oh. you see? evening, ladies and gentlemen,

with a book. welcome to fords theatre. we honestly, i am blown away. the response. i am so thrilled to see all of your lovely faces in the house tonight. thank you so much for being here. my name is erika scott and i'm the artistic programing manager here at theater. and i'm alex wood. i'm the education programs manager at ford's theater. and we are to present written spoke. yes, written then spoken now african american letters to lincoln. so for the two of us up here, typically you don't get two people to come talk to the house before a program happens. but this is a special this is the first of its kind. we have never done an elevated i'm calling it an elevated book to where we have our historians and actors to be part of the play. but at fords theatre like to think of ourselves as left and right side of one brain. we have the history aspect and arts aspect, and that's what and i represent and that is what you

all are getting tonight. so it's a very, very event. and again, so glad to see so many of you all here. good. we one of the ways we can continue to offer events like this one is with your support. and so we invite you to show it by stopping by one of our donation boxes in the lobby and of course, by coming back and joining us again for our upcoming performances and programs here on stage or online we are so grateful that you are here. we're grateful for your support. so one little logistics about tonight because this is an engagement you will have your programs that we passed out on the inside there's a little code that you can scan and it will take you to on your phone. you are allowed to use your phones tonight, but please no photos and please, no recording that's that stands we're still but do use your phone to scan that qr code it will take you to a web based app slido. and if you have questions for

john, you are able to ask them live in that in that app and our panelists will get them and funnel them in so please we encourage you to if hear something that you want to learn a little bit more about, they have a spiel, but please do ask some questions. okay. and with that and following our event, we will have that book signing in the lobby. so i hope you got books. you brought your books and. please catch dr. white in the lobby to get them signed. i tell alex i don't follow the process. you give it to me. but now with we hope that you enjoy program tonight so please enjoy written this in the.

from a man of no way education and have doomed to slavery during life and was born in power. tin county and was raised in richmond, virginia, and am now a soldier in the us army. and i will speak these few words an answer who to all whom it may concern, wherever it may roam. i have left my wife and children, but though i have not yet forsaken them and, made one grasp at the flag of the union and declared it shall never fall for love. it like the sunshine and the stars and as your air o for the

flag of the union the stripes and stars of light. a million arms shall guard it and god defend the right i brothers let us love it and let every heart be true and let every arm be for we have glorious work to do hold for the flag of the union the stripes and the stars of light a million arms shall guard and may god defend right i hope we may meet again in the bonds of love to greet farewell i hope history tell hannibal cox company b 14th us colored troops troops.

bellaire, august 25th, 1864. mr. president, it is my desire to be free to go see people on the eastern shore. my mistress won't let me. you will please let me know if we are free and what i can do. i wait to you for advice. please send me word this or as soon as possible. i any davis. good evening and you for joining us for written then spoken now a theater allies book talk focusing on the importance of black voices in history. i'm denise j. heart professor and dramaturg howard university. and i'll be your moderator this evening. throughout the evening will hear as we already have selected letters from jonathan w white's book to address you as my friend african-american letters to

abraham. dr. white is also the author of a house built by slaves, african-american visitors to the lincoln white house. in addition to dr. white, we will hear from historian and retired howard university professor dr. edna mefford. dr. medford in forward of to address you as my friend, you discuss how historians have relegated the lived experience of black people in the mid 98th century to be reflected the writings and oration of privileged few who did possess oratorical abilities were skilled with the pen. you assert that all the well-meaning those interpretations are limited. why is it important for the voices of black people who largely existed at the march chins of society be given center stage without edit or you know as a and we deal primarily written sources so we're looking

at documents but if we're talking about marginalized people, especially people had been enslaved generally, they are illiterate. and so they're not going to be leaving a lot of documentation. we also rely on official documents that generally have been generated by white men who certainly would have a different perspective about the lived experience of people of african descent and it's fine to use frederick douglass or charlotte portland or some other elite black person to talk about the experiences especially of the enslaved. but they don't have the ability really to talk about the unique things that african americans do at the margins are interested in it certainly douglass had enslaved but douglass has a different experience after the age of 20 and so we need to hear from those people who are actually experiencing these

things. what are their aspirations, what are their needs, what are their fears? and we can find those documents. this book shows that the voices are there. we just have be willing to look at them. so it enriches the absolutely that commit for at the end of the hannibal cox letter. dr. white the the writer i'm going to read it here i send this for you to look at you must not laugh at please please give us some context. this is a really remarkable moment in american history where for the first time in american history believe that there's a president in the white house who is concerned, what concerns them and going to claim the right to be to write to him. and here's hannibal, a man who is denied education. he was enslaved in virginia. he has now joined the union army and he is learning how to read and write. and he is so proud of the fact that he's serving his country,

that he is gaining an education and that he wants the president know. but he also that his penmanship and his grammar, his spelling might not be perfect. and he knows that people have a natural inclination to laugh at people when they make careless mistakes. and so he adds this postscript i sends this for you to look at. you must not at it, i suppose, in the fear that lincoln might look at what, he wrote and chuckle at it. and i have to think that when lincoln held this letter, he didn't laugh and. the reason i believe that is that most of the letters received were funneled out through federal bureaucracy and are now housed at the national archives. the letters that meant something to lincoln kept and they are in his papers at the library of congress and hannibal cox is one of those letters that is incredibly poignant. in all some. 200,000 black men served in the union army playing crucial roles

from 1863 to 1865. dr. white what was the impact of black often choose to volunteer during the civil and how did lincoln respond to those offers of support? so lincoln calls for 75,000 men in april of 1861 and more than 3000 white americans answer that call. and many black americans as well. they send letters to lincolnnd to the federal government, offering their services and the federal government turns down from lincoln's perspective is not a war over slavery. it's a war over union. this is a white man's war, has nothing to do with african. they know the war about slavery, as do white southerners all know. the war is somehow about slavery. but from lincoln's perspective, he's not going to allow them to fight after the emancipation proclamation is issued in january of 1863, lincoln's

welcomes black men into the army and upwards of 200,000 serve and lincoln to see that they are an essential of the war effort. they make up 10% of the union army and he knows that the union would not win without their service. but 1861 is a different time. and our first letter is one of these letters that lincoln kept, but that he didn't answer the offer. wow. thank you. new york. april. 1861. honorable abraham lincoln, president states. dear sir, in the present crisis distracted state of the country. if your honor, wish is colored volunteers, you have only signify by answering the above and 70 east 13th street, new york city with instructions and the above will meet with prompt attention whenever your honor

wishes them. you are very obedient and humble servant leaven tillman. we have a question from audience. i see you all are enjoying the slido. so let's see. i'll do a little quick. eeny, meeny, miny, mo. so that's dr. white. in the second letter, she asked for a response. but how would she have received wouldn't it have been intercepted by her owner? it's a great question. the likelihood that lincoln didn't write a response to that letter. sadly, the annie davis there was some correspondence that enslaved people were able to send and receive before the civil war, although it was often very difficult because it could have been intercepted in this case her letter went throughout the bureaucracy wound up in some sort of federal agency and lincoln almost certainly never

