USCTI Newsletter: Winter 2013 - Hartwick College

Newsletter
Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY 13820
Vol. 14 No. 2, December 2012
USCT Civil War
Digest
ISSN: 1947-7384
United States Colored Troops Institute for Local History and Family Research
USCT Institute & ASFD Officers
Harry Bradshaw Matthews, President,
Senior Fellow, Oneonta, NY
Darlene Colón, Vice President,
Senior Fellow, Lancaster, PA
Pamela L. Matthews, Secretary,
Oneonta, NY
USCTI Senior Fellows, Emeritus
David A. Anderson, Rochester, NY
Agnes Kane Callum, Baltimore, MD
John R. Gourdin, Florence, SC
Hugh MacDougall, Cooperstown, NY
ASFD Fellows & Senior Fellows
Roland Barksdale-Hall, Sharon, PA
Cherry R. Baylor, Hempstead, NY
Charles L. Blockson, Norristown, PA
Agnes Kane Callum, Baltimore, MD
Ruth E. Hodge, Carlisle, PA
Gerald R. Hunter Sr., Arcadia, CA
Sylvia Cooke Martin, Columbia, MD
ZSun-nee K. Matema, Baltimore, MD
D. Gail Saunders, Nassau, Bahamas
Madeline O. Scott, Amherst, NY
Executive Director and Editor
Harry Bradshaw Matthews
USCT Civil War Digest
This newsletter is published with
editing and graphics support of the Office
of Communications at Hartwick College.
This publication is produced twice a year,
spring and fall, for the membership of
the USCT Institute and for other select
distribution.
Send your comments to:
Harry Bradshaw Matthews
Associate Dean/USCT Institute
U.S. Pluralism Center
Bresee Hall
Hartwick College
Oneonta, New York 13820
matthewsh@hartwick.edu
607-431-4428
Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln:
Agents for Freedom and Equality
As the 2013 African American History Month commemorations overlap the one hundredth
anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s date of death, let us be mindful that her heroics were not for
personal gain, but to confront unjust American laws that frowned upon the free legal status of
black people in America, with the black family unit targeted for disrespect.
Harry Bradshaw Matthews, USCTI Founding
President and Carolyn Evans, Harriet Tubman re-enactor
Tubman took her experience from the abusive
system of bondage and used it to justify her
reckoning that enslaved persons had the Godgiven
right to freedom and the protection of
their families. Tubman’s escape from slavery in
1849 provided real evidence of what enslaved
persons in America had to do in order to gain
freedom. She was one of approximately 100,000
runaway slaves between 1810-1850, yet received
distinction because she risked her life during at
least 17 escapades back into slave states to lead
her family members, as well as others, to safety in
the North. Her adventures were real and symbolic,
since the vast majority of the 4.5 million black
people in America during 1860 were enslaved,
with only 500,000 with a semi-freedom status.
Contrary to popular belief, more free black men
and women resided within the Southern states in
1860 than in the North.
Tubman’s personal journey intersected with that
of President Abraham Lincoln’s. The President
felt driven to preserve the Union at all costs, even
if it meant allowing for the continuation of slavery.
He later changed
his opinion after
finally realizing
that slavery was
the real cause
of the war.
Consequently,
the President
prepared himself
to take positive
action supportive
of the enslaved
Americans,
who collectively
became known
as Freedmen.
Source: A Lost Hero, Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps Ward and Herbert D. Ward,
illustrated by Frank T. Merrill, 1891.
Courtesy: The Matthews Collection
Lincoln, however,
did not believe
in the equality
between blacks
and whites. He
struggled with the idea that the two races would
never be able to live peaceful lives together within
this society. Tubman and Lincoln crossed paths
Continued on Page 2

2 DECEMBER 2012 USCT Civil War Digest
Tubman/Lincoln
Continued from Page 1
during the Civil War, when the epic battles, Lincoln’s Emancipation
Proclamation, and the Thirteenth Amendment finally brought about
the conclusion of legalized bondage in the United States. Today, the
movie Lincoln shares an interpretation of the president’s dilemma from
one perspective, while Tubman’s story is yet to be portrayed from the
perspective of those who suffered the most.
