To introduce our next speaker, i will like to bring and the editor of our journal, wendy swanson. Wendy swanson i am very honored to stand at this pulpit and very honored to be introducing our next speaker, Edna Greene Medford who many of you know. She is a very treasured friend of the Lincoln Group and one of our members. She always provides us with wellcrafted, meaningful remarks. She is an author, much published. The chair of the History Department at howard and coauthor of the publication the emancipation proclamation review. And editor of the price of freedom series, slavery and the civil war. We also have if you have not seen the series by Southern Illinois university press, she is the author of lincoln and emancipation. If you do not know the series, you should become acquainted with it. A series of articles, publications, small books really good Stocking Stuffers about lincoln, a variety of topics. Let me read you a little review from this publication. This is by john martz lack, the executive director of the grant president ial library. Medfords account does justice to the role of president Abraham Lincoln in the freeing of the slaves into the role of africanamericans and their self emancipation. Her research is the role and her insight. Medford had created the masterpiece that students of civil war and africanAmerican History must read. And if you do not have a copy, we have a publication table downstairs for you this publication is available to review and look at and to purchase. Professor medford is also a valued advisor to many boards and on the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation board. Lincoln study center, Abraham Lincoln institute, she also has served as the scholar is Advisory Council for president lincolns year inc. Washington in washington, d. C. She received a special award in 2009 from the state of illinois for her lincoln studies and last but not least, she received our own Lincoln Group award a few years ago. She is a respected historian and valued friend of the Lincoln Group. Today, she is going to be talking a one of the most important legacies of lincoln in the civil war era the story of the african american. Please welcome Edna Greene Medford. [applause] professor medford thank you for that fine introduction. I was wondering who you were talking about. I was given permission to close this because i am so short. I would like to thank the Lincoln Group of d. C. For the opportunity to present at this morning and especially to present at this pulpit. It is very special. I had no idea that this was so special. I am delighted to be one of the few to be able to present from this pulpit this morning. In august 1865, nearly four months after the civil war ended, jordan anderson, 40yearold former property of Patrick Henry anderson senior of big spring tennessee dictated a letter intended for delivery to his former owner. The slaveholder had requested anderson and his family return to big spring to work at the Old Plantation where his owner assured him he would be treated fairly. Then slave demand had received his freedom from the local Provost Marshal a year earlier. After working at a hospital in nashville had made his way to dayton ohio. The letter he sent to his owner reflected the confidence and determination one would expect of a free man. I am doing terribly well here. I get 25 a month including food and clothing. A comfortable home for mandy. The folks call her mrs. Anderson and the children go to school and are learning well. Although he maintained a respectful tone despite the dripping sarcasm you will note at a moment, anderson did not hesitate to get down to business for you now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, he pressed, i will be able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again. Anderson pointed out he already had his freedom so there was no incentive to return to tennessee. Asked his former owner had suggested. As a test of patricks sincerity, jordan asked he and his wife receive the wages owed for the many years of uncompensated labor. I served you faithfully for 32 years, he recalled and mandy 20 years. 25 a month for me and two dollars a week for mandy, our earnings would amount to 11,680. Was interest is added and inductions made for clothing and occasional medical care, anderson believed the balance would show what we are entitled to. The friedman was interested in noting if schools had been established to teach children of color. His desire was to give my children in education and have them form virtuous habits. Since this letter was First Published by a local newspaper, there is been much debated about the authenticity. Many doubt a former slavery slave could have articulated his knees and desires so skillfully. Perhaps the skeptics are justified in their skepticism. The white man to whom anderson dictated a letter may have polished its words but the aspirations expressed, the expectation of pay for honest labor, the right to live a dignified life, education for ones children, and opportunity to guide the moral development reflected the sentiment of freedom black men and women. Formerly enslaved as well as freeborn. When the war began four years earlier, black men and women did not have the expectation. They had suffered more than two centuries of exploitation and abuse in america. Nearly 4 million enslaved in 1860 could expect only continued drudgery and subjugation. While slavery had been eliminated from the north, it remained entrenched through the Southern Region and was characterized by uncompensated labor, separation of family, physical and psychological brutality and basic inhumanity. Even though those who were free could look forward only to secondclass status denied Voting Rights even in most of the northern states, relegated to the more menial occupations barred from an equal to public accommodations in school and physical abuse from even and especially actually