saw that one and never had the opportunity respond right thank you so much that. remember, let's hear more about this black delegation of august 1862 body. by the end of the first year of the war, lincoln had concluded that something had to be done about slavery, even though in his first inaugural address he did that he had no intention of doing anything about slavery and that he had no ability to do anything about slavery. but by the end that first year, he understood that had to be done. and so he doesn't want to do it himself. he wants the border states to start the process of emancipation, even if gradually, because it would make the confederacy aware that they would never get any larger than they were. they would never be any additional states joining them. and so when the border states refused to do anything and watching congress do things like the first and second confiscation acts, eliminating

or outlawing slavery in the territories, outlawing slavery in the district of columbia. lincoln decided he had to do something, but he had to prepare the nation for emancipation. northerners were not keen on emancipation because they were fearful that hordes of formerly enslaved people would descend on them and would take jobs and all of the rest. and so he invites this delegation consists of why a five black leaders in the community and he tells them to come to the white house they there listening to him there's not a dialog between the president and the he's telling them why they need to leave the country and he's saying to them that because of their presence in country, the war has started. so he's blaming black people as as the cause, the war. and so he tells men that even if

they are freed, even when get their freedom, if they ever get they are still not going to be treated fairly. and they're you know, he gives them examples of that. and so he encourages them to go back. the african-american community, these are people from d.c. he tells them to go back to their community and try to convince their neighbors and friends that it would be in their best interest leave the country. and so these do that. they go back and talk to the leaders in other communities as well and try to see what their thoughts are on. lincoln's idea that it is okay to voluntarily deport african-americans. he doesn't call it colonization. he calls it voluntary deportation. why, thank you. thank you so much, doctor. dr. manfred. there was a very small amount of support for colonization among but most african-americans

didn't support and their view we are from america our families have been here for generations. we have helped build this country. we don't want to go somewhere else. we want equality, political and social rights here. and so in the press, after this meeting in august of 1862, many african-americans commented on, this meeting that lincoln has had with the delegation from washington, d.c. and they write public letters of which are addressed to abraham lincoln, showing their to colonization. the letter we're about to hear appeared in william lloyd garrison's newspaper, the liberator and it gives you a sense of the perspective of this writer who knows american history, knows the place of african-americans that history. and once lincoln to see we don't belong somewhere else. we belong right here and now for our next excerpt.

to the president of the united states. pray tell us is our right to a home in this country less than your own mr. lincoln read history. if you please and you will learn that more than two centuries ago, mr. white and mr. black man settled this country together. the --, sir, here in the infancy of the nation. he was here during its growth. and we are here today. if through all these years of sorrow and affliction, there is one thing for which we have been noted more than all else, it is our love of country, our patriotism in peace, the country has been blessed with our humble labor. nor have we ever been found wanting the times and have tried the souls of men we were with warren on bunker hill with washing to the valley forge, with lafayette at yorktown and with jackson at new orleans,

battling side by side with a white man for nationality. national rights and national glory. and when the history of the present atrocious insurrection is written. the historian will record whoever was false the blacks were true are you an american and so are we. are you a patriot so are we. would you spurn all absurd, meddlesome, impudent propositions for your colonization in a foreign country so? do we yours respectfully ap smith, saddle river, new jersey. as letter indicates, people were very upset at lincoln's ideas. you know, that they didn't

deserve to be america. but what do you do? you don't have the right to vote. you don't have that kind of voice. how do you mobilize the people to get them interested and ready to deal with this whole issue of to push back on what the president was saying. and so african americans had for a long time then to do that kind of mobilizing because at least from the 1830s they had had of they had met in black conventions both statewide, nationally, some of them were every year. and so they came together and they talked about the issues that affected black people. and so what they're doing as a response. this is connect with other leaders throughout the north they're calling in pastor and having them talk from the pulpit about it they're writing to the

newspapers and discussing it so it's not just an individual thing, but it's a response to what lincoln is saying and they they continue this throughout the war until lincoln gives up at least some the idea of if indeed he ever we're not all in agreement about whether or not he actually eventually give up that idea. and so the next letter is from a group of men talking about how wrong it is to consider that black men should be leaving. black men had given so much to the country and that white men had done very. and so it's just sort of a laundry list. all of the grievances that black people had suffered and telling not just lincoln but the country in general, that black people are just not going anywhere that is their country and that they they have earned the right to

stay here and for our next excerpt. in the and goodness of your heart and through a willingness to serve the cause of humanity, you have been pleased to hold an audience with a committee of colored men, brethren of ours, kindred and race among prominent reasons giving for colonizing us is the one most common throughout our enslaved country, that of color. and meeting this distinction to be of a great disadvantage to us, the cause of many tears and, much anguish as we pass along this rugged life of ours. yet we believe that most of this present prejudice grows out of the institution of slavery, the blood of millions of our race cries from the ground, while millions are yet enslaved, they have produced much of the wealth of this country cotton. the product of their labor is now denominated king. we believed that the world would

be benefited by giving four millions of slaves their freedom and the lands now possessed by their masters. these masters toil not neither do they spin, they destroy. they consume and give to the world in return. but i equivalent they deprive us of life, liberty and, the pursuit of happiness. they took great us to the level of the brute they amount me with our race and by and kill their own children. they deny is the right to gain knowledge or hold property. neither neither they allow us to have the avails of our own industry. they were quite our labor by stripes manacles and torture, by falsehood and political, they have corrupted the politics. the people in all states. finally, they have rebelled against their government, having

said all laws, both human and divine. not what does a just government of them in return? would it be too great a penalty to deprive them of the labor of their slaves and compel them to earn their own subsistence by honest means to permit us fruit to be free to enjoy our natural rights, to have the avails of our own industry to live with and have our own lives, children to have the benefit of the school, the church, and solitary laws that we may become better men and more valuable citizens to give the slave and to increase the wealth the people while he consumes more than world products. all of this is not much to ask god in his providence has enlisted in our behalf some of the most noble men of the age made their effort to be with success. and the president of these united states. we feel and that we have a

champion most able and willing to enlist in all that is right. we ask that by the standard of justice and humanity that we may weighed and that men shall not longer be by their stature or their color. the marriage certificate of my second great grandmother and who were enslaved in, chico county, arkansas, was. may 1866. however, it was a great pleasure to read in the body of the certificate that the couple have been living as husband and wife since january 1st, 1863. it on that day lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation. dr. white and dr. medford please

share lincoln's journey to that day. well, from the very beginning of the war, there was more and more pressure lincoln, to emancipate to issue a decree, at least those enslaved people who were in the states in rebellion. lincoln understood it was to the union's advantage to do that because the confederacy had using these people for all sorts of things not as soldiers as in combat, but as military laborers. and so they freed up the white confederates soldiers to do the soldiering. and so lincoln had decided that he had to do something. so he used the the laws of war that indicated that if you you can do pretty much whatever you wanted to do to quell a rebellion, including the property of both enemy and friend, so he decide that he was

going to remove this advance from the confederacy. and there was a preliminary emancipate action proclamation that was issued in september of 1862. was an ultimatum that if the seceded states did not return to the union, then lincoln would free their laborers. as of january. 1863, on new year's eve, 1862, african-americans and their white allies gathered together and what were called watch meetings, they got together to sing and to pray, to wait for news to come across the lines that lincoln had signed this document. and they stayed up all night. and they wait till the next morning. and here in washington, d.c., lincoln goes into his office that morning and he looks at the draft of the proclamation that's been written out by a state department clerk and he finds a typographical error on it and he doesn't want any mistakes on this document so he sends it back tells them to redo it.

