Pennsylvania was among the first states in the nation to arm men of color! Leading African Americans took up the task of recruiting men of color for the Union army. This roster of recruiters includes the list of powerful and dedicated superintendents and conductors of Pennsylvania’s Underground Railroad: William Stills and Octavio Catto in Philadelphia, William Goodrich in York, Stephen Smith in Lancaster, Henry Watson in Chambersburg, Thomas Chester in Harrisburg, John Nesbit in Altoona, John Smith in Johnston, and John Peck, Henry Highland Garnett, and Martin Delany in Pittsburgh. Each was also a founding member of the post-civil war Pennsylvania Equal Rights League which actively conducted voter registration.
Delany’s own words best served as the call to action. He said, “Every people must be the architects of their own destiny.”
Amid the conflagrations of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln sent the 13th amendment forward to congress on Feb 1, 1865. Neither the Confederate nor the Union soldiers in the field were aware of the compromises in Washington, D.C. Therefore, the intensity of the battle raged on. Months after Robert E. Lee’s surrendered in April 1865 at Appomattox, months after Lincoln’s assassination and the nation’s mourning along the rails of his funeral train, armed conflicts and deaths continued.
On June 19, 1865 Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas declaring a cease fire, and announced the war’s end. By then, 180,000 free and freed men of color had served in the United States Colored Troops. Almost 20,000 more had served in the Navy. In addition, thousands of enslaved contraband had taken up arms to serve the Union cause and assure their freedom.
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