APRIL 2013: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click here to visit the Voices of the Civil War blog to see previous episodes.

Episode 15 focuses on the life and career of Alexander Thomas Augusta, the first of only eight black physicians commissioned into the Union Army. Major Augusta served in the 7th U.S. Colored Troops and later worked as the surgeon-in-chief at the Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Credits

1. Ohio Historical Society
2, 17. National Archives and Records Administration
3, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16. Library of Congress
4. Army Military History Institute Collection
5, 10. Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, HUA
6. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division
8. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1498, Item 11
11. Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore
14, 18. General Research & Reference Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
15. Courtesy Anne Straith Jamieson Fonds, Western Archives, Western University
16. Courtesy of Toronto Public Library

MARCH 2013: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click here to visit the Voices of the Civil War blog to see previous episodes.

Episode 14 highlights a major riot within Detroit, Michigan, as one of many riots across the country in response to the Enrollment Act of Conscription. Similar to the riot in New York, the Detroit riot was in response to race and class tension surrounding the issues of slavery, draft exemption, and employment. On March 6, 1863 white Detroiters used the trial of William Faulkner as a catalyst to destroy property within black neighborhoods.

Credits

1. Library of Congress
2. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
3 - 6. Library of Congress
7. New York Public Library
8. Bentley Historical Library
9 - 10. Detroit Public Library
11. Detroit Historical Society
12. Philadelphia Print Shop
13 - 14. Library of Congress
15. Detroit Public Library
16. Library of Congress
17. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
18 - 20, 22 - 23. Detroit Public Library

FEBRUARY 2013: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click here to visit the Voices of the Civil War blog to see previous episodes.

Just one month after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry unit was formed on February 9th, 1863. This brave regiment fought in many battles under the threat of re-enslavement, no pay, and immense scrutiny. The regiment’s most famous battle at Fort Wagner was later memorialized in the 1989 film, Glory.

Credits

1. Public Domain
2. Clements Library of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
3, 6, 8 , 14, 16, 18, 19, 21 - 24. Library of Congress
4 - 5.  Moorland-Spingarn Research Center,
6. Howard University
7. Massachusetts Historical Society
9 - 10. National Archives
11. Massachusetts Historical Society
12. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
13. National Archive
15. Kansas State Historical Society, Copy and Reuse Restrictions Apply, http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/499
20. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
25. Public Domain
26. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/154548
28. National Park Service

JANUARY 2013: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click here to visit the Voices of the Civil War blog to see previous episodes.

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation after issuing a draft version in September 1862.  The Emancipation Proclamation laid the foundation for what would become the 13th Amendment, issued two years later on January 31, 1865.  Consequently, the proclamation marked a point of no return in regards to negiotiations or compromise with the Confederacy.  At nearly two years into the war, Lincoln finally focused on the heart of the issue and confronted the Confederacy where it mattered.  The Confederacy held fast and continued fighting.

Credits

1. U.S. Senate Collection
2. National Archives
3. Library of Congress
4. Wikimedia Commons
5. Library Company of Philadelphia www.librarycompany.org
6. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
7. Library of Congress
8. Smithsonian
9. Library of Congress
10. Library of Congress
11. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
12. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
13. Library of Congress
14. Library of Congress
15. Library of Congress
16. White House Historical Association
17. Library of Congress
18. Library of Congress
19. Library of Congress
20. Library of Congress
21. Library of Congress
22. National Archives
23. National Archives

NOVEMBER 2012: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click here to visit the Voices of the Civil War blog to see previous episodes.

As the American Civil War continues panic of slave rebellions spreads throughout the South.  With thousands of enslaved peoples deserting plantations to claim their freedom, slaveholders could no longer convince themselves of the benevolence of slavery.  Many slaveholders became nervous that the presence of the Union blockade along the Gulf Coast would inspire a slave rebellion reminiscent of Nat Turner’s, or worse, the Haitian Revolution.  As battles spread from Missouri to Virginia, white paranoia of slave resistance rises in the lower Mississippi River Valley.

