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87-452: The American Missionary Association ( AMA ) was a Protestant -based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 (178 years ago)  ( 1846-09-03 ) in Albany, New York . The main purpose of the organization was abolition of slavery, education of African Americans , promotion of racial equality, and spreading Christian values . Its members and leaders were of both races;

174-496: A chaplain , by then having had nearly 20 years experience as a pastor. By 1862, he was assigned to the forces that occupied North Carolina. In April 1863, the general appointed him as the "Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the District of North Carolina". He was to arrange for food, shelter, adequate clothing and medical care for the many blacks in the area, who had come to Union lines for freedom and refuge. James believed that

261-487: A capital offense with automatic sentence of death. In practice, USCT soldiers were often murdered by Confederate troops without being taken to court. This law became a stumbling block for prisoner exchange, as the U.S. government in the Lieber Code objected to such discriminatory mistreatment of prisoners of war on basis of ethnicity. The Republican Party 's platform during the 1864 presidential election also condemned

348-482: A core of activities during this time. Missionaries held Sunday schools each week, often taught by the same teachers who led reading and writing classes during the week. Monthly Sabbath school concerts featured students' singing hymns and reciting passages from the Bible. Sunday evening worship services were "well attended" by the freedmen. Education was viewed as the key to "prepare the freedpeople for citizenship". Under

435-567: A critical time. Initially, the USCT were relegated to menial jobs such as that of laborers, teamsters, cooks, and other support duties. However, even these duties were essential to the war effort. For example, USCT engineers built Fort Pocahontas , a Union supply depot, in Charles City , Virginia . Eventually USCT were sent into combat. The USCT suffered 2,751 combat casualties during the war, and 68,178 losses from all causes. Disease caused

522-491: A demand for more units from Union Army commanders, USCT regiments, which numbered 175 in total by the end of the war in 1865, constituted about one-tenth of the manpower of the army, according to historian Kelly Mezurek , author of For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (The Kent State University Press, 2016). "They served in infantry, artillery, and cavalry." Approximately 20 percent of USCT soldiers were killed in action or died of disease and other causes,

609-573: A distinct and independent identity until 1999, when a restructuring of the UCC merged it into the Justice and Witness Ministries division. Its magazine, American Missionary , was published 1846–1934, and had a circulation of 20,000 in the 19th century, ten times that of the abolitionist William Garrison 's magazine. The Cornell University Library has editions from 1878–1901 accessible online in its Making of America digital library. The records of

696-477: A lumber industry would help the Roanoke colony grow and become economically self-sufficient. He had a sawmill built on the island, so that lumber could be processed and sold to the government. Other natural resources could be sold elsewhere. He hoped to show that "free labor and technology was always superior to the slave system." The sawmill had a seventy-horsepower engine, powerful for that time and venue. The mill

783-575: A pitch pine tree, then cut it in logs eight feet long, then with the ax and wedge, split into boards about 3 ⁄ 4 inches in thickness, the grain being perfectly straight, but makes a very uneven surface. The wind blows through the crevices. James advocated a "New Social Order in the South," to replace slavery with free institutions. The freedpeople had a variety of skills: many were artisans, who made baskets, shoes, barrels, shingles, and boats, which could be traded or sold. James intended to market both

870-761: A rate about 35 percent higher than that of white Union troops. Numerous USCT soldiers fought with distinction, with 16 receiving the Medal of Honor . The USCT regiments were precursors to the Buffalo Soldier units which fought in the American Indian Wars . The courage displayed by colored troops during the Civil War played an important role in African Americans gaining new rights. As Frederick Douglass said in an 1863 speech: Once let

957-638: A soldier's allowance of clothing." According to an article by the National Park Service , "of nearly 4,000 North Carolina enlistees, over 150 men were recruited from the Roanoke Island community alone." The Union Army allowed families of black soldiers to live at Roanoke Island as a place of refuge. Those men who were not recruited by the army served as woodcutters, teamsters, longshoremen, carpenters, blacksmiths, and workers in other trades. Many freedwomen worked as cooks and laundresses at

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1044-735: A standard that slowly became an unofficial policy throughout the Union Army . Their owner, a Confederate colonel, came to Butler under a flag of truce and demanded that they be returned to him under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Butler informed him that since Virginia claimed to have left the Union , the Fugitive Slave Law no longer applied, declaring the slaves to be contraband of war. The historian Steven Hahn proposes that when slaves organized themselves and worked with

