannah had become the wife of a different man in manchester. In winchester. Collins wanted to know what he could be due to be free of his polygamist wife. Jackson asked his superior if they could strike the marriage from the register, stating what had happened or if comments collins needed to go to court to apply for divorce. Jackson noted that his means are limited for divorce. The superior responded to his subordinate that collins was still legally would still legally be married unless he filed for divorce in court. We have this great image of people getting married. For some folks that was what they really wanted. Obviously for other folks as they were looking to be done with their lives from the past. Education was one area where general howard and black southerners were aligned as a means to secure freedom, and regrettably due to a lack of funding the bureau had to work with northern aid organizations to get their schools off the ground. It was practically impossible to assist whites with education, as noted in the beginning of 1868. He wrote that whites were opposed to educating freedmen. He went on to say poor whites are in are in as bad or worse condition as the freedmen. They refuse to go to school with blacks and the sentiments of both colors are that mix colors are not practicable. They would have to wait another 100 years for integration to come to virginia. And of course some people not come willingly. Learning was challenging, as reported by a color troop officer henry g thomas, who commanded the southwest virginia subdistrict at the beginning of 1869, when he responded to a questionnaire. Opinion to publics the education of freedmen and poor whites . So. Rse, but not actively and the more part more barbarous part of my districts, the feeling finds itself in outlets of lies and slurs and schoolteachers and filthy jokes, not original, is published by the rebel orangutan in the marion star, the newspaper. Small slips of paper and unsuccessful to tear down the schoolhouse and flock the bureau flog the bureau officer. He thought the school would need another decade of support from northern aid organizations. The assistant superintendent subdistrict of staffers reported in march 1866 that white people there were very much opposed to the education of the negroes. Very few will have colored children down to them because they are obliged to educate them. In january 1866 the manasseh school was reported. It had 32 students attending the school. In christiansburg out in southwest virginia, a black woman who was free before the war moved out of her own house in order to allow black people to have somewhere to go. And a few of the betterknown whites in the town supported the school, including mr. James taylor who loaned the school benches, and Thomas Wilson who loaned table and chairs. By february 1867 freedmen were building the school and the assistant superintendents noted to his superior, the freedmen are anxious to have a teacher. Children will come to make a large school, and i respectfully request a teacher be assigned to this place with as little delay as possible. In yorktown the Monthly School report for 1867 shows a school opened in november of 1866 thanks to the assistance of the friends freedmen association. It was one white teacher, 40 male students. At 12 of the age of 16 and 15 of 20 of them could spell and read easy lessons. There is a clandestine network of people who are instructing. 45 of the students were listed as advance readers. 65 students were being instructed in writing. None of these students were free before the civil war. The same yorktown school, the population of students had exploded. For white teachers four white teachers, 261 male students and 321 female students. On september 30 1866, the assistant superintendent of that district stated there were school supported by northern benevolent organizations, at a private school, top by an taught by an educated and intelligent colored man. The bureau also mediated labor and said that labor contracts were the only thing to be insured that blacks were being treated fairly. Some contracts were very detailed, like the one between Nelson Walker and samuel usher. That is what it was called in the 1860s. Walker was to be paid 120 dollars one year for working at the institution. The payments would be given 10 in a month. They would provide proper and suitable corners, Medicine Free , providend quarters ,edicine free of charge , or when thewifery sickness is contracted beyond three weeks continuous. 10 was to be withheld until the end of the year when inductions were to be made for any lost time. Whoever violated the contract would have to pay the other person 20. Other contracts, not so detailed. A whitethe one between employer and his half white employee. The white employer agreed to give him half of the tobacco and half of the corn. To find him a family and also to close his children. Too close his children. Etc. That was the end of that particular contract. To occur, was bound such as in buckingham county, where the Freeman Bureau court heard a case regarding the 1865 winter wheat harvest. Three men planted as slaves, by the time of the harvest they were working under contract for their owner for one third the crop. The former owner did not want to pay because the three men had been enslaved when they planted it. The bureau court ruled in favor. F the three employees however, one of the men, joe cooper, believed that he should only have to plant and harvest the crop and nothing more. The farm owner wanted him to do