Publication the civil war in 50 objects. In this program they discuss documents related to slavery, abolition and recruising freedman to the union army. So now i would like to turn our to some objects to help us describe the civil war. As a curator in the museum realm, particularly the history museum, i am always struck by how art objects, documents on display, have the power to stand in for larger historical narratives, than what they are structurally defined by in an object. For those of you who missed last weeks program, lets talk about this book. How did it come about and how effective do you think it is at the narrative suite of the civil war in only 50 objects . Well, it came about as i confess last week because louise mirror asked me to undertake the project for the Historical Society. And it was a lucky day for me. And you remember we got to see three times 50 objects, an array before us on some conference tables in the Historical Society so it was a matter of picturing representative objects, exciting objects, which, as you say, stand in for the big history of the civil war item by item, personal story by personal story. And it was remarkable at the end that we constructed the history of the war from the Abolitionist Movement to the 13th amendment which abolished slavery. And it was great fun to work with you on that project, too. I feel the same. Yeah. So our topic this evening is fighting slavery, the bumpy road to black freedom. We will be this evening looking at three objects that speak to the topic. And theyre all paperbased objects. An 1862 petition to Abraham Lincoln for the recruitment of troops and 1863 broadside by Frederick Douglas and a small sketch of the arrival of Jefferson Daviss slaves to chickasaw bayou. And to the slide above the first one. A petition to Abraham Lincoln for the recruitment of black troops. This is addressed to his excellency Abraham Lincoln. It does bear a number of signatures. Hundreds and hundreds of signatures. So it is a petition that was a brain child of someone named j. E. Gardner, we dont know much about j. E. Gardner except that he organized this effort to call on the president of the United States in july of 1862, to unleash the power of africanamericans who up until this point had not been permitted to volunteer for the union arms and constituted what some people call a sable arm that could help the union win the war by increasing its man power exponentially. Weve seen this object. It is a scroll. It is a big scroll. 25 feet or something. 25 feet long. It is never been exhibited altogether because you need two floors of the majestic galleries of the Historical Society to give it the full justice. It is signed by an Amazing Group of supporters of black enlistment for the time. It was signed by clearly irish americans, by jewish americans, by german americans, people from all walks of life. And could you tell from their addresses, which are inserted as if it is a nominating petition for Public Office and it runs the gamut and has quite a few famous names, important names, vanderbilt and whitney and dodges and phelps, 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. There was also one john brown who signed it too, right. Yes. I think it has a few fake names in there. Who could resist a little graffiti. So john brown, whom we discussed last week, with an authentic object, even though he had been dead for three years, he signed the petition. If it said john brown of Harpers Ferry that is very funny. We have a question about lincoln. This is your subject area for sure. Why was he reluctant to accept blacks into service . So. It is hard to imagine but the notion of africanamericans bearing arms was frightening to many white americans. Especially in the border states like kentucky and maryland and delaware that had not succeeded from the union where slavery was legal throughout the civil war. Lincoln thought if he encouraged africanamericans to join the service that those border states would leave the union and join the confederacy. This petition is dated july 20th, so lets assume the best of circumstances it got to the white house or a version of it when we went to discuss got to the white house two days later. On that very day, lincoln told his cabinet that he wanted to issue an emancipation proclamation and ready to free the enslaved people in the Confederate States and that day, even with the petition in the white house, his cabinet almost advised him that it was too soon to issue an emancipation proclamation. So these new yorkers were ahead of the curve and ahead of public money in the white house, in the cabinet, and the congress and accept for the really advanced abolitionists. New york is always first. But they didnt send the whole scroll to the white house. They sent a wheel, which is good because you want to get the president s attention. So the short version exists in the lincoln papers, meaning it was preserved by his staff. But he never relied and put it aside because he knew he was about to embark his own journey toward freedom and ultimately within six months toward exactly. Georgias howl cobb predicted that the idea of black recruitment was destined to fail and warned if slaves will good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong and of course you say that three years later Jefferson Davis in a desperate move to save the founder, he would offer freedom to enslaved people who took up arms against the union. So not surprisingly he got no takers because his war had been predicated on ideas that africanamericans deserved to remain enslaved people forever. Right. So in the story of this petition, our object, Frederick Douglas makes an appearance in the summer of 1862, as