1131-489: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment . It showed their training and participation in several battles, including the second assault on Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863. Although the 54th was not a USCT regiment, but a state volunteer regiment originally raised from free blacks in Boston, similar to the 1st and 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry, the film portrays the experiences and hardships of African-American troops during

1218-473: The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), who were disappointed that their first organizations refused to take stands against slavery and accepted contributions from slaveholders. From the beginning the leadership was integrated: the first board was made up of 12 men, four of them black. One of its primary objectives was to abolish slavery. The AMA (American Missionary Association)

1305-670: The American Civil War , building on the strong westward migration of population to that area. Another member, Rev. Mansfield French , an Episcopalian who became a Methodist, helped found Wilberforce University in Ohio. Members of the AMA began their support of education for blacks before the Civil War. Once war had begun, they recruited teachers for the numerous contraband camps that developed in Union-occupied territory in

1392-617: The Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg . Regiments of USCT suffered heavy casualties attempting to break through Confederate lines. Other notable engagements include Fort Wagner , one of their first major tests, and the Battle of Nashville . Colored Troop soldiers were among the first Union forces to enter Richmond, Virginia , after its fall in April 1865. The 41st USCT regiment

1479-706: The Ku Klux Klan . Outside the South it also promoted schools for Native Americans and immigrants. The AMA continued to play a role in the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century, supporting the work of activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and supporting legal efforts to desegregate public schools. The American Missionary Association was started by members of the American Home Missionary Society (AHMS) and

1566-701: The Medal of Honor , the nation's highest award, for service in the war: Soldiers who fought in the Army of the James were eligible for the Butler Medal , commissioned by that army's commander, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler . When several slaves escaped to Butler's lines in 1861, at Fort Monroe in Virginia, Butler was the first to declare any refugee slaves as contraband , and refused to return them to slaveholders,

1653-608: The Underground Railroad for men and women fleeing enslavement in the South. Starting in 1861, it opened camps in the South for former slaves. It played a major role during and after the Reconstruction Era in promoting education for blacks in the South by establishing numerous schools and colleges, as well as paying for teachers. It helped establish Black churches and civic organizations. Its teachers and workers were targets of white supremacy groups such as

1740-716: The "Superintendent of Negro Affairs in the North Carolina District", to supervise the contraband camps and administer to freedmen. James was based at New Bern , where he managed the Trent River contraband camp. James believed the Roanoke Island Colony was an important experiment in black freedom and a potential model for other freedmen communities. Freedmen built churches and set up the first free school for black children here; and they were soon joined by Northern missionary teachers who came to

1827-499: The 67,000 Regular Army (white) troops, 8.6%, or not quite 6,000, died. Of the approximately 180,000 United States Colored Troops, however, over 36,000 died, or 20.5%. In other words, the mortality rate amongst the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War was thirty-five percent greater than that among other troops, notwithstanding the fact that the former were not enrolled until some eighteen months after

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1914-621: The American Missionary Association are housed at the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans. United States Colored Troops United States Colored Troops ( USCT ) were Union Army regiments during the American Civil War that primarily comprised African Americans , with soldiers from other ethnic groups also serving in USCT units. Established in response to

2001-622: The Army camps; often schools were set up for them and their children. Despite class differences between free people of color and freedmen, the troops of the new guard served with distinction, including under Captain Andre Cailloux at the Battle of Port Hudson and throughout the South. Its units included: Colored troops served as laborers in the 16th Army Corps' Quartermaster's Department and Pioneer Corps . The first engagement by African-American soldiers against Confederate forces during

2088-594: The Army using them as paid workers. In September 1862, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation , announcing that all slaves in rebellious states would be free as of January 1. Recruitment of colored regiments began in full force following the Proclamation in January 1863. The United States War Department issued General Order Number 143 on May 22, 1863, establishing the Bureau of Colored Troops to facilitate

2175-599: The Association was chiefly sponsored by the Congregationalist churches in New England. The main goals were to abolish slavery, provide education to African Americans, and promote racial equality for free Blacks. The AMA played a significant role in several key historical events and movements, including the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1850s it assisted the operation of

2262-543: The Civil War was at the Battle of Island Mound in Bates County, Missouri on October 28–29, 1862. African Americans, mostly escaped slaves, had been recruited into the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers. They accompanied white troops to Missouri to break up Confederate guerrilla activities based out of Hog Island near Butler, Missouri . Although outnumbered, the African-American soldiers fought valiantly, and

