Today the first Convention of Colored Citizens of the State of Arkansas is gathered in Little Rock. Many Baptists are among those present. The purpose of the convention is to exert the rights of freedmen and ensure that white Southerners respect their freedom. The road thus far has been brutal, and a future of true…
This month U.S. Army Gen. Oliver O. Howard calls for a gathering of Edisto Island’s freedmen. Howard is loathe to break the bad news to the assembled crowd, representative of some 40,000 former slaves who now till what they think are their own lands, given to them by Union General William T. Sherman earlier this…
This month reality begins setting in among the freedmen of the Sea Islands along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. The land they were promised, the land upon which they are now trying to make a living and support their families, is imperiled. In January Union General William T. Sherman signed an order turning…