The great day of the nation’s judgment has come, and who shall be able to stand?
Even we, whose ancestors have suffered the afflictions which are inseparable from a
condition of slavery, for the period of two centuries and a half, now pity our land and
weep with those who weep.
The proceeding is but one line in a speech that revealed scholarship,
religious faith, and purpose, which was followed by a challenge:
Favored men, and honored of God as his instruments, speedily finish the work which
he has given you to do. Emancipate, enfranchise, educate, and give the blessings of the
gospel to every American citizen.
Source: The Story of My Life, Mary A. Livermore, 1898. Courtesy: The Matthews Collection
The movie, Lincoln, focuses upon important events during the final four
months of the president’s life that ended with his assassination in April
1865. It is unfortunate that the story line missed two great opportunities
that linked the efforts of both Tubman and Lincoln. First, in mid-February,
1865, the Reverend Henry Highland Garnet became the first black
man allowed to speak in the United States House of Representatives; his
primary topic was slavery. Only days earlier the House of Representatives
had passed by the required two-thirds majority the amendment to end
slavery in the United States. Garnet was invited by Republicans to deliver
an address commemorating the historic vote. The House chamber, during
the recess, was filled, with black persons comprising about a third of the
audience, according to records at the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House
of Representatives.
Rev. Henry Highland Garnet
Source: The Negro in Our History,
Carter G. Woodson, 1922.
Courtesy: The Matthews Collection
As a former slave who had progressed
to the level of acquiring a classical
education at the Oneida Institute in
Whitesboro, New York, Rev. Garnet
was one of the “classical fifteen” scholars
who had advanced the definition of
the Colored American identity. While
attending the 1843 Buffalo Convention
of Colored men in New York, the
27-year-old Garnet advocated for his 4
million enslaved brethren and sisters to
revolt. Twenty-two years later, he stood
in the Capitol, better prepared than
most to voice the God-given right of the
racially oppressed. He stated:
Lincoln and the Broken-Shackle Army. Source: Camp-Fires of the Afro-American, James M.
Guthrie. Illustrator: J.E. Taylor, 1892. Courtesy: The Matthews Collection
Certainly, Garnet’s challenge was addressed to President Lincoln and other
leaders. Lincoln, however, had another idea in mind. Only weeks before
his assassination, he had engaged General Benjamin Butler in a discussion
regarding the removal of all the surviving black soldiers and their families
from the United States for fear of an impending race war. He knew that with
more than 150,000 black men surviving their role as soldiers they would
never allow themselves and their families to return to the state of abuse that
most had left upon their enlistment into the Union Army.
Source: Shuttered Windows,
Florence Cannell Means, 1938.
Courtesy: The Matthews Collection
The discussions were limited between
Lincoln, Butler, and Secretary James
Seward. A final decision by the president
was cut short by an assassin’s bullet.
Consequently, he did not live long
enough to witness the ratification of the
Thirteenth Amendment by the states
on December 6, 1865. But, history has
placed Lincoln in eminence for ending
slavery in this country and setting the
Freedmen on a new path.
Collectively, the Freedmen advanced
themselves during subsequent
decades and generations, even as they
were confronted by Jim Crow laws,
segregation, and just pure racism.

USCT Civil War Digest DECEMBER 2012 3
Historic Milestones of 2013
The year 2013 provides the United States Colored Troops Institute at Hartwick College with several commemorations. First, the
USCTI celebrates the 15th anniversary of its founding. While its primary focus continues to be upon the 200,000 black soldiers
of the Civil War and their 7,000 white officers, the USCTI has expanded its scope to include attention to black soldiers from the
Revolutionary War through World War II. In addition, the USCTI has become a recognized resource for the study of the anti-slavery
movement, signified by the organization’s designation by the National Park Service as a resource facility of the National Underground
Railroad Network to Freedom.