2349-502: The Civil War. Richard Walter Thomas , black scholar of race relations, observed that the relationship between white and black soldiers in the Civil War was an instance of what he calls "the other tradition": "… after sharing the horrors of war with their black comrades in arms, many white officers experienced deep and dramatic transformations in their attitudes toward blacks." Freedmen%27s Colony of Roanoke Island The island colony started as one of what were 100 contraband camps by

2436-530: The Colony, and most left the island. Its soil had proved too poor to support many subsistence farmers. In later 1865, the US Army directed the dismantling of the three forts on the island. By 1867, the colony was abandoned, but about 300 freedmen still lived there independently in 1870. Some of their descendants live there today. Long used for fishing camps by varying cultures of indigenous peoples , Roanoke Island

2523-581: The Command of Colored Troops at the end of 1863. For a time, black soldiers received less pay than their white counterparts, but they and their supporters lobbied and eventually gained equal pay. Notable members of USCT regiments included Martin Robinson Delany and the sons of abolitionist Frederick Douglass . The process for white officers aiming to lead USCT was considered more protracted and perhaps rigorous than for ordinary Union officers. This

2610-600: The Confederacy's former unit of the same name , which had been made up of property-owning free people of color ( gens de couleur libres ). These men had wanted to prove their bravery and loyalty to the Confederacy like other Southern property owners by joining the Confederate blacks, but the Confederacy did not allow them to serve and confiscated their arms . For the new unit, the Union also recruited freedmen from

2697-564: The Confederacy's mistreatment of black U.S. soldiers. In response to such mistreatment, General Ulysses S. Grant , in a letter to Confederate officer Richard Taylor , urged the Confederates to treat captured black U.S. soldiers humanely and professionally, and not to murder them. He stated the U.S. government's official position, that black U.S. soldiers were sworn military men. The Confederacy had said they were escaped slaves who deserved no better treatment. The soldiers are classified by

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2784-537: The Confederates. Able-bodied freedmen worked for the Union, especially in construction, such as rebuilding the forts and adding to docks. The Army paid them for their work. In 1862 General John G. Foster became commander of the Department of North Carolina. After the Emancipation Proclamation , he appointed Horace James, a Congregational chaplain, as "Superintendent of Negro Affairs for

2871-565: The Cypress Chapel School. Although the facilities and supplies were limited in each case, the freedmen's eagerness to learn kept each classroom filled "to its utmost capacity". As the number of freedmen grew to 3900, the colony had difficulty in providing housing. Sanitation suffered on the island as there were no systems to handle it. Infectious diseases began to spread in the crowded conditions. When severe diseases such as smallpox , cholera , and dysentery arose, no one at

2958-708: The Free North Carolina Colored Volunteers (FNCCV) and subsequently the 35th. Nearly all of the volunteer regiments were converted into USCT units. In 1922 Singleton published his memoir (in a slave narrative ) of his journey from slavery to freedom and becoming a Union soldier. Glad to participate in reunions, years later at the age of 95, he marched in a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) event in 1938. Four regiments were considered regular units, rather than auxiliaries. Their veteran status allowed them to get federal government jobs after

3045-461: The North Carolina District". The first of 27 teachers who volunteered through the AMA was his cousin, Elizabeth James. By 1864 the colony had more than 2200 residents, and both children and adults filled the classrooms in the several one-room schools, as they were eager for learning. The missionary teachers also evangelized and helped provide the limited medical care of the time. The AMA's pace of founding schools and colleges increased during and after

3132-581: The North Carolina District." James was to develop a self-sustaining colony on the island and manage other contraband camps in the state, such as one earlier established at his base of New Bern , called the Trent River contraband camp . James was to settle the people, give them farming tools, and teach them to prepare for a free community. Based at New Bern, James took a special interest in the Roanoke Freedmen's Colony. He believed it could be an important model for resettlement of other freedmen after

3219-495: The South to help the effort. There was a core group of about six teachers, but a total of 27 teachers served at the island. As the war went on, conditions became more difficult at the crowded colony, whose residents suffered infectious diseases . In 1865 President Andrew Johnson ordered the return of all property under his "Amnesty Proclamation", and the lands cultivated and occupied by contraband camps were returned to owners. The freedmen were not given rights to their holdings in