using blacks for laborers and he called out lincoln from suffering from a fatal incapacity to do better which is very interesting. Very forceful in that regard. Yeah. But as you said, on january 1st, 1863, lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation and how does this change the narrative as africanamericans in military service . It changes it with the sentences in the proclamation. One of the sentences said i admonition all enslaved people not to turn to violence against their masters. And in the very next sentence lincoln said i encourage africanamericans to join the military service. So, i mean, if you do join the military service youre going to take up arms against your former owners, but that was the prevailing message. So it encouraged and then within a month or two Congress Passed a law authorizing the military services to accept africanamericans in service. Africanamericans had been in the navy for decades as laborers and they, as you mentioned, some had been employed in the union army as teamsters. But the idea of them bearing arms was new. And not only themi not all o the military leaders embraced the idea. For those of you watching history tv, in episode two, ulysses s. Grant watches an africanamerican laborer shoot a confederate where his owner is shoot and they say this is the way of the future. Graham did not think it was a great idea at first to welcome africanamericans into his army. His chief lieutenant William Sherman didnt like the idea. General burnside wasnt taken as seriously as those two did not like the idea. And general mcclennan, who we saw in a tent with lincoln in october of 62, so four months after that petition, basically told lincoln my soldiers are going to fight to restore the union but dont expect us to fight for black freedom because it is not going to happen. Which shows you how long of a road had to be marched to get the country and the military, the racist military, they were pretty racist too, to that point. Absolutely. And Frederick Douglas helps. And here he is very much a part of our second object. A recruitment broadside written by douglas. Could we see the image of that, please. So what was this significance of this broadside and where did it first appear . So douglas had a monthly newspaper. Douglass monthly which is always a little bit behind the times. Hes admonishing lincoln in the september 62 issue even as he delivered the emancipation proclamation. It is hard to have a monthly paper. I used to edit a weekly paper and it is hard to keep up with to be current. Really tough. So he wrote an editorial around the same time as the petition, in time for africanamerican troops to be recruited into the union army. When the proclamation comes out and congress does the authorizing for black enlisting, douglas is encouraged by several to really hit the road and only as he could persuasively and magnificently to get africanamericans to enlist. So he turned his editorial into a broadside, which is a onepage sheet. Most of them were just pasted to walls or distributed to people. So it is kind of a remarkable thing for the new york Historical Society to own such a copy. And when we wrote the book, i dont know if you remember, we dated the acquisition to just about the time it was issued. Exactly. Yes. Yes, which is typical of new york historical. It is typical, if the same way we had objects relating to 9 11 and objects relating to the pandemic now. The new york Historical Society is a temporary museum to keep the record of what will be history down the road. So this document, you know, it has got some great lines in it as only douglas could write. Liberty won by white men alone would lack half its luster. Who would be free themselves must strike alone. Better even to die free than to live as slaves. And did it have an impact . Absolutely. By wars end, almost 200,000 men of color had joined the union army. And it was not easy. They were not treated as equal soldiers at the beginning. They were relegated to all black 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 threatens and did put them back into slavery or execute them after they found out. So it is a miserable service and not surprisingly the casualty rate among africanamerican soldiers was higher than that among white soldiers. Can we just see the image of Frederick Douglas, the front of the great books just to get a sense of the towering presence of this great intellectual. He was just unprecedentedly important africanamerican or abolitionist, reformer, statesman and else. So having his opinion on this matter is extremely valuable to the recruitment cause. And what an imposing guy. And by the way, as historians have proved he was just about the most photographed american of his time. He was photographed almost every time he hit the circuit. And you could see what a great looking man he was. So this is eight years before the broadside. But too often we see him portrayed as an old man but in fact he was still a vigorous youngish man during the civil war. And soon after that he had his first visit to the white house and spent his time with lincoln imploring him to equalize the pay between white and black soldiers. White soldiers not only earned more money but they got a bonus to buy uniforms whereas soldiers got money docked from their pay to buy uniforms. And lincoln was very cautious and worried about white Public Opinion with the recruitment of africanamericans and he simply told douglas that the day will come but please be patient. And it was the beginning of their, what became a very close relationship between Abraham Lincoln and douglas. So, rounding out, we have maybe 10 more in the of this conversation before we open it to q