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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

FSSP editor William Horne discusses what we can learn abt gendered struggles for liberation, recognition, & dignity from the cases of two women caught by the Army in men's clothes. www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2026/04/i-wa...

1864 photo of five women with military regalia sown onto their dresses for an Army Relief Bazar. The photo is discussed in the linked article as an example of how women complicated gender boundaries in their wartime performances of patriotism.

Original from the Library of Congress here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.58008/

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Thank you for asking! His name was Samuel Green. Needless to say, the details in the letter give a very different account, but this is a clipping from the Daily Phoenix newspaper in Columbia that gives an overview of the coroner's inquest.

Photo of a newspaper article from The Columbia Daily Phoenix, May 15, 1866, p. 2.

"Coroner's Inquest.--A Coroner's Inquest was held on the body of the freedman, shot by Mr. Green, Chief of Police, on Saturday morning. After hearing of testimony, both white and colored, the jury returned the following verdict: That John Brown, a freedman, came to his death on the 13th day of May, 1866, from the effects of a wound caused by a ball fired from a pistol in the hands of Samuel Green, Chief of Police, while in the discharge of his official duties."

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

The Union commander at Columbia, SC noted dismissively that "the chief of Police has been justified at a civil & military investigation of the homicide complained of" & suggested that the woman was bitter for being unable to hold "a public 'Fandango' or 'Break Down'"—racist terms for dance.

Photo of the reply of the commander at Columbia, SC:

"Columbia S.C. June 23d 1866
Respectfully returned with the remarks that the statement of this woman regarding public matters are usually unreliable and those of this anonymous Colored Woman are particularly wild and extravagant. The act of the chief of Police has been justified at a civil and military investigation of the homicide complained of. No troops have been granted to assist in the awful work of murdering colored people. The sanction of the Mayor is necessary (and this is the case in all well regulated communities) for the holding of a public “Fandango” or “Break Down” which is probably the party or gathering referred to in the letter. The Post Comdr having no knowledg of the game of Billiards has never even entered the saloon devoted to its pursuit and finally the Post Comdr having an impartial regard for the interests of both the White & Colored race has no Negro Code in force or in existence within the limits of his command.
(Sigd) J. D. Greene."

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

After the police chief in Columbia, SC murdered a Black resident in cold blood, an anonymous Black woman wrote to the govt in May 1866: "Our friends in Congress are wasting time & breath, & all the bills they may pass, will do us no good, unless men are sent here that will see these laws enforced."

Screenshot from an anonymous letter to the head of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina:

"It is hard I tell you. Our friends in Congress are wasting time & breath, & all the bills they may pass, will do us no good, unless men are sent here that will see these laws enforced."

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

From the archive, Black education was under assault from its earliest origins after emancipation: "A very respectable young colored Female, teacher of the colored School near Vienna Dorchester Co md. was assaulted on the road near the school House by a white man named Cyrus Stack."

Photo of a handwritten letter:

Cambridge March 6th 1866
To Maj. Genl. Howard
Dear Sir
You will please excuse
me for the liberty I take, in presenting to
your consideration a case which recently
occured in our County, A very respectable
young colored Female, teacher of the colored
School near Vienna Dorchester Co md. was
assaulted on the road near the school House
by a white man named Cyrus Stack, and
knocked down, remaining for sometime in
an insensible state! There was an other
white man near by, but he "didn't see" it
of course. Our state laws afford no protection
to this class of people, and the failure
of the "Freedman's bureau bill" leaves
them in a pitiable state indeed.
Can anything be done for them?
very truly yours,
John G. Robinson
School Commission 3d Dist
Dorchester Co Md

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

This is frankly good pedagogy regardless of circumstance & shows how careful use of primary documents can help students grasp the meaning & importance of content better than any lecture or secondary reading.

Screenshot of passage from article linked above:

Several of my students have reflected on being impacted by the personal connections they found to the documents. Kevin Vanderbilt worked with three letters written in Jacksonville in the 1880s. In his essay, he described how compelling he found the personal details in that correspondence, remarking on his experience with one document in particular: “I felt myself connect to a story of a mother writing to her beloved son on his birthday while he was away at school. I let every detail consume me, and I analyzed it as if it were my own mother.”