3306-613: The South. In slaveholding Union states, such as Kentucky, the AMA staffed schools for both the newly emancipated United States Colored Troops and their families, such as at Camp Nelson, now known as Camp Nelson Heritage National Monument . Leading this effort was Rev. John Gregg Fee . Rev. French was assigned to Port Royal, South Carolina , and went on a speaking tour with Robert Smalls , who famously escaped enslavement, as well as met with President Abraham Lincoln , Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase , jointly convincing them to allow blacks to serve in

3393-483: The Union Army during the American Civil War , including as some regiments of the USCT, their actions comprised a slave rebellion that dwarfed all other slave revolts. The African American Civil War Memorial Museum helps to preserve pertinent information from the period. The motion picture Glory , starring Denzel Washington , Morgan Freeman , and Matthew Broderick , portrayed the African-American soldiers of

3480-536: The Union camp. Hawkins provided for payment for the labor of freedwomen and older boys, and allotting supplies to families: Each woman and each boy aged twelve to sixteen were to be paid four dollars a month plus one ration; in addition, each woman was to receive money equal to a soldier's allowance of clothing, while each boy aged twelve to sixteen would receive a soldier's allowance of clothing. Each child under twelve would receive one ration and remain with his or her parents. The Army allocated small plots of land to

3567-461: The Union forces during the war be returned." The lands used for the contraband camps were returned to their former Confederate owners, and all the camps were dismantled. At the Roanoke Island Colony, the freedmen were told they had no rights to the plots they had cultivated for years. The US Army helped most freedmen return to the mainland, at their choice. Some returned to former plantations and became sharecroppers , tenant farmers or laborers. After

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3654-426: The Union forces won the engagement. The conflict was reported by The New York Times and Harper's Weekly . In 2012 the state established the Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site to preserve this area; the eight Union men killed were buried near the battleground. USCT regiments fought in all theaters of the war, but mainly served as garrison troops in rear areas. The most famous USCT action took place at

3741-479: The Union military. By war's end, Union forces had organized 100 contraband camps, and many had AMA teachers. The AMA also served the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony (1863–1867). Located on an island occupied by Union troops, the colony was intended to be self-sustaining. It was supervised by Horace James , a Congregational chaplain appointed by the Army as "Superintendent for Negro Affairs in

3828-561: The Union were traitors and would be immediately executed. The prisoner exchange protocol based on the Dix–Hill Cartel broke down over the Confederacy's position on black prisoners-of-war . The Congress of the Confederate States of America had passed a law on May 1, 1863, stating that white officers commanding black soldiers and blacks captured in uniform would be tried as rebellious slave insurrectionists in civil courts —

3915-749: The United States. Congress almost immediately passed the Militia Act that empowered the President to use free blacks and former slaves from the rebel states in any capacity in the army. President Abraham Lincoln was concerned with public opinion in the four border states that remained in the Union, as they had numerous slaveholders, as well as with northern Democrats who supported the war but were less supportive of abolition than many northern Republicans. At first, Lincoln opposed early efforts to recruit African-American soldiers, although he accepted

4002-511: The area and its waterways well. They completed dangerous and crucial missions for the Union cause. Freedmen recruited from Roanoke Island formed the "first company of the North Carolina Colored Volunteers". Major General Rush Hawkins , who succeeded Foster in 1863 at the command on the island, ordered the freedmen who enlisted in the army or worked for the military be paid "ten dollars a month plus one ration and

4089-524: The black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S.; let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on the earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States. The U.S. Congress passed the Confiscation Act in July 1862. It freed slaves whose owners were in rebellion against

4176-585: The city of Medford. After studying at common schools, James attended Yale College , graduating in 1840. He went on to study theology, graduating from seminary school in 1843. He first served as the pastor at a church in Wrentham, Massachusetts , beginning in November 1843. He married Helen Leavitt of Walpole, New Hampshire . After the American Civil War started, James joined the Union Army as

4263-477: The colony, as in society in general, was informal. Missionaries with little to no medical training administered medicine to the sick on the island. Gradually they learned the adequate dosages and which medicines applied to certain diseases. There were no antibiotics or vaccines , so medicine consisted of folk remedies, bloodletting and surgery. The freedwomen were knowledgeable of herbal remedies, which were often more effective than what trained doctors could offer at

4350-573: The fighting began. USCT regiments were led by white Union officers, while rank advancement was limited for Black soldiers, who could only rise to the rank of non-commissioned officers . Approximately 110 blacks did become commissioned officers before the end of the war, primarily as surgeons or chaplains. The Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments in Philadelphia opened the Free Military Academy for Applicants for

