Black Soldiers By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry and performed all noncombat support functions that sustain an army, as well. There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers. Black women, who could not formally join the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts

Abolition News Network now introduces a series of videos on the subject of the viewpoints that major Christian denominations took on the abolition of slavery in the United States from the 18th century up to the Civil War as told by their ministers. Discussions include not only their personal viewpoint on keeping slaves but what the Bible says by chapter and verse on the subject, and what they feel that God's position is on slaves and slavery which is considerably buried in the Holy Scriptures.

As a major part of the national acknowledgment of the 150th anniversary of John Brown's raid on the Federal Armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, the Virginia Historical Society presents the exhibition "The Portent: John Brown's Raid in American Memory." The exhibition was on display at the VHS October 2009 through April 2010. (View the online exhibition at http://www.vahistorical.org/johnbrown/introduction.htm) John Brown and his followers easily seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, but soon afterwards Brown was captured, and a number of his men were killed. He did succeed, however, in initiating a national debate about slavery. The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities have generously supported the John Brown exhibition.

I wrote a new book all about the Supreme Court. Order your copy today! http://amzn.to/45Wzhur Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/iammrbeat Mr. Beat's band: http://electricneedleroom.net/ Mr. Beat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/beatmastermatt In episode 11 of Supreme Court Briefs, a slave fights for his family's freedom after they live in free states for a while. Check out cool primary sources here: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/60/393/case.html Additional sources: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/dred-scott-decision-still-resonates-today-2 https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/DredScott.html http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/landmark_dred.html http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/africanamerican/scott/scott.asp St. Louis, Missouri Some time between 1830 and 1833 Dr. John Emerson, an United States Army surgeon, buys a slave named Dred Scott. Emerson moved around a lot, and he always took Scott with him. In 1836, Emerson moved to Fort Armstrong, Illinois, taking Scott with him of course. Interestingly, Missouri was a state where slavery was legal, but in Illinois it was not. The next year, Emerson moved again, this time to the territory of Wisconsin (which is now in the state of Minnesota), where slavery was also illegal. While there, Dred Scott fell in love and married Harriet Robinson, another slave owned by a dude named Lawrence Taliaferro. Emerson ended up moving back to Missouri again shortly after this, leaving Dred and Harriet behind and leasing them out to other army officers. Well guess what? Emerson fell in love, too. He met a chick named Eliza Irene Sanford, who went by Irene, after he moved down to Louisiana for a bit. Hey I told you he moved a lot. Emerson married Sanford in Louisiana, and soon after asked Dred and Harriet to join him again. Harriet was pregnant and ended up having the baby on the trip down somewhere between Illinois and Wisconsin, in free territory. The Emersons and Scotts returned to Missouri a couple years later. John Emerson died in 1843, and Irene inherited his estate and the Scott family. However, for the next three years, Dred and Harriet Scott were hired out to different people. Dred and Harriet first tried to buy their freedom, but that didn’t work. So on April 6, 1846, the Scotts, with some help from legal advisors, sued Irene Emerson to obtain freedom from slavery. By this time, they had two kids. What’s crazy is that the Scotts were able to pay for it due to the family of Dred Scott’s previous owner helping out. The Scotts went through three lawyers over a 14-month period, but ultimately lost the case due to a technicality. Dred and Harriet Scott could not prove they were actually Irene Emerson’s slaves. However, the Scotts lawyers were able to get them a second trial. Due to a major fire, a cholera epidemic, and several other delays, that trial didn’t begin until January 1850. In this trial, they were able to prove that they were Emerson’s slaves.The jury favored the Scotts, granting them their freedom. Yay! Hold up. Not so fast, Emerson’s lawyers said. After all, Emerson would be losing four slaves, worth a lot of money. Her lawyers asked for a new trial, but they were denied. So then they appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, who reversed the decision, arguing the Scotts were still slaves and they should have sued for freedom when they had the chance back when they lived in a free state. Well dang, so the Scotts were still slaves. But this saga isn’t over yet. Dred Scott sued again, on November 2, 1853, this time in federal court. For this suit, a lawyer named Roswell Field agreed to help free of charge. Except, this time, he wasn’t suing Emerson. He was suing her brother, John Sanford, who now claimed ownership of him. Aw how sweet, she gave him a gift. What a nice sister. Scott also alleged that Sanford assaulted his family. The judge went with Sanford because of the Missouri Supreme Court decision that said the Scotts were still slaves. Field was determined to get this one to the Supreme Court, though, as he wanted to settle the question: “did living in a free state or territory permanently free a slave?” The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, but not until February 1856. Keep in mind this is 10 YEARS after the Scotts first sued for freedom. Just Dred officially filed, with the implication his family would be freed as well if they sided with him. It became known as Dred Scott v. Sandford. Wait...SANDford? Yep, even though John Sanford’s name was, you know, Sanford, a clerk misspelled his name in court records and it stayed that way. The Supreme Court justices argued the case multiple times the rest of the year, finally giving a decision on March 6, 1857. The Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Sanford. One final time, Dred Scott and his family were denied their freedom. #supremecourtbriefs #apush #dredscottdecision

Born into slavery in Maryland, Harriet Tubman escaped to freedom in the North in 1849 to become the most famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Tubman risked her life to lead hundreds of family members and other slaves from the plantation system to freedom on this elaborate secret network of safe houses. #Biography Subscribe for more Biography: http://aetv.us/2AsWMPH Delve deeper into Biography on our site: http://www.biography.com Follow Biography for more surprising stories from fascinating lives: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Biography Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/biography Twitter - https://twitter.com/biography Biography.com captures the most gripping, surprising, and fascinating stories about famous people: The biggest break. The defining opportunity. The most shattering failure. The unexpected connection. The decision that changed everything. With over 7,000 biographies and daily features that highlight newsworthy and compelling points-of-view, we are the digital source for true stories about people that matter.