he then goes downstairs for a reception and believe it or not in those days anyone who wanted to could go to the white house for the new year's day reception and shake the president's hand. so for hours, lincoln shakes, hands. and when he goes back upstairs, he looks back over the new draft of the proclamation. and it is just right. but now his hand is tired because. he's been shaking hands all morning and he worries that when he signs it, his hand will shake and people look at the signature and think that he hesitated. and so he took a seat. he took a deep breath. he got his composure. and then he wrote his full name, abraham lincoln. and that might not seem like a big deal to us today, because, after all, his name was, abraham lincoln, but most the documents he signed, he signed a lincoln. but this one, he did his whole name because he wanted the nation know that his whole soul was it. and after he signed, word went

out. and the people around the north and african-americans in the south who learned of this proclamation, celebrated what had just been. and the next document is, the result of a group of, african-americans in the south, learning this great proclamation. and if we if we can add just a little bit, it was not a universal proclamation. it was not universal promise of freedom, because there were about 800,000 people who would not included in that promise. and those who are the enslaved people in the four border states and in certain parts of the confederacy that had already been liberated by union army, those who were excluded, the proclamation and for our next excerpt excerpt, extract from the minutes of the baptist church of christ in buford, south carolina. january. 1863. one resolves that all unite with

our hearts and minds and souls to give thanks to god for this great thing that he has done for us, that he has put it into mr. lincoln's mine, that all should come to this very according to the will of god in freeing all the colored people. we believe that jesus christ will now see of the travail of his soul and what he has for us to resolved that we all unite together to give mr. president. lincoln, our hearty thanks for the proclamation. we are more than thankful, him and to god and pray for and for ourselves. may the blessing god rest upon you. may mercy, peace sustain you. may you go on conquering. and to this rebellion. we have gathered together two or three times a week for the last

five months to pray that the lord might help you and all your soldiers, hoping that the almighty would bless and all your goings and crown you with a crown of glory, and upon the. we never expect to meet your face earth, but maybe in a better world than this, this is our humble prayer. the emancipation proclamation. in addition to giving. 3.1 million people, the promise of freedom if the union army and navy navy could liberate them, or if they could get to union. one of the most important parts of that proclamation was set authorize the use of black men for military service. now they black men who had served before because they were generals in, the field who were

quite willing to black men when they were running of men to fight and. so people like general hunter attempted to do that. others as well. there were states that tried to organize black as a part of their state quota. but the proclamation actually authorized a more robust recruitment of black men and what you see occurring is that there's never a shortage of recruiters. this there are frederick. douglass, for instance, gets involved in recruiting that he wants a commission actually to do it. he gets it. it never comes. but there are other people, marion shad comes, comes back from canada. she had been in delaware or had moved to canada because things become so terrible in the united states. she comes back home to recruit. and so you have a lot of

recruiting going on. the assumption we have sometimes is that black men were so eager to fight they were, but there were certain limitations to their willingness. so some of them listened to the recruiters and said, you know, unless the are changed at the state level, unless all of these instances you have laws that talk about the rights of white men only where not going to fight under a flag that does not recognize our citizenship and. there are men who are in the south who are newly emancipated, who are being forced to serve, who are being not so much recruited military service, but who are into military service. and so you have quite a bit of this going on. there are northern men, of course, who are free, who decide they're going to war not just to

liberate their brothers and sisters who are enslaved, but also to elevate their own status, because they don't have the kind of legal standing, social standing in, the north that they feel that they are entitled to, as american born. so they are pressing to get into the fight as well. thank dr. medford. dr. white. after the emancipation proclamation, a number of black leaders start to recruit african-american soldiers their communities. as edna met, as edna mentioned and some of them write to lincoln just lavern tillman did. now their letters are accepted because lincoln's looking for these black men to serve in the army. and some even go to the white house to meet with abraham lincoln and present their offers to him. in march of 1863, there was a man from upstate new york named parker gloster, and he was the son of a kentucky who i believe had been born in new york and

lived was a black leader in upstate new york. he got together a group of men who then went to offer their services to lincoln. he showed up at the white house in march of 1863, and according to one account, he met with lincoln every for a week on occasion, he went to the white house that night, he actually had tea with abraham mary lincoln in one of the rooms downstairs, was in the white house. and on one of these occasions he brought a petition offering the of men from upstate new york calling themselves the fremont. and they wanted lincoln to accept them into the army, which eventually they did. and so that's the next letter that we'll hear now. our next excerpt. poughkeepsie february 28th, 1863. your excellency. mr. president, we sons of

freedom. take the liberty of addressing you, thanking for proclaiming liberty to suffering millions of our oppressed fellow countrymen whose groans have ascended to that god, who is our refuge and help in times of trouble. we prayed for a deliver the likened unto moses, believing that our prayer has been and that god has raised your excellency as a deliverer and a land by which our feet are guided into the path of glory. of liberty. the of human liberty. formidable to tyrants and dear to the oppressed. throughout the world, containing the elements of immortal sublime is heaven, and its far reaching as eternity, embracing every interest that appertaining to the welfare of bodies and souls of men, and sustain by the omnipotent and so the lord almighty. the proclamation issued, your excellency, january 1st, 1863, making liberty paramount to

slavery the triumph of truth over liberty, over oppression loyalty, over treason and rebellion, republicanism over aristocracy, liberty, the sound that rallied our fathers. they adopted the sentiment of our brother patrick henry, which was forbidden at almighty god. i know not what course others may take. but as for me, me, liberty or give me death. we are ready to follow example of our fathers and rally to our country's call. we have been called cowards. we deny charge is false. we offer the service of 10,000 of the sables sons to be led to the field of battle. and our motto is the union one

and inseparable inseparable. okay, i'm going to address a couple of questions this to dr. white. where did the letters come from? are these letters open to the public? and if so, can the public view the letters. it's a great question. almost all of the letters, either at the national archives or library of congress. i have 125 letters in, the book, to address you as my friend. so that's the first place i would say you can find them. out of the hundred and 25 letters, about 100 of them came from the national archives. and those are letters that lincoln may have seen. but his secretaries may have sent to the federal agencies and departments. so he may not have seen them. and they then wound in the national archives in a different record group pertaining a