4437-494: The freedmen of the South during and after the Civil War. It spent more money for that purpose than did the Freedmen's Bureau of the federal government." In addition, the AMA organized the Freedmen's Aid Society , which recruited northern teachers for the schools and arranged to find housing for them in the South. In the mid-1870s, white Democrats began to regain control of state legislatures through violence and intimidation at

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4524-526: The hands of Confederate soldiers, who singled them out for mistreatment. They were often the victims of battlefield massacres and atrocities by Confederates, most notably at Fort Pillow in Tennessee, at the Battle of the Crater in Virginia, and at the Battle of Olustee in Florida. They were often murdered when captured by Confederate soldiers, as the Confederacy announced that former slaves fighting for

4611-406: The households of the colony, and encouraged the freedmen to produce crops for food supplements . Under James' direction, they created fisheries as well, to make the island more self-sufficient. The creation of a sawmill and marketing of artisan goods helped the economy of the island. Many adults worked for the Union Army and were given wages and rations as payment for their services. The Commander on

4698-442: The island utterly abandoned. A popular regional myth tells that the colonists were absorbed by an Algonquian-speaking tribe, but historians say there is no evidence for it. They believe the colonists died by starvation and Powhatan Indian attack. By the mid-1600s, English settlers colonized the island and established a permanent settlement. They gradually tried to develop plantations , using imported African slaves as labor, but

4785-680: The island's isolation. The Army pressed the refugees for more labor as the war dragged on. In one case in late 1864, military officers forced some freedmen who had been working for the Quartermaster's Department on Roanoke Island to leave and work on construction of the Dutch Gap Canal to divert the James River in Virginia. The commanding officers, such as Colonel Rush Hawkins, had ordered subordinates to treat freedmen "with respect," but tensions arose. Bad harvest seasons caused

4872-411: The island, Col. Rush Hawkins, also helped preserve the slave families who came to the island for refuge. Ownership of land, practice of a trade, and the ability to live with their families gave the freedmen a "taste of citizenship, family life, and hope". Reverend Horace James was an evangelical Congregational minister from Worcester, Massachusetts . He was born to Galen James, a deacon, and his wife in

4959-731: The island. In October 1863, Elizabeth James arrived from the AMA. She was a cousin of the Reverend James, and had experience as a teacher and as the principal of a school in Milford. In February 1864, she founded the Lincoln School in Camp Foster. She noted the students had "an intense desire to learn." Ella Roper opened the Whipple School, which had a roster of 200 students. In March 1864 Samuel Nickerson started

5046-530: The most fatalities for all troops, both black and white. In the last year-and-a-half and from all reported casualties, approximately 20% of all African Americans enrolled in the military died. Notably, their mortality rate was significantly higher than white soldiers: [We] find, according to the revised official data, that of the slightly over two millions troops in the United States Volunteers, over 316,000 died (from all causes), or 15.2%. Of

5133-409: The natural resources and the freedmen's crops, such as cotton, corn, turpentine, resin, tar, timber, fish, oysters, wood, reeds, and grapes, to make the colony self-sufficient. While thinking freedmen should have the rights of citizens, he also held that "there was a natural stratification of society" and African Americans were near the bottom. Much of the aid, education, and social work on the island

5220-547: The polls that suppressed Republican voting. The Association expressed disappointment at the failures of the Reconstruction Era but never wavered in opposing disenfranchisement and continued the struggle over the following decades. By the 1870s, the AMA national office had relocated to New York City . While the AMA became widely known in the United States for its work in opposition to slavery and in support of education for freedmen, it also sponsored and maintained missions in numerous nations overseas. The 19th-century missionary effort

5307-399: The recruitment of African-American soldiers to fight for the Union Army. Regiments, including infantry , cavalry , engineers , light artillery , and heavy artillery units were recruited from all states of the Union. Approximately 175 regiments comprising more than 178,000 free blacks and freedmen served during the last two years of the war. Their service bolstered the Union war effort at

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5394-457: The refugee camps. Liberated from nearby plantations, they and their families had no means to earn a living and no place to go. Local commanders, starved for replacements, started equipping volunteer units with cast-off uniforms and obsolete or captured firearms. The men were treated and paid as auxiliaries, performing guard or picket duties to free up white soldiers for maneuver units. In exchange their families were fed, clothed and housed for free at

