In Galveston, Texas, this month the Baptist-supported American Missionary Association and the Freedmen’s Bureau conduct “Sunday schools and church services in addition to regular school.” One Sunday school among Freedmen, touted as the largest in town, boasts some fifty students who are reading the Bible, an impressive achievement in the context that only a few…
Rev. Thomas L. Johnson, a former slave, begins his biography “Twenty Eight Years a Slave” with the words: “According to information I received from my mother, I was born August 7th, 1836, at a place called Rock-Rayman, in the State of Virginia; but I do not know the place, as I was REMOVED when a…
Louisiana is in the news this day. The Union ship Kentucky leaves Shreveport late in the day with some 800 passengers aboard, many paroled Confederate soldiers, some with their families. Plying the Red River, the overloaded ship strikes a snag that rips a gash in the vessel. Two hours pass before the leak is noticed.…