a. Rounding out our trio of object this is evening is a very small, it is like 9 inches by 13 inches on the spot sketch by one frederick b. Shell, a special artist for Frank Leslies illustrated paper. Do you see that object, please. It is coming. There it is. So there it is. It inspired no major headlines at the time but it is historically important and enough to be one of the 50 objects in the book. Why . Tell us about this. Okay. And i will just finish the douglas part by saying douglass encouragement for black recruitment included the raising of the 54th massachusetts regiment which achieved mortality in july and his own son joined that. And they were killed in horrendous numbers and folks will remember that story from the movie glory, it was an extraordinary civil war movies. So yes, there are some free africanamericans who join the army. But when the emancipation there are some still in servitude and dont know how to deal with their legal freedom or maybe not have heard about their legal freedom. One of the great mysteries of the civil war is how news of the proclamation spread to enslaved people. So for the most part, 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 if we go back to the drawing for a minute, ill tell the story that is slow in getting to it but i want to set the stage. Keep in mind, the culture of the day is that these artists are attached to union armies, covering the action. Well usually covering headlines because it the a great idea to look down at a sketch book while shells were coming. And one day, during the siege of vicksburg, which was also in the last episode of the grant mini series and this details was not shown, as grant is besieging the city of vicksburg on the mississippi river, for several months, more and more africanamericans in the region realize that there is a bombardment and the union army is near so they plea their plantations and attach themselves to grants army and that is how the dream of emancipation proclamation came through. And what was remarkable about them, until a day before, they were technically owned by Jefferson Davis at his briarfield plantation a few miles away. Little by little they had been peeling off from the plantation. But this group was captured as they marched into the army, now technically free. Not only were they legally free according to the proclamation, but they had freed themselves under their families sake. And here you see them to the left of the figure on horseback as other soldiers look on. Straggling into camp. By the way, i thought that the officer who sort of leading on a tree leaning on a freeway on the leaning on a tree looks too much like ulysses s. Grant as he looked as hi field cap. So maybe shell put that in as a little joke. An inside joke. But here they are. And when Jefferson Davis heard about this, he was furious. Why would my people leave the comforts of that wonderful planation and life that i provided for them, when they could labor seven days a week for no pay. And that was the astonishment moment in the history of the civil war. Could we see it just grant. Now i they hes leaning on a tree. With a hat, right. To the right is with that hat. He was an informal fellow. And there is Jefferson Davis who was abandoned his plantation for quote unquote Public Service to function as the president of the confederacy. And again, he believes that the slaves had no legal right to their freedom and he expected still that they would win independence and he would petition for ownership. As we know, that is not what happened. A few days after that incident in the drawing, maybe we could look next at the newspaper version. Yes. There it is. We have the adaptation of the drawing into a wood cut engraving for leslies paper august of 1863. And it earned a side bar, but not a big story as you say. And are substantial differences between the wood cut version and the sketch . Well i think, it is sort of a normal adaptation to the day. The sketches tended to be rather rough. And the engravers back in new york cleaned them up a little bit. They added details. I think what is lost here is the depiction of the africanamericans are a little more caricature. And as a fan of the impressionism, i like the original because of that dashed off impress theory of movement. This is a little bit more static but it has the virtue of being adapted so tens of thousands of readers could goggle at this remarkable incident, otherwise shells drawings remained his private property. But, again, remarkably, somehow all of those miraculous drawings came into the collection of the new york Historical Society, so the society has a trove of these original drawings. Truly there is an embarrassment for the collection. No. We have one last email that rounds out the narrative and please keep your questions coming. Well get to them in a minute. Here is a recruitment poster from 1863. Beautiful colors, as a matter of fact. Do you want to talk about this. This is not one of our official objects but it helps round out our story here. It is sort of the we put it last because it is so wonderful and an analog, the illustration. This is also a recruiting and douglas broadside. It is a lot more vivid. Africanamerican soldiers, i think the color is some faded, should be a little bluer, but there they are, early africanamerican recruits, posing with their white officer and the message is clear, come and join this great effort, fight for your freedom and be part of the story not only of the union but of wonderful. So we have time now for some questions. And the first is did lincoln ever see douglass newspaper piece and, if so, what was lincolns reaction . So, we had no evidence that lincoln subscribed to douglass