other responsibilities. The court agreed with the landover landowner that he could have joe cooper do other tasks as assigned. Dozens of cases are going to be heard from the friedmans court between three people and their white employers. John david, a black president , complained to the bureau in june of 1867 that his employer, tar met thomas jarman, assaulted him because he had requested his weekly wages. Employer,r to a white the bureau agent in charlottesville noted in part of the contract was written up for a potential employee and was not a fair or just one in its provisions. The obligations were not mutual. The compensation was totally inadequate to the labor. He noted, however, that he would not interfere with the contract but if the employer violated any part of the contract, he would cancel the contract and lead them to proceed against you for damages. This is a long series here of contracts that you can see. Much more detailed than just the scrap of paper that some of them were written on. The Friedman Bureau subdistrict agents recorded and a norm us amount of racial violence in their letters to their superiors, begging the question of was the war really over simply because confederate soldiers laid down their government issued arms. One example comes from stanton, where in late june of 1866 porter dune told a black at the hotel there to get off the platform and then hit the porter, floyd adams, with the club, knocking him down. The jury in the case said that he was doing his duty to keep the platform clear of hotel porters. However, lieutenant george cook, the bureau agent, wrote that it was an act of gross injustice, the jury having literally given the white man permission to knock the negro down without fear of molestation. The lexington agent reported that a law student named jc johnson mortally wounded patrick thompson, a friedman. They were not isolated incidents and occurred everywhere throughout the state. Bureau agent sydney smith reported that charles murray, a black man, had gone into Fauquier County in search of his son and was nearly murdered. Lieutenant knight, the assistant superintendent at lynchburg in may of 1866, writing to his boss that a black man had come in while he was writing to him that had been wounded by a group of white men because he refused to play the banjo for them as he did not know how. Lieutenant frederick massey, the bureau had for york and james 1866countys in may of wrote that were it not for the controlling hand of the bureau and military authorities i am satisfied that the whites would treat them in the most unfair and unjust manner. Massey noted that those whites who treated People Fairly were the exception. In reporting how blacks felt towards whites, he said that blacks were very bitter and suspicious against this. 1867 the same man reported whites in the neighboring counties treated blacks harshly and cruelly, noting the for greed noting that the freed people are required to call their employers masters and mrs. And instead of kind and encouraging words from the whites, cuffs and oats are meted out to them without measure. Captain sidney smith, agent at leesburg, reported that a colored man by the name of john taylor in the vicinity of mount gilead was murdered on the night before in his own house. In the presence of his family. Which consisted of his wife and eight children. The perpetrator of this dreadful deed came to the house of mr. Taylor in the company of two others, all three of whom were disguised as colored men, faces painted, etc. Begged for heror husbands life to be spared, the men went about robbing the house of what they wanted. The one man then put his revolver to john taylors, fatally wounding him. Taylor died two days later, though prior to his death he stated that he thought that Bush Underwood had committed the deed. The agent said that nothing had been done by the civil authorities to find out the perpetrator of the dreadful murder, notwithstanding mr. Hampson simpson, a near neighbor deceased, personally brought this matter to the notice of a justice of the peace by the name of enoch fenton and a constable, both of them having taken an official cognizance of the case. The civil authorities are only disposed to protect friedman by bringing to justice those who have and continue to commit outrages against them. Later that month smith repeated his general sentiments about the local court system. It is entirely out of question for a colored man to get justice done him by these that District Courts where a white man is interested against him, while at the same time the magistrate is careful not to commit himself to the liabilities of a fraudulent proceeding. October 27, 18 66, sydney smith in leesburg reported that on the 23rd of the month a 13 euro boy named william stated that he knew no surname for himself and came to smith, reporting that he had been living with frank taylor allowed in since the end of the war. Taylor had stripped william naked and tied the boys shirt around his head and face in order to smother his cries and beat him in such a shocking manner as to cut through the skin in several places. Smith examined william and found the marks of the whipping. William reported that he had always been used very badly by mr. Taylor. Immediately smith took william to a justice of the peace in leesburg who said that he would issue a warrant for an arrest for taylor the following morning. William ended up finding an and that he did not know was living and moved in with her. The aunt to her nephew to the justice of