5481-542: The residents to suffer from lack of food. They had already found that the soil was too poor to support the needed level of cultivation for the population. Rations were reduced in the late stages of the war, which made the inhabitants more desperate. According to Elizabeth James, a teacher, the freedmen would "steal fearfully" from each other. She said, "they are hungry" so "they steal anything they can lay their hands on anywhere." When President Johnson issued his "Amnesty Proclamation" in 1865, he ordered all "property seized by

5568-442: The size of all ten cavalry regiments. From 1870 to 1898 the strength of the US Army totaled 25,000 service members with black soldiers maintaining their 10 percent representation. USCT soldiers fought in the Indian Wars in the American West , where they became known as the Buffalo Soldiers , thus nicknamed by Native Americans who compared their hair to the curly fur of bison . Eighteen African-American USCT soldiers earned

5655-406: The slaves freedom. The number of freedmen living on the island increased from 250 in the first few months, to more than 1,000 by the end of 1862. They formed a community, organizing the first free school for black children in North Carolina, and churches. The majority converted old Confederate barracks into their new homes, which became known as "Camp Foster" after one of the generals who had defeated

5742-503: The soil was rather poor. The island produced some commodity crops. When North Carolina seceded from the Union in 1861, the Confederacy made plans to fortify Roanoke Island to protect the bay and inland waterways. By that winter, the army had built three forts, although they were relatively weak and too small for the number of occupying troops. On February 8, 1862, the Union general Ambrose E. Burnside easily captured Roanoke Island from Confederate general Henry A. Wise (former governor of

5829-435: The state of Virginia (1856–1860)). The Union maintained control of the island through the end of the war. As slaves learned of the Union victory, they migrated to the island for freedom with Union forces and protection from the Confederacy. They quickly began to form refugee camps. General Burnside declared the refugees "contraband" of war, in a policy initiated by General Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe in 1861, and granted

5916-456: The state where they were enrolled; Northern states often sent agents to enroll formerly enslaved from the South. Many soldiers from Delaware, D.C., Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia were formerly enslaved as well. Most of the troops credited to West Virginia, however, were not actually from that state. The USCT was disbanded in the fall of 1865. In 1867, the Regular Army was set at ten regiments of cavalry and 45 regiments of infantry. The Army

6003-446: The supervision of the Union military, the freedmen built schools, churches, and about 600 cabins. The schools were simple log cabins. Both children and adults were eager to learn to read and write, as most of the slaves had not had any formal education in these skills. Missionaries, mostly unmarried women teachers from New England, were the prime teachers. There was a core group of about seven teachers, but altogether 27 teachers served at

6090-434: The time understood how they were transmitted, and there were no treatments. The missionaries could do little more than the freedmen. The colony began the "downward slide from which [it] was unable to recover." The increase in the number of freedmen strained their relationship with the Union military. As more freedmen entered the Union Army, their families became more dependent on the government and military for aid because of

6177-443: The time. Other organizations, such as the National Freedman's Relief Association and the New England Freedmen's Aid Society of Boston, also sent representatives and aid to the colony. In contrast to the AMA, however, the National Freedman's Relief Association was not evangelical. It promoted abolition of slavery and encouraged the freedmen to "develop self-discipline, self-reliance, and self-support." Religious practices formed

6264-477: The war's end, but it became something more. The African Americans lived as freedmen and civilians. They were joined by former slaves from the mainland, seeking refuge and freedom with the Union forces. They were paid for their work and sought education, along with their children. As commanding officer of the Department of North Carolina , in 1863 Foster appointed Horace James , a Congregational chaplain, as

6351-464: The war, from which African Americans had usually been excluded in earlier years. However, the men received no formal recognition for combat honors and awards until the turn of the 20th century. These units were: The 1st Louisiana Native Guard , one of many Louisiana Union Civil War units , was formed in New Orleans after the city was taken and occupied by Union forces. It was formed in part from

6438-419: The war, numerous freedmen moved from rural areas to towns and cities to evade white supervision and gain more opportunities as craftsmen. In late 1865, the Army dismantled the forts on the island, which further disrupted the colony. By 1867, the colony was abandoned, although some freedmen continued to live on the island. The 1870 census recorded 300 blacks in 60 households. The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony

6525-516: The war. Freedmen, historically free blacks (many of whom were "mulattoes" of mixed race), and white sympathizers alike believed that education was a priority for the newly freed people. It created and supported Atlanta University, Hampton Institute, Fisk University; Talladega College; Tougaloo College; Straight College (now Dillard University); Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson); and LeMoyne College (now LeMoyne Owen). Altogether, "the AMA founded eleven colleges and more than five hundred schools for