newspaper. In those days, having a subscription to an ag abolitionist newspaper, much less published by an africanamerican, was like akin to subscribing to pornography by mail. Im not equating them but the reaction would have been one of shock. So lincoln, as far as i know, unless he saw newspapers that were subscribed to by his rather liberal law partner back in illinois, william herndon, did not see the liberator, did not see douglass papers in their various names, the north star. But he surely knew what douglas was like and he surely knew that douglas called him a slave catcher, attacked his first inaugurational address and he pushed him and he pushed him along. But did he read the newspaper that we know of for sure . No. Next question, since most or many slaves were not permitted to learn to read, was Frederick Douglass broadside read by a few or the word spread. How was the word disseminated . That is aaimed at free afric in the north and border states. And probably were among the subscribers to douglas. So i have always assumed that the more vivid pictorial from his brothers was meant for those that perhaps had more trouble with letters or as you point out the right to read and learn by generations by their white owners. This question, i which i hope ive answered as well as i can, to civil war commune cases. Weve talked about newspaper. Who reads regular newspapers. But one of the enduring messages is emancipation and how it got to so many people of color who were being held in the captivity of slavery through the first two years of the war. One of the things that lincoln did is arm soldiers with little mini versions of the emancipation patriotroclamations the Union Soldiers marched from town to town, city to city, plantation to plantation, they would knock on the door and say to the openers, weve got this. People, as they were called, are free. They can follow us. They can go where they want. And thats in part how the words [ inaudible ] one of the great mysteries still remains the network of communication that was established among africanamericans, even in rural areas and there were all sort of legends about it. Was it messaging on that were hung up . Was it anything as you know, mysterious as drum beats or music . We just dont know. T an oral tradition and well never know it. Interesting. Could you just clarify why the siege of vicksburg took place . Yes, its may and june of 1863. We did not show, we do have it in the book. Sketch called cave life in vicksburg. It was so prolonged that the residents of vicksburg were literally driven under ground and they had to stay in caves, manmade caves, to protect themselves from the constant shelling. So every minute or less than a minute, there was another ar tilley burst and these shells would hit the streets and dance along the streets until they exploded. It was fearful. Like the london blitz but constant. Was that the object, too, thats on wallpaper. I seem to recall. Thats another one. The newspapers ran out of paper so they began publishing on wallpaper rolls because there wasnt a lot of redecorating going on. They finally survey runderred on july 3rd, 1863. Same day as union wins the battle of gettysburg. Grants troops march in. And you know, every army has soldiers who had various occupations before the war. There must have been printers and typesetters because they went and we set in the last edition of this vicksburg newspaper. On wallpaper saying grant is in town. So, its a joint. Again, the sea gems, july 3rd and 4th, and the union army takes almost this impregnable hill top city that had held out really for longer than they should have because both the garyists and civilians were eating rats if they could find them. Heres a very interesting question. What was the relationship like between jewish and black soldiers . Were they Kindred Spirits or not . Well, its dependent on where the jewish soldiers came from. It was no uniform jewish viewpoint in the civil war. Some of us would like to think so in retrospect, but there were many scholars and rabbis in the south who argued for the biblical justify from slavery and opposed lincoln and joined in the general with lincoln. Even at the same time that there was blatant antisemitism in the south and the north and victimization and blaming of the jews for all sorts of shortages. Preying on deprivations, but there is no uniform. Jewish soldiers were just as likely to be bigoted or worried about american troops as white soldiers. Arent that many stories in this moment when africanamerican soldiers are allowed to join up. We have records of many soldiers who said im going home. Im going to just give up. Im going to abandon ship or camp and there were those who did. I think the turning point for jewish and Christian White soldiers as they regarded africanamerican troops was when they proved that they could fight, when they proved they would fight, just as hard or harder than white troops. When they proved their extraordinary courage at ft. Wagner, militants dam, when they were subject to atrocities by general farr who had soldiers executed after they had surrendered. So you know, they say that no one is a bigot in a fox hole. You depend on the next person regardless of race or creed. I think thats what happened. Back to Frederick Douglas. Did lincoln have high regard for douglas intellect . I think he came to. Again, he had read douglas. Do you know that before the war, people who visited niagra falls, tourists, would often take an x excursion to rochester to see Frederick Douglas because there were white people who did not believe there was an africanamerican who ran a newspaper. Who wrote editorials. So he was kind of a tourist attraction himself