the peaces office of the following morning, but he was out. She found another justice and applied for award to be taken out against taylor but the other justice said that he had more important things to do. In the meanwhile, smith had gone to the office of the initial justice of the peace who told thethat taylor went to see aunt of william and settle the matter and that the aunt was opting not to pursue charges. Smith went to the aunt, who said that she had entered no such agreement with taylor. Smith returned to the justice of the peace and demanded a warrant be issued. The justice said that he would assume as william appeared in his office. After william arrived, the justice of the peace refused to do so because he was sticking to the tail of the aunt agreeing not to pursue charges. Despite smiths efforts, he noted, up to the present time, it has not been an issue and that there is no probability that any action will be taken by the civil authorities in the case. Work, this one person. Smith has lots of people in Northern Virginia that hes dealing with. The infamous ku klux klan that you see here was involved with creating concern in stantons black community by early may of 1868. The agent reported that the klan made the appearance in the streets of stanton about 1 00, sunday morning last, with the klan being amassed in white sheets or something of the kind, being armed and causing no little consternation among the colored people, a much serious annoyance to the respectable whites. There was the discharge of pistols with cheers and yelling that of course occurring as it almost in the center of town around almost the entire population. The colored people are very much. Xcited by the sus subject i would also remark that i have reported the facts to the military commission before the district, also john w jordan. The last thing i will discuss before we move on to question and answer is the bureaus role in Public Welfare for the destitute, in firm, elderly, orphans, those that were considered insane. The subject was perhaps the most divisive in the white north with president Andrew Johnson and within congress. Part of this divisiveness centers on the ideology of free labor within the Republican Party of the 1800s. There would be a great amount of welfare provided in virginia between november of 1865 and september of 1866. The virginia Freedmens Bureau provided relief for thousands of free men, women, and children, yet the number of people receiving relief consistently decreased. November of 1865 within than 6000 children, 3500 women, and 1500 men received help, but by june of the next year only 1000 men received help. 2000 women and 2500 children. A lot of information about the distribution of rations for friedman and white unionist refugees in virginia. But we dont know as much about. Lothing the only area of the state i could find any information came whichouthwest virginia, is sort of strange, as many of you may know. Not a lot of white people are living out there in the 1860s. Nevertheless the bureau did not provide welfare to the idol. Word came in july of 1865 and general howard directed that hereafter no destitute rations be issued to any ablebodied man thomas has a family of his own and in such cases you must provide undoubted evidence of their destitution. He cannot procure any sort of employment underlined by which to partially support, also underlined, them. In slab town, the friedman community at yorktown during the summer of agencies to five, the Bureau Agents stopped rations to 21yearold fanny brown and her twoyearold daughter because fanny, he wrote, wouldnt work. Erwinober of 1866 nelson road to Major General john scofield, the head of the potomac military district. We gave to the rich white manner best years. Our strength, our youth, our sweat. Now that we are free we get in turn meanness, tyranny, and injustice. The officers of the bureau insist on justice. Some of our men are in such a state of perpetual terror, if you turn your backs on us who can we appeal to . Unfortunately, as often was the case in the aftermath of the four years of the war, blacks in appeal fell ons mostly deaf ears. You dont know, general schofield is not a radical republican in favor of free people. The Freedmens Bureau, helpful as it was at times, as difficult in others, was in the minds of black and throughout the south their only hope for equal treatment and justice. Found itsency alliance with radical republicans and not with conservative republicans, democrats, and were often at odds with postwar president s. By 1870 the bureau was weaker than ever. On june 30, 1872, the Freedmens Bureau was abolished and thus the agency finally came to an end. The people i have elected to show in this slide collectively represented reconstruction not living up to the hopes of many black and some white people. New battles were to be fought. To form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to , aselves and our posterity stated in the american constitution, that fight of course continues into the present. Much, i will be happy to answer any questions. [applause] theres a question over here . I have two questions, really. Could you briefly comment on the folks who were former slaves and elected to stay on plantations, how their lives may have been better or different, lets say . Hopefully better. The second question, i was , when you were talking about president johnson going back and forth with congress in this battle to try to benefit the black people who were free , races andh interfering with doing