Credits

1 Library of Congress
2 Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
3 - 5 Library of Congress
6 Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
7 Public Domain
8 - 9 Library of Congress
10 Public Domain
11 - 14 Library of Congress
15 Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
16 - 19 Library of Congress
20 National Archives
21 - 25 Library of Congress

OCTOBER 2012: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click here to visit the Voices of the Civil War blog to see previous episodes.

In Episode 9, we explore the bounds of citizenship for the newly released slaves on the Sea Islands of South Carolina during the Port Royal Experiment.  If slaves were treated like freedmen, were they not citizens?  And if the privileges of citizenship were extended to refugee slaves, was the Civil War indeed a conflict about slavery?

Credits

1 - 23 Library of Congress
24 North Carolina Collections, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library
25 New York Public Library
27 Library of Congress
28 Oxford University Press
29 Public Domain
30 – 31 Library of Congress

SEPTEMBER 2012: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click on the links below to view prior episodes:

• Episode 1 Part 1 click here
• Episode 1 Part 2 click here
• Episode 2 click here
• Episode 3 click here
• Episode 4 click here
• Episode 5 click here
• Episode 6 click here
• Episode 7 click here

The Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862, produced the most casualties of any single day in the Civil War. The battle was a draw and neither the Union nor the Confederacy came out ahead. Nevertheless, this battle gave President Lincoln the fuel and momentum to issue one of the most important documents in American History.

Credits

1 - 8 Library of Congress
9 National Park Service, Paintings of Captain James Hope
10 - 22 Library of Congress

AUGUST 2012: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click on the links below to view prior episodes:

• Episode 1 Part 1 click here
• Episode 1 Part 2 click here
• Episode 2 click here
• Episode 3 click here
• Episode 4 click here
• Episode 5 click here
• Episode 6 click here

In episode 7, we visit the Sea Islands of South Carolina, where cotton production flourished during slavery. As the Civil War unfolds, the islands become the site of the Battle of Port Royal on November 7, 1861. Armies attack, slave masters flee, and cotton and slaves remain, once again, left with the dust from where the cannon fire settles. The battle, originally a conflict over Southern seaports, becomes a training ground for future reconstruction and what to do with those enslaved.

Credits

1 Library of Congress
2 Hagley Museum and Library
3-5 Library of Congress
6 Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries
7 Library of Congress
8 House Divided Project, Dickinson College
9 Library of Congress
10 Duke University
11-12 Library of Congress
13 From the collection of Dr. Peter Keim, Austin, Texas
14 Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
15 -23 Library of Congress

APRIL 2012: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes will cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War.  Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click on the links below to view prior episodes:

• Episode 1 Part 1 click here

• Episode 1 Part 2 click here

• Episode 2 click here

In Episode 3, Contrabands, we look at the flight of African Americans to northern lines to find freedom and fight with the Union Army.  Three enslaved blacks, Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend, flee to Union lines where General Benjamin Butler coins the term, “Contraband of war,” and begins a new policy known as the Confiscation Act.

Credits

Shot 1 Courtesy of the Casemate Museum
Shot 2 Courtesy of the Hampton History Museum, Hampton, Va. Tiny M. Hutton Collection.
Shot 3 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-stereo-1s01806]
Shot 4 National Archives and Record Administration
Shot 5 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-cwpb-04895]
Shot 6 Courtesy of the Casemate Museum
Shot 8 Library of Congress
Shot 9 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZC4-4550]
Shot 10 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZCN4-251]
Shot 11 Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Blanche Coggan Collection
Shot 12 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62-31165]
Shot 13 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-stereo-1s02759]
Shot 14 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62-105557]
Shot 15 National Archives and Record Administration
Shot 16 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs, [LC-DIG-ppmsca-08047]
Shot 17 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62-156]    
Shot 18 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-stereo-1s02760]
Shot 19 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62-7816]
Shot 20 Wikipedia
Shot 21 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-stereo-1s02762]
Shot 22 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-pga-01760]
Shot 23 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62-33407]
Shot 24 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-ppmsca-10976]

Check out this cool video by MetroParent Magazine on their visit to the museum this past Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: