“Black Troops Near Petersburg”

“U.S. Colored Troops sit in front of a bombproof shelter dug out of a hillside in the lines in front of Petersburg. This photograph was made on August 7, 1864, just a week after the disastrous Battle of the Crater, during which many African American soldiers were massacred. Trapped in the so-called Crater—a huge opening in the ground created by a massive underground explosion—the Colored Troops turned into easy prey for Confederate soldiers standing above them. During intense fighting, Confederate soldiers slaughtered both armed and unarmed black soldiers and ignored their pleas to surrender. The events of that day constituted one of the worst battlefield atrocities of the Civil War.”
“Blacks Troops Near Petersburg,” Encyclopedia Virginia

The image is available at the Library of Congress. It’s described in the catalog as “Petersburg, Virginia. Near view of bombproof in the advance line.”

See “The Battle of the Crater” posted on February 24, 2020.

Read Full Post »

Oyster Shuckers on the Atlantic Coast

The caption for this image at the Library of Congress is “A crowd of negro oyster shuckers. On the Atlantic Coast the negroes are employed more than the whites, but they do not work the little ones so much. Varn & Platt Canning Co. Location: Bluffton, South Carolina.” The photograph by Lewis Hine is in the National Child Labor Committee Collection. Click here or on the image to access the catalog record.

Men, women, and children worked as oyster shuckers in factories from New York to Florida. It was seasonal work, monotonous and difficult. It required standing for hours, handling cold, rough-shelled oysters, and wielding a sharp curved knife in swift and repetitive motions.

For more information see “Oyster Shuckers” in the Encyclopedia Virginia.

Read Full Post »

Black Members of the Grand Army of the Republic, Norfolk, Virginia

Photograph by Harry C. Mann circa 1910

“Black veterans of the Civil War gather for a reunion in Norfolk circa 1910. The forty-one men in the photograph were likely recruited in the area during the Civil War, served in black Union regiments, and then became members of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). Most of the men recruited in the area had been formerly enslaved.”
Click here to see the complete entry at the Encyclopedia Virginia.

Read Full Post »

Cape Charles Lighthouse, Northampton County, Virginia

This image appears in an educational module in the Document Bank of the Library of Virginia. The original photograph “Cape Charles Light, 1890” is at the Eastern Shore Public Library (Accomack, VA.), Eastern Shore Virginia Room.

“Cape Charles Light Station was constructed in 1894 on Smith Island in Northampton County, replacing an earlier 1864 structure. The Light Station is positioned on the southern tip of the Delmarva peninsula where it marks the east side of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. The octagonal pyramidal exoskeleton cast-iron tower stands 191 feet tall and continues to serve the maritime community as a signal beacon today.”
Click here to read the rest of the summary published by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

“Cape Charles was a busy seaport in the early 19th century. With the advent of the railroad, it became an important juncture for cargo bound for Norfolk and passengers to be ferried between trains … The keepers and their families lived in the keeper’s quarter built within 100 feet of the light tower. After 1939, when the Coast Guide took over the station, the personnel served four days on the island and then had a two-day break. Their families lived off the island.”
Click here to read the entire National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.

Read Full Post »

[Unidentified African American soldier in Union cavalry uniform with sword]

This ambrotype is among thousands of photographs in the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress. The title of this image was devised by Library staff.

Read Full Post »