I?ve been swept up recently in a bit of history, and anticipate this will continue for the next several years. This spring marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, and the New York Times has been running daily pieces on the events, often including day-by-day, blow-by-blow accounts.
They have a pay wall on the site now, limiting you to 20 free articles a month, but if you join the Facebook page for this special coverage, you can access it for free. It can be found at www.facebook.com/nytimescivilwar.
It?s had me aghast, reading the contemporary accounts from the time. I recently found some want ads from the Richmond, Virginia Daily Dispatch newspaper. Along with the normal buy and sell ads, they had a section called ?Runaways.? Here?s a few ads from the April 15, 1861 edition, the day the war started:
?$20 reward?
?Ranaway from, the subscriber, on the first day of this month, a Negro woman named Sarah. She is about 40 years old. She is from the estate of Samuel Leake, and is now held by Walter D. Leake, Trustee. She is now in Richmond, with a forged pass. She has lived in Richmond for several years. She lived for the last two years with Mr. L. B. Conway, on 2d, between Broad and Marshall streets. She has two daughters; the oldest is an invalid, the other a sprightly girl, 11 years old. She has two sisters in Richmond, one living on Marshall, between 2nd and 1st streets, the other on St. James Street, near the corporation line. I will pay the above reward if sent to me at Ashland, or confined in jail, so I can get her again. Henry Saunders?
And a second one:
?Twenty dollars reward?
?I will give the above reward for the delivery to me of a Negro Man, named is Israel. He is about 20 years old, dark brown color, rather low and stout, and has lost part of his first finger on his right hand. He had on when he left my kitchen a soft black hat; coat and vest a sort of grey color, brown pants and brogue shoes, and carried with him a blue [satiinet] sack which he sometimes wore as an overcoat. I think he has hardly left the city of his own accord, but that he is detained against his will, or has been dealt foully with. He was last seen on Monday night going up Cary street, near 6th. Samuel M. Bailey?
And a third:
?$25 reward?
?Ran away from my farm, Long Row, Hanover county, about the 8th of January, a Negro Man, named Peter Brown, about 21 years old, of a dark brown color, with a scar on one side of his neck; also a small one on his knee; very long-legged, and upwards of six feet high. The above reward will be paid, if delivered to me, or secured in jail. Wm. J. Carpenter.?
How could society, not so long ago, treat people like this? How could we auction people off, buy them and sell them, and whip them when they didn?t want to work, literally, as a slave? How could we treat their offspring in the same way we do calves at the auction today ? raise them until they?re big enough to be sold at a profit? I wonder how slave Peter Brown, 21, got that long scar on his neck?
It?s under this context that now, finally, a black president is in the White House. And yet just last week, he had to produce his long form birth certificate to get the nut job ?birthers? off his back. They were obviously so discontent to have a black man as president, they would do anything to deny his legitimacy.
We?ve come so far, and yet obviously not far enough.
? Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
