For a larger historical. Arrative so for those of you who missed last weeks program, lets talk for a moment about this the , civil war in 50 objects . How did it come about, and how effective do you think it is in conveying the narrative sweep of the civil war in only 50 objects . When i wascame about asked to undertake a project from the historical society. It was a lucky day for me. Someemember, we got to see of the objects only from the conference tables at the historical society. It was a matter of picking representative objects which, as you say, stand in for the big history of the civil war. Story bytem, personal personal story. Valerie it was wonderful to work with you on that project. So our topic this evening is fighting slavery, the bumpy road to block freedom. We will be looking at three objects but speak to the topic. Objectre all paperbased. The 1862 petition to him lincoln , and a veryside small sketch of the arrival of Jefferson Davis to the chickasaw bayou. They are our objects. Lets go to the first one. A petition to Abraham Lincoln for the recruitment of rock troops. It is addressed to his excellency, Abraham Lincoln. There are a number of signatures. What is it, harold . Harold it bears a number of signatures, hundreds and hundreds of signatures. It is a petition that was the brainchild of someone named j. Gardener, we dont know much about him, except that he organized efforts to the United States in july of 1852 to unleash the power of at thisamericans who point had not been permitted to fight for the union. It constituted what some people call a stable arm that could help the union when the war by increasing its manpower exponentially. We have seen this object. It is a scroll, a big scroll. 25 feet long. It has never been exhibited altogether. You need two floors to give it the full justice. It is signed by an Amazing Group of blackters enlistment. It is started clearly by irishamericans, by jewishamericans, by germanamericans, people from all walks of life. You can tell from their nominatingon the petition. It also has quite a few famous vanderbilts and others, all signing on to this idea that the union should accept black troops, which it had not done for the first year of the civil war. Also one john is brown who signed it too. [laughter] harold it probably has a few fake names in their. So, john brown, whom we discussed last week, was even though he had been dead three years, he signed the petition. [laughter] valerie very funny. A question about lincoln since this is your subject area, why was he reluctant to accept blacks in the service . Harold it is hard to emerge in, but the note imagine, but the of africanamericans bearing arms was frightening to many americans, especially in the border states like kentucky and maryland and delaware that had not seceded from the union but where slavery was still legal and would be legal throughout the civil war. Lincoln thought that if he encouraged africanamericans to join the service, then those border states would leave and join the confederacy. Another thing about this is that this petition is dated july 20. On the very day, lincoln told his cabinet he wanted to issue an emancipation proclamation. He was not ready to deal with the issue of black troops, but he was ready to free the enslaved people in the confederacy. Even with the petition in the white house, this cabinet almost was too advised him it soon to issue an emancipation proclamation. Were people who had the Public Opinion of the white house, the covenant, except for the really advanced abolitionists. Valerie of course, new yorkers. Admin. Carranza it was a highlight reel. Which is good, you want to get the president s attention. The short version exists in the lincoln papers. It was preserved by his staff. He never signed it, probably because he knew he was about to embark on his own journey toward just within six months. Valerie the president of the Confederate Provisional Congress thought the idea of black recruitment was destined to fail. He warned, if slaves would make good soldiers, the whole slavery idea is wrong. Later, a few years Jefferson Davis, in a desperate the confederacy, would offer freedom to enslaved people who check up arms against the union. He got no takers, because his war had been predicated on the idea that enslaved africanamericans deserve to remain enslaved people. Valerie right. So in a story of this petition, chidesck douglas, he lincoln at that moment. He calls out lincoln for a fatal incapacity to do better. Very forceful in that regard. On january 1,d 1863, lincoln issues the emancipation proclamation. How does it change the narrative africanamericans in military service . Harold it changes it with the anomalous sentences and the proclamation. If the synthesis says admonish all enslaved people not to turn to violence against their masters, and in the very isentence, lincoln says encourage africanamericans to join the military. So if you do join the military service, you are obviously going to take up arms against your former owners. But that was the prevailing message. So it encouraged, and then, within a month or congress two, passed a law authorizing the military services to accept African Americans in service. Africanamericans had been in the navy for decades as laborers. Some had been employed in the union army as teamsters. But the idea of them bearing. Rms was new not all military leaders embraced the idea. Those who may be watching the grant miniseries on the history two, ulyssespisode s grant watches on africanamerican labor take a gun and shoot a confederate a word soldier. Eyes,n see in grants this is the way of the future. In fact grant did not think it was a great idea first, to welcome African Americans into his army. His chief lieutenant, william sherman, did not like the idea. Wasnt burnside, who taken as seriously as those two at that time, did not like the idea. , who wasal mcclellan in a tent with lincoln, in october of four months after the 1862, petition, tells lincoln, my folks are going to fight to restore the union, but dont expect us to fight for black freedom, which shows you how long it had to be to get the racist military at that point. The military was pretty racist. Valerie absolutely. Harold Frederick Douglas helps. Valerie yeah. These are much a part of our second project, a recruitment broadside written by Frederick Douglass. Can we see the image, please . What was the significance of this broadside . And where did it first appear . Harold so, douglass had a monthly newspaper, which is always a little behind the times. In hisdmonishing lincoln september issue, september of a 62, even as lincoln issues that primary emancipation bill. It is hard to have a monthly paper. And as a weekly paper it is hard to be au courant. Really tough. So he wrote an editorial around the same time as the petition appeared, time for africanamerican troops to be recruited into the union army. When the proclamation comes out, and congress does the authorizing for black enlistment , douglass is encouraged by abolitionist leaders to hit the road, and orate as only he could, persuasively, magnificently, to get African Americans to enlist. So he turned his editorial into a broadside, a one page sheet. Most of them were pasted to walls, or distributed to people. So it is kind of a remarkable thing that the Newyork Historical Society owns such a copy. , i dontrote the book know if you remember, we dated. T about the time it was issued valerie typical of the Newyork Historical Society. It is typical the same way of objects relating to 9 11. Harold the Newyork Historical Society is kind of a contemporary museum. It keeps the record of what will be history down the road. So, this document has some great lines in it that only douglass can write. Liberty won by white men alone would lack half its luster. Who would be free themselves and strike the blow . Better to die free than to live enslaved. Didnt have an impact . Absolutely. Almost 200,000 men of color had joined the union army. It was not easy. They were not treated as equal soldiers in the beginning. They were relegated to allblack units. Their officers were almost to a , person, white. And yet, it is important to note and also, by the way, they were not treated as prisoners of war when captured. The confederacy threatened and did put them back into slavery, or execute them. There was a miserable service. Not surprisingly, the casualty rate among africanamerican soldiers was higher than that among [no audio] valerie can we just see the image of Frederick Douglasss front to get a sense of the towering presence of this great intellectual. Importanttedly africanamerican abolitionist, reformer, orator, statesman, so having this up union on the matter having his opinion on the matter was extremely viable to the recruitment cause. Harold as historians say in recent years, he was about the most photographed american of his time white or black. , he made sure he was photographed almost every time he headed out on the lecture circuit. You can see what a great looking man he was. This is a years before the browse eight years before the broadside. Too often, we see him for trade as a whitehaired old man. In fact, he was still a vigorous youngish man during the civil , war. After that broadside he had his first visit to the white house, and spends his time with lincoln , imploring him to equalize the pay between whites and black soldiers. White soldiers not only earned more money, they got a bonus to buy uniforms, wheres black soldiers got money docked from their pay to buy uniforms. Lincoln was very cautious worried about white Public Opinion on the recruitment of africanamericans, he simply the day will come, please be patient. Of what becameg a very close relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Valerie extraordinary. Maybe 10 more minutes before we open it took you and i. Rounding out our trio of objects this evening is very small, nine inches by 13 inches, and on the spot sketch by one special artist, for Frank Leslies illustrated paper. It is coming. There is. It inspired no major headlands at the time, but it is historically important, important enough to be one of the 50 book. Objects in thehe book. Why . Harold i will finish the douglass, part by saying Frederick Douglassencouragement for the black recruitment included the raising of the 54th massachusetts battalion which achieved immortality in fort wagner. They were killed in great numbers area you might remember that story from the movie, glory, a pretty extraordinary civil war movie. So yes, there some free africanamericans who join the army. When emancipation is issued there are also africanamericans who are still in service and do not know quite how to deal with their legal freedom, or may not have heard about their legal freedom. One of the great mysterys of the civil war is how news of the proclamation spread to enslaved people. So, enslaved people freed themselves on the basis of their legal right to liberty, through the proclamation, when union armies were near, to which they could attach themselves. And, could you go back to the drawing for a minute. I will tell the story which im slow in getting to. I wanted to set the stage. Also, keep in mind come of the culture of the day is that these artists are attached to union armies, covering the action. Not a good idea to look down at sketchbook while shells are flying. One day, during the siege of vicksburg, which is also in the episode of the last episode in the grand miniseries, this detail was not shown. Grant is besieging vicksburg on the Mississippi River for supplements. More africanamericans in the region realize there is a bombardment and the union army fleear, so they their plantations and a touch himself to grant such a army, and that is really how the dream of emancipation came true. In this day, that the artist captured a bunch of africanamericans struggle into grants army at vicksburg. Until the day before, they were technically owned by jefferson plantation a few miles away. Little by little, they had beenw miles away. Not only were they legally free according to the proclamations, but they had freed themselves and their families. Here, you see that in the figure on horseback as other soldiers look on, struggling to the tent. I thought the officer leaning on the tree on the righthand side, is, a little bit, he looks a little too much like ulysses s grant. [laughter] if you look at his field cap, it is too much of a coincidence. So maybe shell put that in as a little joke, and inside joke. Here they are, and by the way, when Jefferson Davis heard about this, he was furious. Why would my people become for that wonderful plantation, and the life i provided for them, or where they could labor seven days a week for no pay . An astonishing moment in the history of the civil war. [laughter] valerie grant, actually. On top of the petition. Harold with the hat, right. Grant, he was an informal fellow. And, Jefferson Davis, who is not an informal fellow, but has abandoned his plantation for public service, to function as the president of the confederacy. He believed the slaves had no legal right to their freedom. Thexpected still that confederacy would win independence and he would petition for ownership. But that is not what happens. A few days after that incident in the drawing, maybe we can look next at the newspaper. Valerie at the yes. Harold there it is. Valerie we have essentially the adaptation of the drawing into a woodcut engraving for leslies paper in august, 1963. August of 1863. Harold and around the sidebar, not a big story. Valerie are there substantial differences between the woodcut version and the sketch . Harold i think it is sort of a normal at the nation for the day. The sketches tended to be rough, and the engravers back in new york cleaned them up a little bit. They added details. Hink whats most here is what is lost here is the depictions of the africanamericans are a little more caricatured. As a fan of impressionism, i like the original, because of that dashed off impressionistic feeling. Of seeing itvirtue adapted so that tens of thousands of readers could marvel at this remarkable incident. Otherwise shells drawings , remained his private property. Again, remarkably, somehow, illustrated drawings came into the collection of the Newyork Historical Society. The society has a trove of these. Valerie shirley, there is an embarrassment of riches in our collection. [laughs] we have one last image that rounds out this narrative. And, by the way, please keep your questions coming and we will get to some of them. Here is a recruitment poster from 1863. Beautiful colors. This is not one of our official objects, but it helps round out our story here. Harold we put it last because it is so wonderful. The analog, the illustration for the douglass posters. This is also a recruiting poster for the douglass broadside. I think the car is alone faded. Some aspects of the print should be a little bluer. Are, early africanamerican recruits posted with their white officers and their message is clear come and join this great effort fight , for your freedom and be part of the story. Valerie wonderful. So we have time now for some questions. The first is, did lincoln ever newspaper, and if so, what was lincolns reaction . Harold we have no evidence that douglasdescribed the dougla that lincoln ever subscribed to douglasss monthly. In those days having a subscription to an abolitionist newspaper, much less a subscription to an adolescent is an abolitionist newspaper published by an africanamerican was akin to subscribing to pornography. Im not equating them. Lincoln saw newspapers subscribed to by his liberal law. Artner back in illinois he did not see the liberator comical he did not see s newspapers in their various names, but he surely knew what douglass would write. Douglasy knew that called him a slave catcher. He pushed him. He was on of those nudging him along. Did he read the newspaper that we know of, no. The valerie next question, since most, or many slaves, were not permitted to read, was Frederick Douglass broadside read by a few and then the words read or how was the word disseminated . Harold that is a great question. Men of colorat to arms was aimed at free africanamericans in the north and border states who could read and probably were subscribers to douglasss monthly. I always assumed that the more is ial recording poster a recruiting poster, come and join your brothers is meant for those who had more trouble with letters. The right to learn to read and desk those of the been denied those who had been denied the right to read and right for generations by their white owners. This question which i hope i have answered, cuts to one of the great mysteries of the civil war communications. We talked a little bit about pictorial newspapers and about who reads regular newspapers. Mysteries isduring the message of emancipation and how it got to so many people of color who were being held under captivity of slavery through the first two years of the war. A lot of the things lincoln did was armed soldiers with a little mini version of the emancipation proclamation, and as the Union Soldiers marched from town to ,own and city to city plantation to plantation, they would knock on the door and say to the owner, we have got this. Year people are free. They can go where they want. That is in part how the word spread. One of the great mysteries still remains the network of communication established among africanamericans even in rural areas. Ledgerse all sorts of about it, where messaging on quilts that were hung up. Was it anything as mysterious as drumbeats or music . We just dont know. It is an oral tradition, and we will never know. Valerie interesting. Could you just clarify when the siege of vicksburg took place . Harold the siege of vicksburg is may and june of 1863. We did not show, although we do have it in the book, a sketch ve life in vicksburg. The siege was so prolonged, the residents of vicksburg were literally driven underground. They had to stay in caves. Manmade c