newly arrived immigrants. They were treated as if they were a foreign entity in the land of their birth long before dress scott versus sanford made it official, free africanamericans recognized that they had no rights which white men were bound to respect. Lincolns actions during the war and the experiences of African Americans during those years helped to alter the trajectory of black life. The emancipation proclamation began the process of transforming people as human property into legally recognized human beings. Men accustomed to obeying that every command of white men and women were transformed into soldiers fighting to secure their own freedom as well the serving as a Liberating Force for their people. Mothers and fathers were denied authority over their children cut now protect them from exploitation. Black women denied status of their white counterparts enjoy the respectability that came with legally sanctioned marriages. What if those events did as well was to expand black aspirations. Just as antebellum slave holders insisted on keeping their enslaved potter property illiterate, knowing that reading spoil the slaves. To experience the whole range of freedom. Although it may not have in clearly defined, equality of opportunity became a principal focus for the newly emancipated as well as for the prewar freed. Their tradition of agitation and protest that had marked black efforts to secure justice and equality in the prewar years were strengthened as africanamericans encouraged by the possibility created by emancipation craft more forcefully to achieve the rights of other americans. Africanamerican aspirations during the war and and the ensuing years centered around three essential ingredients of equality. Economic independence, education, and Political Rights. What are the order of importance dictated by prewar status and geographic location. And i think i probably differ from many historians because i think economic independence was more important than anything else. Many historians think Political Rights were first and foremost and i do not think that in all. Maybe men in the north freed or born free had recognized that they were not consider citizens for Political Rights but what is happening in the south usually is a greater emphasis on economic independence. The pursuit of each threatened compromise social order that had been carefully constructed and maintained since before the founding of the nation. Former slave owners and former slaves envisioned a different future for america. Men and women would always been in control of a perceived inferior group could hardly had imagined equality with her former property. The former slave contrarily could hardly imagine anything else. As they were well aware of what slavery had denied them and equally determine to seize upon whatever opportunity presented themselves that would mitigate adverse effects. Blackandwhite interests were destined to clash became immediately apparent in the former slaves quest for economic independence. Real freedom came from control over the terms and conditions of their labor. As former owners sought to return to the old system of cheap, if not uncompensated labor, the friedman and women resisted and refusing to sign contracts that were commonly negotiated after 1865 by the Friedman Bureau agency. The rural environment of the 19th century, economic independence was achievable through Land Ownership which connoted status as well. One that extended beyond wealth. They had always had any emotional connection to the land where they lived. These were places that could be a king to hell akin to hell where the slaves could find a sense of belonging. A louisiana planter complaint the free people relate the plantations and everything on them below to them. It was because of their labor had produced the great wealth of these areas and this was home. Logic dictated then that with the Union Victory and black freedom, the former slave would inherit the land or in share it with former owners. This is the logic as seen by people will had been enslaved in the south. This was the motivation for a group of black religious leaders who met in january 1864 with secretary of War Edwin Stanton and made the general william t sherman. 20 man and age from 26 year old freeborn james lynch 272yearold former slave taylor represented the aspirations of africanamericans who inhabited a coastal nc island areas of South Carolina and georgia. Some of the group freed during the war and five had never known slavery. Two of the churches represented wouldve been comparable to the large institutions of today with congregations ranging from 1200 two 1800 worshipers. A big church during that time. The delegation selected 67yearold garrison fraser who had a minister to the spiritual needs of his people for 35 years. They selected him as their official spokesman is bypassing the five freeborn men. It is interesting they turn to someone will had been enslaved rather than someone born free. Eight years earlier, fraser had purchased himself and his wife for 1000 in gold and silver. His precarious health prevented him from pastoring a church and one wonders where does a black men get 1000. Remember where he is. He is enslaved in the area coastal area South Carolina where there is a tax system and once you finish with what you need to do, you can be put out to work for somebody else. The owner is willing to give a small portion of the money back to the laborer and so over a lifetime, someone could actually save enough money to purchase his or her freedom if the owner with an agreement to that. Fraser tempted to a sure the union man although former slaves loyalty to the government and capacity to provide for themselves. The way we can best take care of ourselves, he suggest, is to have a land and turn it until it by our own labor and maintain ourselves and have something to spare. We want to be placed on land until we are able to buy it