particular branch of the government. the letters that really meant something to lincoln that he saw and he read he wanted to keep those are now in his personal papers at the library of congress. and 21 of the letters in the book are housed there. and then about five of the letters came from the newspapers. they were public letters that african americans wanted to address to lincoln, but wanted the public to know as well or to read as well. and so they appeared in the papers and were a way of of helping to shape public sentiment and get white americans to think about from their perspective. thank you, dr. white. how were these letters screened when they were sent the president? it's a great question. lincoln received david herbert, the great lincoln biographer, estimated lincoln received between two and 300 letters a day. we think our inboxes are full every day, right? lincoln's was very full and he had private secretary aides who worked under the rule refer as

little to the president as possible. so they would always try screen the letters and send them to someone who could handle it first. oftentimes would then wind up back at the white house. and if it was a matter that lincoln needed to deal with, it was a pardon request, then that letter would eventually get to lincoln and he would deal with it. lincoln would often take the advice of his. he had people he trusted giving him advice. and so they might look into the content of a letter, figure out what the background was and then say to lincoln, we think this is what should happen, this case. and often he took their advice, although not always right. last question for this round. keep them coming. were any of the black soldiers who wrote to lincoln ever invited to the white house to discuss requests? that's a great question. i don't know of any who were invited to white house or the lincoln did invite african-americans to the white house in the of frederick douglass in august of 1864.

he invited douglass to come to the white house to talk with him. it seems apparent that probably invited henry mcneill turner, a black minister in washington, d.c. there soldiers who wrote to lincoln, who then went went to the white house and met him. but i don't know of any cases. lincoln received a letter and then invited. thank you. from these impact fashioned letters, it's that black soldiers committed to supporting the despite continued prejudice. dr. white share a deeper context for kinds of prejudice and inequity that black soldiers experienced. it's really interesting to think about fight that african-americans to go through during the war to, push for equality in. so many different areas of life, social life and political life and even in military life after 63, they are laying their lives on the line. bullets do not discriminate

account of the color of your skin. if you are facing the enemy, you are just as likely to be shot as person next to you, regardless of race. and when they enlist in the army are promised equal pay as white soldiers because the risks the same. and so they expect to get $13 a month, which was the same that a white soldier would receive. but the war department, in all of its wisdom, to pay black men as laborers rather than as soldiers. and so they would be paid only $10 a month, which was $3 less. but not only that, they could have an additional $3 a month reduced from their salary as a clothing allowance. so they have to pay for the clothes that they're wearing. so they expect to be paid $13 a month. instead, they're getting $7 a month. and again, risk of death or disease just as great, if not greater. and not only that, they're given subpar weapons and subpar uniforms, and they're given

often what was called duty. and if you wonder what is it's it's labor that would make you tired. so these are guys want to fight against the confederates and they're being told we don't trust you in combat. so go and dig ditches and latrines. and so many of the letters that lincoln receives are protesting unequal pay. and these unequal conditions. frederick douglass in august of 1863, even to the white house and confronts on these issues. and lincoln to douglass essentially black men will eventually get equal pay. i just politically can't do it yet. and as you might imagine if you know anything about frederick douglass, he was not altogether satisfied with that answer, but he did go away. that meeting with an appreciation lincoln treated him as a man, as an equal. shook his. welcomed him into his office. and that lincoln was under constraints. eventually, black men would equal pay, but it would take a year, some and more than a year for those who had been born into

bondage. dr. medford set us up for this next letter. yes the pay issue was certainly most important thing that black men had to deal with. they had many other issues to contend. you know, the disease rate among black soldiers was higher than among white soldiers broken down equipment. all the rest but some of men were so frustrated by that, they actually stacked arms. they refused to fight or they didn't accept any pay at all. and those who stacked arms the leaders of them sometimes were well, were always court martialed somewhere, actually executed for having that. some of these men, however, were able to express their discontent by writing to the president. and one of the the the most letters i think, is the from

corporal james henry gooding, who may may not have been born in slaves in north carolina. but we know that as a young child, he was sent to new york where he entered the children's orphan children's. and so he got an education there. he grew up really, though, in troy, new york. then a young man moved to new bedford, massachusetts. that's where he joined a whaling and traveled around world. and so when the came good eating decided that he was going to join massachusetts the 54th massachusetts in 63 shortly after it was organized. and so this letter from is about black men doing every thing that white men were doing. and i love the part where he talks about the only differences, you know, a lighter hue, a darker hue for black men

and a less acquaintance, a lesser acquaintance with the alphabet, as he puts it. of course, the policy does change, but it comes too late for corporal gooding because he fought at fort wagner and survived. he had fought at fort lsd and in florida but he had been wounded and captured and he died in the notorious andersonville prison. and now for our next excerpt. now, the main question is, are we soldiers or are we laborers? we are fully armed and equipped and have done all the various duties pertaining to a soldier's life. have shared the perils and labor of reducing the first stronghold that flouted a traitor flag and more. mr. president, today the anglo-saxon mother, wife or sister are, not alone in tears for sons, husbands and.

the patient. trusting descendants of africa clime have died. the ground with blood in defense of the union and. men to your excellency. who know in a measure the cruelties of the iron heel oppression, which in years gone by the very power their blood now being spilled to maintain ground them to the dust now, your excellency, we have done the soldiers duty. why can't we have? a soldier's pay. we appeal to sir, as the executive, the nation, to have us justly dealt with black men. you well may know our poor. $3 per month for your will supply their needy wives and their needy wives and little ones with fuel. if you as chief magistrate of the nation, will assure us our whole pay, we are content.

our patriotism are. will have a new impetus to exert our energy more and more to aid our country. not that our hearts ever in devotion spy the evidence to apathy displayed in our behalf, but we feel as though our country spurned us now that we are sworn to serve. corporal henry gooding company c 54th massachusetts regiment. morris island, south carolina carolina. many of the 200,000 black soldiers who fought had families but unfortunate the lack of equality caused suffering that was well. dr. medford, what were some of the inequitable that created hardship for soldiers and their families? well, certainly not being able to get any pay or getting and

getting unequal pay did affect families because black men, soldiers were usually by the the only means of support for these families. and it wasn't just their wives and children who suffered. their parents suffered, too. so a lot of these men were supporting elderly parents as well. so when they didn't get paid or they got paid far less than white men, then everyone, the family suffered as a consequence. now, if you're talking about the black men who had been recently freed, whose wives and children were still in the south, even in those areas that were under control, you have a situation where these men go off to war and the owners, these men and their families do not want to support the families anymore. and the wives and children are not allowed into the forts to get any kind of assistance. so some of these people are dying from exposure. they're getting disease is that