This has been made possible by usage of additional materials within the privately owned Matthews Collection for the Preservation of Freedom Journey Classics.
Janisha Tejada-Mills, HTMP.
In addition, the USCTI continues to mentor
select Hartwick students, collectively known as
the Harriet Tubman Mentoring Project (HTMP),
in primary research, as well as a support team for
the USCTI’s daily operations.
The engagement of the students has been so
successful that the group has been recognized
by the Association of American Historians
as a national model for the engagement of
minority students in history. Further, in 2012,
the Commission on Independent Colleges and
Universities (cIcu) named the HTMP as a “Best
Practice” in mentoring for the persistence and
success of Black and Hispanic students.
Visiting Pvt. Henry Johnson WWI Monument, Albany, NY.
Front Row, L-R: Laureena Harris, Jenifer Benn,
Catherine Clase, Janisha Tejada-Mills, and Omar Russo.
Back Row, L-R: Jennifer Nesbitt, Brianna Mckenzie,
Randrea Dukes, Emani Palma, Kennequa Carlton,
Awa (Eva) Kane, and Hayley Dyer.
A second commemoration in 2013 is for the
50th anniversary of the historic March on
Washington in 1963, in which the Reverend
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Freedmen
Descendants were joined by others as a symbolic
gesture of a changing America. It certainly is
noteworthy to mention that now, 50 years later,
Michelle Obama, a Freedmen Descendant,
starts a second term as First Lady of the United
States as a partner with America’s second-term
commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of
the death date of Harriet Tubman, and also
commemorates the 100th anniversary of the
U.S. Tenth Cavalry Regiment’s historic journey
from Forth Ethan Allan, Vermont to Winchester,
Virginia, which included an encampment in
Oneonta, New York, the home site of today’s
USCTI. To honor the two events, the USCTI
and HTMP will be hosting the Harriet Tubman –
Buffalo Soldiers Student Conference at Hartwick
College during the weekend of November 1-3,
2013.
Tenth Cavalry, bearing the Standards: Private Glen Brown, Seargeant
James Johnson, and Sergeant Moses Boone, 1941.
Source: Historical and Pictorial Review: Tenth Cavalry of the United States
Army, Camp Funston – Fort Riley, Kansas.
Courtesy: The Matthews Collection
2012 USCTI/PALS Mini-Conference Participants.
Allison Albrecht, Jenifer Benn, USCTI Stephanie
Brunetta, Liliana Cabrera, Kennequa Carlton, Catherine
Clase, USCTI V.P.Darlene Colón, Blair DeForge, Randrea
Dukes, Hayley Dyer, Laureena Harris, USCTI Betty D.
Hurdle, Awa Kane, Brianna McKenzie, Jennifer Nesbitt,
Emani Palma, USCTI Linda Patterson, USCTI Edythe
Ann Quinn, Kiersten Racela, Omar Russo, Pablo Sanchez,
Roy Simmons, Sindu Singh, Janisha Tejada-Mills, Jack
Tomlinson, Justine Woodend, and USCTI
President Harry Bradshaw Matthews.
Finally, the important 150th anniversary
commemoration of the effective date of the
Emancipation Proclamation on January
1, 1863 set the stage for all of the other
commemorations this year.
The USCTI celebrates all of the above
commemorations by making available for the
first time The Bibliography: The Matthews Collection
for the Preservation of African American Freedom
Journey Classics, a 105-page publication that
includes most of the 2,500 items in the collection.
While copies of the publication are not available
for public distribution, it will be helpful to visitors
to the USCTI, as well as an aid for staff to assist
with responding to inquiries.