the right thing, i was surprised to hear he had been abraham lincolns Vice President and so forth, i know that a politician is a politician. My question is what evidence perhaps in his own writings or whatever did you uncover that would indicate that he was indeed a racist . I will go in reverse order. His sort of address to congress, sort of state of late 1860s, the was sort of routinely coming back to the topic of if we, congress, the federal government, support or aid in the support of these recently freed people that they will become lazy, they wont work, they will take care of themselves. Which, you know, certain segments of the american inulation still believe 2015. Andrew johnson would find a few friends. These were published, government records. You can look them up on the internet. You can sort of get insight into johnsons political ideology shaped by his upbringing, some of you know he was not born into a wealthy family. You know, sort of a hardscrabble life. 1850sn by certainly the he had turned a corner with his political life at that point he was a slave owner. I think this sort of best analysis at this point of johnson in the bureau is by angers slap. In his not too terribly long book about Andrew Johnson and the bureau in reconstruction, largely broadly. The newt question about life of the free people in the aftermath of slavery, for those people who stayed on the, as i mentioned the bureaus objective was to get as many hired on contract as possible. Creating contracts was a complex issue. Because as i mentioned in the beginning, there are not a lot of agents. And then there just slightly more military presence in large pockets of the south. You may have to go three counties over to get to your bureau agent if you have a problem with your contract or with the employer. So, its difficult for the freed person to sort of challenge whats in the contract if the Congress Sort of titans in with. He money as time goes on certainly by 1870. Free people in some ways are sort of left to figure out for themselves the best way to they can negotiate with their former owner as they stayed on or if they moved to somebody elses property to negotiate with that person. In the sort of immediate six months after the war you see a lot of people trying to leave the agricultural life and go to cities, where they think there are better economic opportunities. Then southern cities start issuing orders, upheld by the Freedmens Bureau no, you cannot come here to richmond, petersburg, or nor folk. You have to go somewhere else, back out into the countryside, and find work under contract with either your former owner or employer or someone new. Yes, i wanted to understand the organizational structure of the Freedmens Bureau. There an officer in each county, each state . Was there any tied to the congressional delegation, for example . No, each state was divided into what you would call subject subdistricts. T the head was Oliver Howard and there would be the second tier administrative level. And then the commissioners. And then you would have these subdistrict commissioners. Each state divided up to friendly. Typically what you would have is a bureau agent, especially as time goes on more likely to be located in the city than the county. So, if you live 20 miles away from petersburg, as some people in that county did, what you would do is have a dispute, the klan road through your employers farm, is going to take you pretty much all day just to get to petersburg. Then you have to arrange a meeting with that person. Then theyve got to see if they can do something to assist you or not. Increasingly more difficult for Bureau Agents to and to federal law enforce the community or state laws as they were with the end of slavery. [indiscernible] civil war to civil rights. Eventsave been following , seems like now would be the time to begin conversations about reconstruction, the Freedmens Bureau. Do you know it plans to continue the conversation forward . Are you optimistic that that conversation will happen . Yes. We are working at the mps level on the reconstruction theme study right now. I got asked to be the virginia the mps asuse is different from the geography of the country in the same am seeing the Freedmen Bureau tied to congressional representation or division. Virginia is in the northeast region of the National Park service, even though geographically we were in the southeast region. Regionn in the southeast would want of course to include virginia and asked me if i would sort of help to gather places, mps and nonmps that would represent ways with which to talk about reconstruction. The mps is certainly working on that and on the civil rights we are meeting at the end of this month to sort of brainstorm where we go next with that. Certainly as people have been kind of winding down the civil war with the sesquicentennial it is important to note that the conversation does continue. Ladies and gentlemen, emmanuel. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] long American History tv is joining our Time Warner Cable partners to showcase the history of buffalo, new york. To learn more about the cities on our tour, visit www. Cspan. Org city tour. We continue now with a look at the history of buffalo. Of ju are at the home verett mash, a former nash. The reverend came to buffalo in 1892 from virginia. He had just finished a school, wayland seminary, and washington, d. C. , and later moved to richmond, virginia, known there as the Virginia Union university. There was a notice on the wall. It said