are a consequence of a poor diet and so forth. it's it's a horrific situation that they're having to face. and although all in the war are suffering are black men and their families are suffering more because, they don't have the kind of safety that some of these white families have. and so you see that in the letters that are being written to the president during this period and now for our next excerpt. pick way, mama county ohio september 12th, 1864. sir i write to you to know the reason why our husbands and sons who enlisted in the 55 massachusetts regimen have not been paid off. i speak for myself and mother and i know of a great many others who are suffering for the want of money to live on when

provision and clothing were cheap, we might have got along, but everything now is trouble and over what was some three years back. but it matters not if everything was at the old price. i think it a piece of injustice to have those soldiers there 59 months without a cent of money. for my part, i cannot see why they have not the same rights to their $16 per month as the whites. i wish you if you please to answer this and tell me why it is your humble servant. rachel anne wicker. new orleans, louisiana. count carpet. 1864. my dear and worthy friend, mr.. i take this opportunity of introducing myself to you by

writing this lines to let you know that i have proven a friend to me. you have proven friend to me and to all our race. and now i stand in the defense of the country myself. ready and willing to obey all orders and demands. and that has tendency to put down this rebellion. when i enlisted, they told me i would get $13 per month or more if white soldiers it. here, i'm in the service seven months and have not received any monthly pay. i have a wife and three children. neither one of them able to take care of themselves. my wife is sick and i have no way of getting any money to send to her because i can't get my pay. and it goes very hard me to think my family should be at home to suffering. please, mr. lincoln, don't think. i am blaming you for it. i didn't think you knew anything about it, and i didn't know any

other course to take to obtain what i think is. right. your servant under her arms, sincere willie. george rogers. clarendon, york. january the 16th, 1865. mr. dear sir, i am in trouble and not know what to do. i thought i would write to you. my husband is in the army. but get no pay. i am sick and no money. and i don't get no help. i have a family to support. i hope the day come when the black man will have the same as the white man. dear brother in christ. i look to you as a father in. this affliction. may heaven bless is my prayer. it seem if my cup is full. but i look him who through all events he will rule all thing well. i hope this war will cease and peace may be restored to this

land country. mr. lincoln, will you tell me if the black men can get his pay? men that is fighting for the union should have their pay. whether black or white. i remain your obedient servant, abbey meyers. black men took great risk when they put on the uniform because the confederate government decided on a policy in 1863 that african-americans who were captured on the battlefield would be treated slaves in insurrection and. they would either be sold into slavery, even if they had been born free or, they would be killed on the battlefield and their officers along with them. and this was official confederate policy emanating from richmond and african-american eyes knew this. they knew the risks that they were taking and their families knew the risks as well. if you've ever seen the movie glory and know the scene at the end were the 54th massachusetts

attacks, battery, wagner and in the end, there's a mass grave where soldiers are just dumped into the sand. that is something that happened near charleston, south carolina, as these black soldiers were were into the ditch and those who were captured had, the risk of enslavement and their families in the north wanted lincoln to do something about it. lincoln ultimately would write an order of retaliation, saying that he would retaliate against who committed atrocities. he never ended up enforcing it. he worried that it wasn't to retaliate against confederate p.o.w. who hadn't committed a war crime. but african-americans, frederick douglass included, continue, push lincoln on this issue. they want protection for black soldiers if they are willing to risk their lives for the nation, then the nation needs to do what it can to protect them. and this next letter is from a mother in upstate new york who wants lincoln to know her perspective on very issue and.

now for our next excerpt. buffalo, july 31, 1863. excellent, sir. i am colored woman and my son was strong and able as in it, to fight for his country and the colored people have as much to fight for as any. my father was a slave and escaped from louisiana before i was more than 1540 years. i but poor indication, but i never went to school. but i know just as well as in what is right between man and man. now i know it is right that a colored man should go and fight for his country, and so ought to a white man. i know that a colored man to run no greater risk. a white. his pay is no greater. his obligation to fight is the same. so why should not our enemies be compelled to treat him? same made to do it.

my son fought at fort wagner. but thank god he was not taken prisoner as many were. i thought of this thing before. i let my boy go. but then said mr. lincoln would never let themselves colored soldiers for slaves. if they do, he will get them back quick. he will retaliate and stop it. now, mr. lincoln, don't you think you ought to stop this thing and make them do the same by the colored men? they have lived in idleness all their lives, all stolen labor and made savages of the colored people. but they now are so furious because they are proving themselves to be such come the, such as have come away and got some indication it not be so. you must the rebels to work in state prisons making shoes and things. if they sell our colored soldiers till they let them all go and, give their wounded the same treatment, it would seem cool. but there. there no other way. and a just man must do hard

things sometimes. they show him to be a great man. they tell me some do. you will take back the problems. don't do it when you are dead. and in heaven in a thousand years. that action of yours make the angels sing praises. i know it. robbing the colored people of their is but a small part of. the robbery. their souls are almost taken. they are made rules of. you know all about. when you see that the colored men fighting now fairly treated. you ought to do this and do what it wants. we poor oppressed appeal to you and ask fair play. yours for christ's sake. hannah johnson. thank you to everyone who has been using slido. it is just.

i have been over here, so i'm just going to start with something that. just made me chuckle. happy history month. it's not question, but i love that. i love seeing that moment like that. yeah, it's here it is right there. right. so dr. how do you think your experience as a white man has influenced your approach to writing this book? it's a great question and you know, what's interesting asked me earlier, how did i start on this book? and i actually started wanting to write a history, the slave trade during the civil war and in searching for letters from, slave traders to lincoln, i started to find from african-americans to lincoln, and i started to collect them. and i put them together in a book. and then i sat on for a while and edna really encouraged me to finish it a couple of years ago at dinner after event here at ford's hearing, the letters read has opened them up to me in a

new way. and i know that i don't engage them in the same way that a person of color does and just a quick story to sort of illustrate that. i was invited to speak at a university party last year and they had me do a small session with a group of students and one of the students, everyone white except for one of the students. they all got a copy of the book and they read excerpts that i had selected. and the one black student in the room broke down and had to leave the room in tears. he it was just too for him. and he came back afterwards and he apologized. i said, no apology necessary. and he and i talked after the session and he told me his about how as an artist. he was trying to make it in a big city and he had up against so many hurdles. and when he read these letters, these people who were suffering financial in the 1860s, it

resonated with him in a way that it never resonated with me. and so my hope is that i love this program and thank you much to alex and erica for putting it on, having the idea, because hearing letters, i think, makes them so and for me makes them real in a way that i didn't experience necessarily as i was sitting at my computer late at night trying to decipher what was written, transcribing them. but when you hear the voices and that's the thing about these letters, so many of them were written phonetically because, the writers were semi-literate. and the pronunciation is based their spelling. and when you hear it, you hear their voices for the first time in 160 years, which i think is powerful for anyone. second question did any african american women. any black women fight? we know the work of dan blanton from the national archives. she and a wonderful book has documented at least 460 women