Finley Jensen thought explicitly about how such a link to people in the past can be forged through editorial work. Comparing his engagement with primary sources to more traditional course activities, he concluded that the former offered greater possibilities for connection: “It’s one thing, of course, to research a historical figure and understand their lives outwardly through secondhand resources, but it’s another thing entirely to be involved in the transcription of their personal life. In many ways, this method is much more intimate, more private, encouraging a closeness [. . .] that wouldn’t otherwise be available.”

Whitney Kerr considered the same matter from a different angle. She explained that her editing work helped her to understand her own family’s experiences within larger narratives in African American history: “I was lacking a connection that I did not even know existed until I had transcribed and edited other stories similar to that of my family.” In reflecting on this years later, she reiterated this idea: “I really appreciate this class for how it has bridged the gap in my emotional understanding.”

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

While members of the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission were especially concerned with proper gender roles, McMillan's answers consistently emphasized that enslaver cruelty shaped every interaction within their communities.

Screenshot of the transcribed testimony of a formerly enslaved person.

Q. The women had the same day's work as the men; but suppose a women was in the family way was her task less?

A. No, sir; most of times she had to do the same work. Sometimes the wife of the planter learned the condition of the woman and said to her husband you must cut down her day's work. Sometimes the women had their children in the field.

Q. Had the women any doctor?

A. No, sir; there is a nurse on the plantation sometimes,–an old midwife who attended them. If a woman was taken in labor in the field some of her sisters would help her home and then come back to the field.

Q. Did they nurse their children?

A. Yes, sir; the best masters gave three months for that purpose.

Q. If a man did not do his task what happened?

A. He was stripped off, tied up and whipped.

Q. What other punishments were used?

A. The punishments were whipping, putting you in the stocks and making you wear irons and a chain at work. Then they had a collar to put round your neck with two horns, like cows' horns, so that you could not lie down on your back or belly. This also kept you from running away for the horns would catch in the bushes. Sometimes they dug a hole like a well with a door on top. This they called a dungeon keeping you in it two or three weeks or a month, and sometimes till you died in there. This hole was just big enough to receive the body; the hands down by the sides. I have seen this thing in Georgia but never here. I know how they whip in the Prisons. They stretch out your arms and legs as far as they can to ring bolts in the floor and lash you till they open the skin and the blood trickles down.

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

In June 1863, Harry McMillan testified abt his experiences in slavery in Georgia & South Carolina. Here he describes the extreme working conditions endured by enslaved people. freedmen.umd.edu/mcmilln.htm

Screenshot of a transcribed interview of a formerly enslaved person:

Testimony of Harry McMillan. (colored)

Harry McMillan testified–

I am about 40 years of age, and was born in Georgia but came to Beaufort when a small boy. I was owned by General Eustis and lived upon his plantation.

Q. Tell me about the tasks colored men had to do?

A. In old secesh times each man had to do two tasks, which are 42 rows or half an acre, in “breaking” the land, and in “listing” each person had to do a task and a half. In planting every hand had to do an acre a day; in hoeing your first hoeing where you hoe flat was two tasks, and your second hoeing, which is done across the beds, was also two tasks. After going through those two operations you had a third which was two and a half tasks, when you had to go over the cotton to thin out the plants leaving two in each hill.

Q. How many hours a day did you work?

A. Under the old secesh times every morning till night–beginning at daylight and continuing till 5 or 6 at night.

Q. But you stopped for your meals?

A. You had to get your victuals standing at your hoe; you cooked it overnight yourself or else an old woman was assigned to cook for all the hands, and she or your children brought the food to the field.

Q. You never sat down and took your food together as families?

A. No, sir; never had time for it.

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Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

"Unless some measures shall be adopted to prevent the escape of the negroes to the enemy," they fretted, "the threat of an Army of trained Africans for the coming fall & winter's campaigns may become a reality."

Company E of the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry pose in formation at Fort Lincoln in Washington, D.C. Original available here: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018667050/

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