Abraham Lincoln in his Times Chapter 20 Politics, Race, and the Culture Wars Part 4

Abraham Lincoln in his Times Chapter 20 Politics, Race, and the Culture Wars Part 4

capacity, and in August, he authorized the creation of the First South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, a black regiment that by November was commanded by Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Having been a member of John Brown’s Secret Six of supporters, Higginson later recalled, “I had been an abolitionist too long, and had known and loved John Brown too well, not to feel a thrill of joy at last on finding myself in the position where he only wished to be.” 67 (Not only was Higginson one of the most radical people of the era, but he had a head for language. He was the first to publish Emily Dickinson’s poetry, and he helped preserve Negro spirituals and the Gullah dialect in his book Army Life in a Black Regiment. ) Higginson declared that “the key to the successful prosecution of this war lies in the unlimited employment of black troops.” The Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 freed the enslaved in rebel states and announced that “such persons of suitable condition, will be received in…