6612-646: The war. President Lincoln 's Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in Confederate areas occupied by Union troops. Many of them moved to Union camps for protection. The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony was a safe haven for slaves seeking refuge with the Union Army during the Civil War. Most freedmen on Roanoke Island assisted the Union Army: others joined the army as soldiers when the United States Colored Troops were founded, and some men worked as spies, scouts and guides, since they knew

6699-538: Was added by Senator Benjamin Wade prior to the bill's passing. In 1869 the Regular Army was kept at ten regiments of cavalry but cut to 25 regiments of Infantry, reducing the black complement to two regiments (the 24th and 25th (Colored) Infantry ). The two black infantry regiments represented 10 percent of the size of all twenty-five infantry regiments. Similarly, the black cavalry units represented 20 percent of

6786-484: Was among those present at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox . Following the war, USCT regiments served among the occupation troops in former Confederate states. U.S. Army General Ulysses S. Grant praised the competent performance and bearing of the USCT, saying at Vicksburg that: Negro troops are easier to preserve discipline among than our white troops ... All that have been tried have fought bravely. USCT soldiers suffered extra violence at

6873-500: Was authorized to raise two regiments of black cavalry (the 9th and 10th (Colored) Cavalry ) and four regiments of black infantry (the 38th , 39th , 40th , and 41st (Colored) Infantry ), who were mostly drawn from USCT veterans. The first draft of the bill that the House Committee on Military Affairs sent to the full chamber on March 7, 1866, did not include a provision for regiments of black cavalry; however, this provision

6960-460: Was because it was assumed that leading black soldiers would require a better officer than those leading white troops. At the end of their studies, those men who wished to lead black troops had to pass an examination administered by Brig. Gen. Silas Casey's staff in Washington. After a short period of examinations in mid-1863, only half of the men who had taken the exam passed. Before the USCT

7047-595: Was first colonized by an English explorer in 1584. Sir Walter Raleigh tried to settle people there, to found a colony on what is now American soil. Raleigh sent 100 men to Roanoke Island. The settlement was unsuccessful and abandoned within a year. In 1587, another 110 colonists were planted on the island. Captain John White, named governor by Raleigh, returned to England in August that year for more supplies. Delayed by warfare, when he returned three years later, he found

7134-575: Was formed, several volunteer regiments were raised from free black men, including freedmen in the South. In 1863 a former slave, William Henry Singleton , helped recruit 1,000 former slaves in New Bern, North Carolina for the First North Carolina Colored Volunteers . He became a sergeant in the 35th USCT. Freedmen from the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony , established in 1863 on the island, also formed part of

7221-424: Was important for educating hundreds of freedmen in literacy, paying adults and older children for their work, helping them to establish churches and community, and helping preserve their families at a time of war. Numerous transcribed letters by Horace James and the missionary teachers, as well as some of the freedmen, may be viewed at the website, "Documents" , Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony. They express vividly

7308-518: Was located at Pork Point near Union headquarters. A soldier stationed on the island described it in 1864 as "a first class affair, like most anything belonging to the Government." James intended to arrange for the freedmen to get some of the lumber, so they could build sturdier cabins than their traditional split-pine one-room structures: Each house contains but one room, no rooms above. The boards used for building are made as follows. They cut down

7395-615: Was one of the organizations responsible for pushing slavery onto the national political agenda. The organization started the American Missionary magazine, published from 1846 through 1934. Among the AMA's achievements was the founding of anti-slavery churches. For instance, the abolitionist Owen Lovejoy was among the Congregational ministers of the AMA who helped start 115 anti-slavery churches in Illinois before

7482-568: Was planned and carried out by representatives of the American Missionary Association , also known as AMA. The AMA worked to evangelize slaves and convert them to Christianity (if they were not already so). They sent missionaries to Roanoke Island to aid the colony through education, medicine, food, and religious services. They also preached the Gospel to the freedmen. Education classes were started. The state of medicine in

7569-610: Was strong in India, China and east Asia. It was strongly supported by Congregational and Christian churches. Over time, the association became most closely aligned with the Congregational Christian Churches , established in 1931 as a union between those two groups of churches. Most of those congregations became members of the United Church of Christ (UCC) in the late 20th century. The AMA maintained

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