In 1831, a slave rebellion led by #NatTurner shook the South to its core. In its wake, the grip of the slaveholders tightened even further. But who was Nat Turner, how did his #rebellion start, and how should this horrible event be viewed in history? MrBettsClass MERCH - http://bit.ly/MBCtshirt SUPPORT MrBettsClass - http://bit.ly/MBC_Patreon Historical Parody/Skits every Thursday Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MrBettsClass Instagram: http://instagram.com/MrBettsClass Like on FaceBook: http://facebook.com/MrBettsClass August 1831. Southampton County, Virginia. The fears of the slaveholding South were realized. Rebellion. Over 70 slaves, armed with knives, hatchets, and bludgeoning objects swept the pastoral countryside, killing all in their path. Their leader was a slave named Nat Turner. Born in the year 1800, Nat’s mother had been kidnapped and brought from Africa, his father, a slave who later escaped. Nat was quickly seen as a gifted, intelligent child. He was taught to read and found his purpose in the Holy Bible. He would preach to fellow slaves and even some whites, earning him the nickname “Prophet,” and even claimed to receive visions. When he was 22, he escaped and fled, only to return to the plantation voluntarily. When asked why, he claimed “the Spirit appeared to me and said I had my wishes directed to the things of this world, and not to the kingdom of heaven, and that I should return to the service of my earthly master.” But Nat was not back to subserviently serve in bondage. He knew his purpose was to avenge those that suffered under the chains of slavery. At age 27, while working in his master’s field, an intense vision befell him. “The Serpent is loosened. Christ laid down the yoke for the sins of man. You shall take it to fight against the Serpent. The time is near when the first should be last and the last shall be first.” Nat began to prepare, at first confiding only in those closest to him. (4 men) Then, in 1831, a solar eclipse appear in the sky like a black fist blotting out the sun. They planned the uprising for July 4th, Independence Day. But illness befell Nat, and the insurrection was called off. That was until August of the same year, when another solar eclipse occured, and the air turned a ghastly grayish-blue. This was the sign Nat was waiting for. The rebellion began a week later. It started the night of August 21st. The small band of slaves killed Nat’s owner Joseph Travis, his wife, and son, as well as a hired worker, in their beds as they slept. After the group left, they recalled that there was one more member of the Travis family. So two slaves returned to kill the infant in its cradle. Nat felt that this violence was necessary to finally bring about the change needed to awaken abolitionist allies and shake the foundation of slavery to pieces. Also, to Nat, this wasn’t about anger, it was holy retribution. Over the next two days, the rebellion brought Old Testament carnage to the Southampton countryside, killing more than 60 whites in their path, sparing the poorest who it was believed “thought no better of themselves than they did of negroes.” Hundreds of federal troops and thousands of white militiamen intercepted the rebellion on its way to the center of the county’s government, a town named Jerusalem. Nat managed to escape, hiding himself in the woods for over two months until he was found. Once captured, he was quickly tried, convicted, and hanged. His body was desecrated, flayed, and decapitated, with his headless remains buried in an unmarked grave. 30 other slaves, and 1 free black would also be convicted, 19 of them being hanged and the others sold to places far away. This punishment paled in comparison to those African Americans that were murdered by paranoid, vengeful whites. Upwards of 200 blacks were killed by mobs during and following the rebellion. In the aftermath, some whites, including Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grandson to the third President, called for gradual emancipation to remove slavery. Instead, what followed in Virginia were even harsher codes for blacks; no jury trials for African-Americans, free blacks found guilty of crimes could be sold into slavery, and it was now illegal to teach any black to read. Many other southern states followed suit. Nat Turner’s Rebellion was a product of over two centuries of oppression in Virginia. While the concentrated horror committed by those in the insurrection cannot be denied, the horrors inflicted upon them and their ancestors must remembered to begin to understand the event. It was a violent, abominable response to a violent, abominable system and it proved the age-old truth... Evil begets evil.

→Subscribe for new videos every Monday and Thursday! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Visit our companion website for more: http://biographics.org Credits: Host - Simon Whistler Author - Morris M Producer - Jack Cole Executive Producer - Shell Harris Business inquiries to biographics.email@gmail.com Other Biographics Videos: Napoleon Bonaparte: The Strategic Genius https://youtu.be/7wXauVk7DXs?list=PLy3kHTZWA8OjhReWy8qPHMXDtTr-Ezp84 Joseph Stalin: The Red Terror https://youtu.be/KqfcpNrcGb0?list=PLy3kHTZWA8OjhReWy8qPHMXDtTr-Ezp84