A primary reason for producing the bibliography
is to support the African American History
Month theme by exposing various writings,
including many that are rarely known, which
can be helpful to researchers involved with local
histories and family research. Within the pages
of the various books that are listed are the names,
occupations, and local sites of personalities who
are not normally identified as historic figures. This
includes, for example, the soldiers of the Tenth
Calvary from the Spanish – American War up to
World War II.

USCTI
U.S. Pluralism Center
Hartwick College
Oneonta, New York 13820
www.hartwick.edu
USCT Institute & ASFD Membership 2012-13 ~ Join Us.
ALABAMA – James C. Johnson
CALIFORNIA – Gerald R. Hunter
FLORIDA - John O. Lindell
GEORGIA - Audrey Quick Battiste
ILLINOIS – Angela Layne, Darnell Layne, Northwestern
University Library
INDIANA - Allen County Public Library, Charles
Poindexter
MARYLAND – Yvonne Captain, Agnes
Kane Callum, Charles Hawley, Sylvia Cooke
Martin, ZSun-nee Matema, Ruth V.
Mitchell, Harold F. Nelson
NEW YORK –Abyssinian Baptist
Church, Rev. Kenneth Baldwin, Sylvia
Barker, Cherry Baylor, Fern E. Beavers,
George Betts, Regina Betts, Stephanie
Brunetta, Georgia M. Burnette, Rev.
Calvin O. Butts III, Leigh C. Eckmair,
Lorna R. Elmore, Edward Fisher,
Katherine Hawkins, David J. Hodges –
CUNY Hunter College, Shirley A. Houck,
Linda M. Jones, Nancy Leftenant-Colón,
Harry Bradshaw Matthews, Pamela L.
Matthews, NYPL - Schomburg Center,
NYSHA Research Library, New York State
Library/Mary Redmond, Cyndee Pattison,
Edythe Ann Quinn, Madeline O. Scott, Jesse E.
Stevens, SUNY-Oneonta, Hon. Lucindo Suarez,
Roxanne J. Suarez, Spann Watson, Judith Wellman, Norma Williams
MICHIGAN – Donald S. Vest
PENNSYLVANIA – Ron Bailey - Gettysburg Black History Museum, Inc., Charles L.
Blockson – Temple University, G. Craig Caba, Darlene Colón, Marcus L. Hodge, Ruth
Hodge, Mary Ann Riley
SOUTH CAROLINA – John R. Gourdin
TENNESSEE – Roverta Reliford Russaw
VIRGINIA – Thomas Balch Library, Jerome Bridges, Barbara Gannon, Chauncey
Herring, Carol Mitchell, Linda S. Murr, Gen. Colin L. Powell [2000], Prince Wm. Public
Library, Rev. R. Benard Reaves, Loritta R. Watson
WEST VIRGINIA – Bob O’Connor
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rev. William E. Calbert, Patsy M. Fletcher, Military Road
School Preservation Trust
WISCONSIN – Wisconsin Historical Society
THE BAHAMAS – D. Gail Saunders
STUDENT ASSISTANTS – 2012-13
Jenifer Benn – USCTI Intern/Harriet Tubman Mentor, PALS/SOSU/BU
Catherine Clase – USCTI Intern/Harriet Tubman Mentor, President of SOSU/BU
Kennequa Carlton – USCTI Intern/ Harriet Tubman Mentor, President, PALS
Laureena Harris – USCTI Intern/Harriet Tubman Mentor, PALS/SOSU/BU
Josephine Ndema – USCTI Intern/Harriet Tubman Mentor, Director, M’Bumbula
African Dance Group
Jennifer Nesbitt – USCTI Intern/Harriet Tubman Mentor, PALS/SOSU/BU
Janisha Tejada-Mills – USCTI Intern/ Harriet Tubman Mentor, PALS/SOSU/BU
Oluwakemi Omotosho – USCTI Intern/ Harriet Tubman Mentor, PALS/SOSU/BU