and make it our own. For fraser in other free people, the acquisition auglaize freedom the acquisition of land was the most tangible evidence they had its eight some of the disabilities slavery had imposed. Not the ability to cast a ballot or hold Public Office or unimportant. Certainly Voting Rights mattered. Former slaves understood their rights as free men could not be maintained without the ability to determine what the laws would impact their lives. The thrust for the elected franchise emanated primarily from the freeborn and the prewar freed blacks had been denied the rights of citizenship as i indicated earlier. The recently emancipated freedom could only be achieved through economic independence. Other factors can be of secondary concern. Aspirations among freed men and women for possession of the land they had worked increased with the plight of the planters in the face of union advanced. Certain areas of the South Plantations and farms were confiscated for nonpayment of the direct tax levied on all of these. Such land was subject to sale. Prices that made purchase exceedingly difficult for the free people. Even when they pulled their meager resources, they really could gather enough funds to compete financially with white investors. Many of home from the north. Their inability to acquire the land through normal means led some to appeal to the man who had to clear them free. One would be a landowner from the sea island, eloquent and sentiment pleaded with the white to tell lincoln that we want the land. This very land rich with the sweat of blood. He explained they were born on the land and their parents were buried in its soil. Black men had fought with the union forces at fort wagner and in florida. Wherever the government had sent them, the man requested that lincoln instruct those in charge to apportion the lots in a way that would be more accessible to the local black population. A solution seemingly came in the form a general shermans special order number 15. Although is motivation was not so much inspired by the lament of black farmers but by the generals desire to rid himself of the burden presented by thousands of destitute former slaves who had attached themselves to an army, free people were given a whole. Within a few days of meeting with a black religious leaders sherman issued that the islands from charleston to northern florida and the abandoned rice fields from the coastal regions 30 miles inland would be reserved for settlement by black men and women who had been made free by the acts of war and president s proclamation. Sherman further stipulated with the exception of military personnel detailed for duty, no white person would be allowed to live on the island and in the settlements established by the order. Black people would have complete charge of the area, levied only by the authority of the u. S. Government. Land would be distributed and plots of not more than 40 acres. Each head of household would receive a possessory title and eventually what would happen was it would assumed they would acquire enough funds to purchase the land outright. Believing their future would be secured, the free people settled on the land but their hopes were dashed a few years later when the original owners were allowed to regain possession. This is after lincoln leaves the scene, after he is assassinated and andrew johnson, who hated southern planters, decided it is really interesting to rub elbows with these rich guys. He started doing them favors and pardon them one by one. As are able to get their land back. General oliver directed the Friedman Bureau had the task of notifying the freed men that the land they thought of their own would have to be surrendered and the freed men should make peace with their former masters. You asked us to forgive the landowners of the island, they responded bitterly in a petition to the civil war hero. You only lost your right arm in war. The man who tied me to a true and gave me 39 lashes and who stripped and flogged my mother and my sister and who will not let me stay in his empty hut except i will do his planting and be satisfied with the price and combined with others to keep away land from well knowing i would not have anything to do with him if i had land of my own. Data a man i cannot will forgive. Despite the ultimate loss, the free people were fortunate since most africanamericans never got the chance to possess the land even for a short time. Instead, they usually labored on government forms or lands leased against northerners and southern white men. Occasionally a group of africanamericans managed to rent some of the a greenwich a usually those a great as some the groups were black men who served and got bounties for their service. These lands were cultivated by the free people for wages but the arrangement resembled too closely what they had known under slavery. In louisiana, the system of free labor instituted by general banks allowed friedman to choose their place of employment but force them to sign labor contracts for the entire year. Any infraction of the rule enclosed by the land owner whether insolence or disobedience could result in forfeiture for pay or arrest. Every colored man would be a slave until he can raise his own bill of cotton and put his own is say this is mine suggested prince rivers, a sea island resident served with the South Carolina volunteers for in the post emancipation era most was share sharecropping. Financially unable to rent to the land for cash, they agreed to cultivate someone elses property in exchange for a portion of the harvest. Had the system operated fairly it might have been an acceptable solution to the problem of limited funds on both sides. Instead, just honest bookkeeping and a culture of intimidation and asked what tatian diminish the diminished the economic independence. Recognitions of the benefits of literacy also shaped and expanded black aspirations in the post era.