who dressed as soldiers and went to fight i don't know if any of them were african american do. you know, i think there were a couple of them. i think a book came recently, i believe, that talked about that. but there are also black women who are serving on the union ships. we sometimes that there is a navy and black men had always served in the navy and they continue to serve you know throughout the history of the country. but it was in army that black men were not permitted to serve after a certain time. but black women serving on these naval vessels as nurses and i think we need to remember them. i don't know if they got pensions. they certainly were serving one black woman who received a pension, she was enslaved, norfolk, virginia and was spying essentially for the union, brought word to washington, d.c. her name was mary lou vest and she was giving word to the naval

department that the confederates were building an ironclad vessel. the secretary of the navy, gideon wells, fought for her to get a pension after the war. and then, of course, there's harriet tubman who led led in south carolina. so but but and she got a pension. but the pension was for her husband, right? not for the work that she had done. was. yes, yes, exactly. back in medford, share with us a bit about economic justice as we go into this next set of letters as union army and navy advance down the coast, especially of south carolina and the sea islands, the landowners, the plantation deserted their lands and left many of their enslaved laborers behind. well, because they were trying to get out of the way of the union military. and so all of this land was left vacant and some enslaved people or people who by this will i guess it's early 1861, in 1862,

they are some enslaved people. our cult, the land they're taking over and continuing to work the land because they see it as theirs. you they had always labored on the land and gotten nothing in return. and so now was their opportunity to reap some of the benefits of their. but when the government charge these government farms were established, where african-americans were forced to work the, land for wages and was something that they really didn't want to do, they wanted greater independence than that. so they working the land under, the supervision of white men, some the land is also sold to. northern white investors. and so these black and women who had taken over land after their owners had their enslavers, had had already crops on the land they had erected outbuildings and so forth, and they didn't

know what to do that this land was being sold to northern investors or to being taken over by the government. so this next letter is about that is a man say, what do i do? you know, i've already started a crop here and i want this land. but will i ever be to to what will i be allowed to purchase it and? now for our next excerpt. st helena island, south carolina, may 29th, 1864. to the president of the united states, abraham. my name is don carlos and i hope letter will find you and your family in perfect health. will you please to be so kind, sir? as tell me about my little bit of land.

i'm afraid to put it on a stable or house and such like fear will be taken away from me again. will you please to be so kind as to tell me whether the lamb will be sold from under us or no, or whether it will be sold to us at all? i should like to buy the very spot where live it ain't but six acres and i've got planted on it and very fine cotton too. and potatoes, corn coming on very pretty. if we colored people have land i no we shall do very well. there is no fear. some of us have as much as three acres of corn. and besides potatoes, peas and i don't know what else myself. if the land only be sold, we can buy it all for every house has its cotton planted and doing very well and planted only for

we like to know how much we have to pay for it. if it is, i pretty well struck in age, sir. i had rather work for myself half and raise my own cotton and work a gentleman for wages for if i could sell my cotton for only $0.50 a pound. it would pay me whatever you say i am willing to do, and i will attend to whatever you, me, you're most obedient servant. don carlos carlos. in. this last letter, the of don carlos out his understanding and acceptance that he may not be to purchase the land he's lived and would like to remain living on. let's take a moment and talk about the impact and negotiation of black voting rights at this seminal moment. dr. white sure, sure.

i'll begin. throughout the war, black are pressing for citizen rights, and they identify, by the elective franchise as a main part of those rights. at the time of the war, very few black could vote. of course, white women weren't anyway. no women were voting at that time. maybe one or two here and there. somehow got away with it. but so black men are using this as an opportunity to press for those rights, especially in places new york, where there was not any kind of equality terms of voting. black men had to have made a residency requirement of three years and had to have at. $250 in property, which is a lot actually for someone who has difficulty finding the kind of job that's going to sustain themselves and their families. and so they for these rights in those places, especially early.

but you also have in the men who are pressing for those rights. so you have lincoln is receiving petitions from men in north carolina and from men in tennessee. and they're talking about having voting rights until 1835. and then at the height of this new democracy that's brought on by jacksonian ism black men are cut out of that political process. and so, john, if you would like to, take over and introduce this letter as reconstruction was taking place, louisiana, a large of creoles, got together to fight for the right vote. and creoles were people of african, spanish, french, native american descent. and they write very long petition that they address to both lincoln and to congress for the right to vote.

and from their perspective, they are light skinned, free born, elite, wealthy, taxpaying citizens, louisiana. and they make the case that because their status in society, they should have the right to vote and. they put this on a long petition and it signed by two men who will then bring it to washington, d.c. and give it to lincoln. the next 28 signatures are elderly men of color who had served with andrew jackson during the war of 1812 and had fought at the battle of new orleans in 1815, and then follow. a thousand signatures of people who are making this claim for free, wealthy, elite people of color to have the right to vote. and now for our next excerpt. to his excellency abraham, president of the united states. the undersigned would respectfully submit the

following that they are loyal citizens sincerely attached. the country and the constitution, and ardently desire the maintenance of the national unity for which are ready to sacrifice their fortunes and their lives that a large portion of them are of real estate and all them are owners of personal property that many of them are engaged in the pursuits of commerce and industry, while others are employed as artisans and various trades that they all fitted to enjoy the privileges and immunities belonging to the condition of citizens of the united, and among them may be found many of the descendants of those men whom the illustrious jackson styled his fellow citizens when he called upon them to take up arms to repel the enemies of the country. at the call, general butler, they hastened to rally under the banner, the banner of the union liberty. they have spilled blood and are still pouring out for the

maintenance. the constitution of the united states. in a word, they are soldiers of, the union, and they will defend it so long as their hands have a strength to hold a musket and consideration of this fact as true and as clear as the sun which delights this great continent. in consideration of the service is already performed and still be rendered by them to their common, they humbly beseech excellency, to cast your eyes upon a loyal population awaiting confidence and dignity. the proclamation of those in able rights which belong to the condition of citizens of the great american republic. we are men treaties as such. so that petition is brought to washington dc. two creole men, jean no and

arnold burton? no and they present it to abraham at the white house on march third 1864. and lincoln looks at the petition and compliments them on what they've written. and he asks them. if they can sit down and consider couple of changes and lincoln suggests that yes black men should have right to vote but as president of the united states he doesn't have any authority over that question that's a matter to be decided at the state level. and so he suggests to them that, if they can find a way to black voting rights, a way that will help the union win war, then maybe he is can do something about it. so these two men went away and they met with a couple of senators and members of congress. they were in washington, d.c. for about a week and on march 10th, 1864, they wrote in to their original petition petition and your memorial lists further

show that in their accompanying petition they only asked the right of suffrage for those citizens of louisiana of african descent, born free before the rebellion yet that justice and the principles for which they contend also the extension this privilege to those born slaves with such qualifications that should affect equally the white the colored citizen. and that this is required not only by the by justice, but also by expediency which demands that full effect should be given to all the union feeling in the rebel states in order to secure permanence of the free institutions and loyal government. now organized in annual memorials. let's pray at the right of suffrage may be extended not only to the natives of louisiana of african descent born free, but also to all others, whether born, slave or free especially those who have vindicated their right to vote by bearing arms.