to prove that he was actually a functioning intellect. When he made his way to the white house for the first visit, douglas comes into the office and says im Frederick Douglas and lincoln says, i know who you are. And thats a little chilling, but douglas writes a wonderful story about how lincoln unfolded himself from a low chair. Old choairs were low. Towering over him. But never in any of their meetings treated him in a way that suggests there was a difference of color and douglas also reckoned it was because they had both risen from poverty and obscurity and lincoln felt common bond with douglas. So, one thing lincoln did, part of the story we didnt tell, is he entrusted douglas to map out a plan to lib rat as many africanamericans as possible at the end of 1864 thinking that he might lose the, his Election Campaign for second term, and therefore, the democrats would the executive order and say no more. And douglas produced dazzling detail plan of creating an army of africanamericans to go into the dangerous confederacy and you know, conveyed a message that they were legally free. So lincoln did state his abilities and one quick story. After his second inaugural, douglas kind of breaks into the white house reception and he has to force his way in. And lincoln is on a receiving line, sees him, and he says, theres my friend douglas. Douglas. Theres no man whose opinion i value more than yours. What did you think of my inaugural address . Enough about douglas then ill talk, but douglas says to him, i think it was a sacred effort. Now lincoln announces that hes his friend in front of an all white group, asks him to break the receiving line and convey his opinion of his most important speech. So that suggests what lincoln thought of his intellect. It certainly does. Related to this, theres a question about africanamerican union recruits. Were they paying the same amopa the same amount that white soldiers were receiving . Not at first. Lincoln designed a system to pay them less and again require them to buy their own uniforms unlike white soldiers, because he was fearful, every ever fearful, in those days, about moving too quickly. He was fearful there would be mass aban dedonment by the whit military if africanamericans were introduced into the service and even as douglas implored him to change that unfair pay scale, lincoln told him it would take a little time until prejudices were overcome. And until eventually they did get the same pay, and by the way, there were a number of soldiers, those who remember the details of glory, number of black soldiers, as much they needed their salary, as much as they needed to send it home to the support of their families as white people did, they didnt take their salary. They kept their salary logs as a protest. Which was a pretty tough thing to do. Ill say. Back to douglas again. At the statue dedication, douglas said lincoln was emphatically the white mans president. Did douglas think lincoln did enough . Well, let me just correct the question there. In 1865, at cooper union, douglas says lincoln was emphatically the black mans president. So 11 years later on the anniversary of the assassination, he unveils a statue of lincoln and says he was predominantly the white mans president , but he adds, an hes had 11 years to think, the foundations of reconstruction of black lives are crumbling now before douglas eyes in the deal about to crumble. Its really hard to maintain black rights in a former confederacy. And he says that lincoln was predominantly the white mans president , but he may have seemed cool and indifferent at the time, but compared to the vast majority of his white brethren, he was radical, fierce and determined. So it was a very mixed message. Easily, i mean i think the greatest speech ever given about lincoln and one worth reading because its so nuanced. I mean basically, he is, the other thing that makes it so challenging, hes unveiling a statue that is, by todays standards, politically incorrect. It shows a kneeling slave rising through the ben ef sense of lincoln. Its clearly a great emancipator. The thing in the 19th century, and it was funded, paid for, exclusively by free africanamericans. Everything is complicated. Absolutely. One last kind of, your opinion, kind of question. What do you think of grant . On the History Channel right now . Okay, i think its a little simplistic. I love seeing my friend, ron, i wish i saw more of him and there are some very good historians on the show. Joan and others. In some areas, its a little simplistic. At the beginning of 1864, mid 1864, actually, and where is ordered number 11. The stat us us in the united st. Grant issued an order banning jews. Sort of the institute of jews from pa ducah had to migrate of town before lincoln overturned the order. I think the order is quite the actor playing lincoln, i, thats another story. As the jews said when they saw this lincoln, aye. Well, on that very happy note, i see were out of time. And i want to thank you for being such a terrific partner in tonights program and in the whole series. And thank all of you out there for watching this evening. For your attention. For your questions. And your membership support. We do value you. So happy to present these programs to you. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Cspan3. Created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service. And brought to you today by your television provider. Weeknights this month, were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what will be on every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, a look at hiroshima, nagasaki and the end of world war ii. 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