A Lesson in American History

When enslaved African Americans left their owners and joined the Union Army they not only found the opportunity to labor and fight for their freedom, they also sometimes found chances to gain a rudimentary education.

During the antebellum years the majority of slave states made it illegal for those enslaved to learn to read and write. Being long denied an education only made some new black soldiers all that more thirsty for knowledge. In many recruiting, enlistment, and training camps organizations, both civil and religious organizations, such as Freedmen's Aid Societies and the American Missionary Association sent teachers to work with soldiers and their refugee families.

The above photograph was possibly taken on the South Carolina coast, it depicts uniformed African American soldiers sitting with books in hand. It must have opened up a whole new world to those that had previously only learned through hearing and observing.

Two white men, who appear to be officers and two white women, who are likely teachers, appear in the center of the photo. A white man, who appears to be a civilian, stands behind a soldier on the far left.

Abolitionist John G. Fee, an employee of the American Missionary Association and who had ministered in Kentucky before the Civil War but had been exiled after John Brown's raid, wrote the following after observing the soldiers at Camp Nelson and their thirst for knowledge:

"Here are thousands of noble men, made in the image of God, just emerging from the restraints of slavery in the liberties and responsibilities of free men, and of soldiers. I find them manifesting an almost universal desire to learn; and [in] that they do make rapid progress . . . . When we consider that this people have great physical strength, are manifestly capable of rapid intellectual development, that they are humble, grateful, trusting, religiously inclined – that they are destined to occupy an important place in the army and agriculture of this nation, I feel that it is blessed to labor with such a people. The Lord help"

Sources: Tim Talbott randomthoughtsonhistoryblogspot
Image: Library of Congress.