i love this moment in march of 1864 where these two men of color come to white house and they present their to lincoln and lincoln to them. and he then responds and they listen to him and they respond with the second petition. and they've now come up with a rationale black voting rights. and that is that some point the war will end, the south will come back into the union and there will voters, some of whom have been traitors for the last four years and some of whom have loyal the whole time. and when reconstruction takes place in that memorial, we just heard red, they were suggesting that if you want to preserve small arms government, the way to do it is to give the vote to black men because they have been loyal to the union cause. and i can't prove it, but i think that these two louisianans

came back to the white house and presented this second petition to lincoln on march 12th, and there were some who were in the room, at least for the first, if not the second meeting. and one person who observed the scene said this the southern gentleman who were present at the scene did not to admit that there had received shock. and here's why these meetings matter. lincoln had at least three meetings with black delegations pushing for the right to vote as a young man in the 1840s, lincoln had mock the idea of black men voting. he used it as a political weapon to, attack his political enemies. by the 1850s, he begins to shift his views when he's thinking black citizenship. but still doesn't support political rights for. black men in the 1850s. it is meetings with african-americans in 1864 that push lincoln on this issue. he begins working behind scenes to push for black suffrage.

a day after, i believe the second meeting took place with this delegation, lincoln sent a letter to the governor of louisiana, where he said that black men should have the right to vote. he, for instance, those who are very and especially those who have fought gallantly in the ranks. he said they would probably help in some trying time to come to keep the jewel of liberty, the family of freedom. in other words, black voters will help the nation survive during reconstruction, which might ugly. and it did. and required black voters, officeholders to help push the nation forward. all right. i think it's my favorite time. more questions. he's a great one. this is an excellent segway. dr. white, the letters seem so eloquent. american history has taught slaves were not taught to read and write. who taught them to read and

write? it's a wonderful. literacy. rates were very among enslaved people in the south during the years before the civil war. estimates are probably about 5% could learn how to learn to read and write. they learned in a number different ways. oftentimes, older african-americans who knew how to read and write would have little schools out in the woods at night where no would find them. favorite story, actually, a person learning how to read and write. frederick douglass, who talked about this, one of his autobiographies that tricked white kids into thinking that he knew certain things about reading. and so they would talk openly about how to read, what letters meant. and he learned how to read by tricking the people around him into talking about what the words. i mean, just incredible. brilliant on his part. the and i should point out, if you learned how to read or write, you could face extraordinary punishment from

your enslaver. there are accounts that come down to us from the wpa narratives from the 19th thirties, where very elderly african-americans were counted what it was like to be in slavery, where they described people having their fingers cut off for learning how to write or their eyes gouged out for learning how to read. so just that very simple thing of literacy could cost you immensely when the civil war begins missionaries in the north realize that they have a huge field to work in and hundreds people, men and women, black and white travel all over the south as. the union army moves forward. missionary kids and teachers move in and set up schools, teaching people, teaching freed people how to. and so hannibal cox, the man we heard from at the beginning he learned how to read from other soldiers. he joined the army white soldiers even taught black soldiers how to read. and so there were all sorts of different ways where literacy was passed along before.

during the war. one more literacy. literacy question. do you believe the well written and articulate letters we have heard accurate represent the thoughts and feelings of educated, literate, black population? there's a mixture in the letters, in the book and some of the letters are very hard to read. and i would put in bracketed words explaining what was going on, because a historian would often able to deduce what was being said. but an untrained eye might not because things written so phonetically. and in some cases i had figure out words written by soldiers, by finding their pension records or their military service records at the national archives and figuring what were they doing at this point? and then that gave me a clue as to a word they had written that i was unable to read, in a number of cases, letters were written by teachers. two of the letters that the don letter you heard was actually by a white woman, don carlos was illiterate. he could not write the only

words that he wrote in that letter were his name. the rest of the letter was written by a teacher. so the words, the ideas, his. but they were as edna about at the beginning oftentimes to get at black history in the 19th century. it's mediated through a white voice and a in a very small handful of these letters, they were written by teachers who wrote four in a letter, illiterate person. so the letters that you're hearing are a mixture of the public letters were written by very educated people. of them were written by black college professors. and you can see their education in the historical allusions they make and then others are written by people who who have no education and, the penmanship and the spelling reveal that you can find all of the letters. come talk to me afterwards and i'd be happy to show you how you can find them. almost all of them are available now online, so they are accessible, if you want to try to read the originals, you want a set up something excellent as. well, that frederick douglass did not have formal.

he did not have formal education, but he wrote so beautifully. he trained himself and over the years he could compete with anyone on the planet in terms of writing, if that's the way. know so this this next is one that's actually a perfect follow up for the question we just had because the penmanship is very interesting. there are capital letters spread throughout the interior of words and so you get the sense that this this man was not a skilled writer. his name was zack burden. he was from indianapolis originally. he enlisted in the eighth u.s. colored troops when he was nine years old in november of 1864. he was a farmer and. he goes off to fight during the war and during the war. his shoes were too small. we about the subpar equipment and uniforms that people received. and so shoes were too small and he suffered a foot injury as a result that that plagued him for the rest his life.

and he writes to lincoln about a number different things that are on his mind mind. february the second 1865. mr. abraham lincoln, the president of the us states. i will write you a few lines to let you know that i am not will and i cannot write today for i am sick, but i am in good hopes that you will read this. i have been sick ever since i come here and i think it is hard to make a man go and fight. i won't let him vote. and won't let him go home when he is sick. we had boys here that died. that would get well if they could go home, they could come back as well as the white man. i hope you give us. you will give us some pleasure of our life. give us a chance of a man. i will write no more this time.

i don't want you to get mad with what i say, for i don't mean any harm. right. soon, if you please and let me know how you feel. zach burden. from the letters we've thus far, it's evident that a connection was forming between and african-americans. dr. white, please share your insights. the development and progression of those connections during and after the civil war. one of the things that we need to get a sense of to understand this, that the white house was very different in 1860s. today to go meet with the president, you need an appointment. you need a connection. in the 1860s, anyone who wanted to could show up at the white house wait in line and during office hours, lincoln would meet with people, talk about anything they wanted to. for the first year of the war, only white americans advantage of this privilege. but as early as april of 1862,

black and women begin claiming this right as well, and their claiming, i think, a right of citizenship they are claiming that we are citizens this is the people's house. this is our people's house. we have a right to be here, too, and to go and talk to about whatever is on our minds. and throughout civil war, we don't we'll never know. how many african-americans lincoln met with. but i believe he met hundreds of african-americans in the white house. and during and in the streets of washington. and the thing that you can see is that a real bond formed between him and his black. they always shook hands. and with the exception of the meeting in august 1862, lincoln always listened patiently and did what he could to help. and african-americans. i grew to see this and. appreciate it. in lincoln, it's little wonder that after lincoln was assassinated in 1865, they more and more deeply than white americans do because.

they know they've lost something. more important in losing abraham lincoln. all right. our next excerpt, i, i believe if i could just a point here. douglass said, once that black people, the enslaved had greater faith in lincoln than he deserved at the time because he hadn't done anything for them. this is early in the war. and so we assumed because many of these people, most of them the vast majority, are illiterate, that they don't know what's happening, but they do they they collect information. they may not read the newspapers but they are standing behind doors and at and listening to what their owners are saying about lincoln. so come to the conclusion that because lincoln was the enemy,

their enslaver then must be their friend. and we talk about, you know. whether or not lincoln deserves the title great emancipator. well, it's enslaved people who helped to make him that because they believed even the proclamation that lincoln was going to do something for them. and so all of this this if you look at the wpa narrative is for instance, you've got all of this folklore surrounding lincoln, where lincoln somebody's house during war. and he pretended that he was a beggar or that he was, you know somebody who was selling pots and pans, whatever. so they make that in large measure because of what they hear there enslavers saying about the man. thank you, dr. medford. stonewall plantation. march 19th, 1865.

most respected friend. i take this opportunity this wholly sabbath day, to try to express gratitude and love to you with many tears. i send you this note through prayer, and i desire to render you a thousand things that you have brought us from the yoke of bondage. and i love you freely. i am 53 years old. inauguration was also my birthday. i have come 278 miles from savannah and from there to hilton head. i have lain awake for nights and my mind so bore upon you that i could not risk till i sent you a letter. i lived in, but county, georgia. i am obliged to send you to satisfy my mind. i wish you all the blessings

that can be restored by the almighty. harvard be glad to go back to see my family. i do love my wife and children. i have been a baptist for 25 years and i have been praying for this for 17 years. at that time i had a vision and you was made known to me in a dream. i saw a comet come from the north to the south. i said, good lord, what is that? i heard voice. there shall be wars and rumors, wars. i saw many signs, wonders. my soul is filled with joy at the of letting you know. i have had a heap of time mountains and deep to cross. my master threatened my life if i should talk about this.

but i just put all my trust in the lord. and i believe he has brought me conquer through. i give my mind to pray for you. the balance, my days, yours with the greatest esteem. george washington. one of the most poignant stories in the book to address you as my friend is of lizzie shorter elizabeth was born into slavery in washington. she became free as a result of the d.c. emancipation act in 1862, and she found not far from here at fords theatre not from here in the home of a shoemaker named frank pruitt and night frank pruitt went into the room where she was sleeping and. he sat down on the bed next to her and, the record very euphemistically, says he persevered with her against will, and she found out soon thereafter that she was

pregnant. and frank pruitt to help support the child. but then he changed his and at the very same time wife was pregnant and day lizzie shorter goes into their to frank in his wife's bedroom and he says you she says you you would support my child. and he looks at his wife. he says, liv, do you believe that -- black --. and his wife said, yes, i do. for the last few months, you've acted nervous around her. and at that, frank grabbed a pistol and aimed it at lizzie shorter and threatened to shoot her and his wife the gun and said, i won't let you murder over my child. and he then got out of bed, lunged at her, his hands around her neck, and shoved against the wall and ordered her out of the house. later that day, lizzie shorter came back to house to get her belongings and. while she was there, frank's wife gave her some money to keep quiet. well, lizzie didn't keep quiet. she went to the courthouse and

found a judge who would issue a warrant against frank for what he had done. he retaliated by getting a warrant against her for stealing money that his wife gave her. he went to trial and was acquitted. she went to trial and was convicted and. the letter that she sent to lincoln was the day after she was sentenced one year at hard labor in albany. washington, november 4th, 1864, to his excellency the president of the united states. sir, on yesterday i sentenced to serve at hard labor for the period of one year in the albany penitentiary. the fault was my own, for which i was convicted. but i most solemnly declare before my that i am guilty of no crime. i was employed as servant in the family of one francis prewitt, a

resident. washington, d.c. and in an evil hour gave way to the opportunities of mr. prewitt. i carnal and of course with him and the cossacks this was that i became pregnant and afterwards delivered of a child which lived but a few months. that child begotten by mr. prewitt. i was always in the family of mr. prewitt with the management of the house and now being friendless. i implore your mercy. i applied to ms. to mr. prewitt. after the birth of my baby on several occasions for the means to support it. but having tried ineffectually to obtain means for its subsistence i applied to a justice of the peace in the city of washington dc legal redress. mr. prewitt, as i am informed, obtained a warrant for my arrest on a charge of grand. after learning that i had a warrant for the support of my child. the money which i was charged with stealing was given to me by mrs. on condition that i would

say of the connection between myself and mr. prewitt for what? mrs. prewitt gave me that money to say about the intimacy existent between myself and mr. prewitt. i cannot tell, but averred that everything which has happened before set forth is and hoping. mr. president that my humble appeal may be blessed by your clemency. i am and will always remain your most humble and obedient. elizabeth shorter. lizzie shorter received her sentence on november 3rd, 1864. that letter was written november 4th and on november 5th. abraham lincoln received that letter. and lincoln had a very keen sense of justice when it to matters like this. and he knew that this young woman been wronged and that very day he received the letter, he took it, he read it, he turned

it over and on the back. he wrote pardon a lincoln. november 5th, 1864, i believe. it is the fastest pardon lincoln issued during his presidency and to make it all the more incredible. november 5th was three days before he would stand for reelection. we know how big elections in this country. but lincoln took out of his very busy schedule to right a wrong as he could to this young black woman woman. i just go right in, right. lincoln would travel around washington, d.c. and he interacted with many african-americans around the city and often he would stop at the contraband camp, which was located near where howard university is today, and when he would get there. sometimes the black refugees who would who were there would sing for him. the commander of the camp one day said to a young black woman named mary dines, i want you to sing for the president. and mary later recalled what it

was like. she said her knees trembled and she was she was just terrified to sing. she sang the first verse of nobody knows the trouble. i see with jesus by herself. and then the other contrabands joined. and then lincoln joined in and sang with them for over an hour. and she said that the black began to shout and yell, but he didn't at them. and i love that sentiment because it's the same thing we heard in the hannibal cox letter. these young black men and women feared that lincoln might laugh at them. they were different from him. but he didn't. he treated them with and respect. and later recalled what this was like to sing with the president. she said he was no president when he came to camp. he just stood and sang and prayed. just like all the rest of the people. know by.

lee know the trouble. i've. no bad lee knows, but she's know the old the trouble i've. know by lee knowles, but she sung. thank you so much for joining us tonight for this event. we'll see you in the lobby.