Events early in the war quickly forced Northern authorities to address the issue of emancipation.

In May 1861, just a month into the war, three slaves (Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend) owned by Confederate Colonel Charles K. Mallory escaped from Hampton, Virginia, where they had been put to work on behalf of the Confederacy, and sought protection within Union-held Fortress Monroe before their owner sent them further south. When Col. Mallory demanded their return under the Fugitive Slave Law, Union General Benjamin F. Butler instead appropriated the fugitives and their valuable labor as “contraband of war.” The Lincoln administration approved Butler’s action, and soon other fugitive slaves (often referred to as “contrabands”) sought freedom behind Union lines.

The increasing number of fugitives and questions about their status eventually prompted action by the United States Congress.

On August 6, 1861, Congress passed the First Confiscation Act, which negated owners’ claims to escaped slaves whose labor had been used on behalf of the Confederacy.

 In 1862 Congress also acted against slavery in areas under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Congress abolished slavery in the federal District of Columbia on April 16 with a compensated emancipation program. This action must have been particularly satisfying to President Lincoln, who as Congressman Lincoln had in the late 1840s drafted a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Finding the measure lacking support, Lincoln never introduced it.

Congress further outlawed slavery in federal territories in June 1862.

On August 5, 1861, the United States Army officially abolished flogging as a form of corporal punishment. Until that point, it had routinely been used as punishment for soldiers who disobeyed orders.

Flogging, also known as flagellation, is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Special tools were often used, including rods, switches, the cat o’ nine tails, and the sjambok, a heavy leather whip traditional in South Africa. Typically, flogging is imposed on an unwilling subject as a punishment. It was the preferred form of punishment for slaves at the time, and commonly used to discipline soldiers in the military.

Flogging was not just common in the United States. In the 1700s and 1800s, European armies administered floggings to common soldiers who committed breaches of military code. It was also used in France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, during which the maximum number of lashes allowed reached as high as 1,200! During the American Revolutionary War, Congress raised the legal limit on lashes from 39 to 100 for soldiers who were convicted by court-martial. Generally, officers were not flogged.

On August 5, 1861, the United States Army officially banned flogging as a form of punishment, thought it was still routinely used on slaves at that time.

Today, only Singapore still officially uses flogging as a form of military punishment, though there are many uncorroborated reports of use of corporal punishment in several other countries.

POSTED BY JAE JONES – MARCH 25, 2022 – BLACK HISTORY, HISTORY, LATEST POSTS, RACE RIOTS

The Lombard Street Riot was a three-day race riot that occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1842. The riot started on Lombard Street, between Fifth and Eighth streets.

On August 1, 1842, more than 1,000 African Americans gathered to participate in a temperance parade to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the West Indies. The group was attacked on Fourth Street by an Irish mob that beat many of the marchers and destroyed black homes in the area. The attack went on for three days.

The Irish rioters headed west toward the home of prominent and outspoken African American leader Robert Purvis at 9th and Lombard. Purvis sat on the steps of his home armed and ready.

Although his home was spared from the inferno by the intervention of a Catholic priest. Purvis eventually relocated permanently to his rural Bucks County home.

The Irish immigrants and African Americans lived in the vicinity and often competed for the same low paying jobs and places to live. Both groups felt their hard work and economic gains were being constantly threatened.

During this period of time, free African Americans were never truly safe because of fugitive slave laws, and in 1838 Pennsylvania stripped free blacks of their right to vote. The strength and vitality of Philadelphia’s fast-growing free-black community generated fear, frustration which ultimately led to violence on the part of the Irish immigrants.

Of those arrested by the militia, most were found not guilty or otherwise released. The three or four who were convicted received only light sentences.

source:

http://www.philaplace.org/story/62/

1492 – Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. The voyage led him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.

1750 – Christopher Dock completed the first book of teaching methods. It was titled “A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management.”

1777 – During the Siege of Fort Stanwix the first U.S. flag was officially flown during battle.

1880 – The American Canoe Association was formed at Lake George, NY.

1900 – Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. was founded.

1914 – Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany.

1922 – WGY radio in Schenectady, NY, presented the first full-length melodrama on radio. The work was “The Wolf”, written by Eugene Walter.

1923 – Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Harding.

1933 – The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.

1936 – The U.S. State Department advised Americans to leave Spain due to the Spanish Civil War.

1936 – Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.

1943 – Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.

1949 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

1956 – Bedloe’s Island had its name changed to Liberty Island.

1958 – The Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as “Operation Sunshine.”

1979 – Johnny Carson, the “Tonight Show” host, was on the cover of the Burbank, CA, telephone directory.

1981 – U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President Reagan had warned. 

1984 – Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

1985 – Mail service returned to a nudist colony in Paradise Lake, FL. Residents promised that they’d wear clothes or stay out of sight when the mailperson came to deliver.

1988 – The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No ties were made between U.S. President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.

1988 – The Soviet Union released Mathias Rust. He had been taken into custody on May 28, 1987 for landing a plane in Moscow’s Red Square.

1989 – Hashemi Rafsanjani was sworn in as the president of Iran.

1990 – Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of Kuwait could spread.

1992 – The U.S. Senate voted to restrict and eventually end the testing of nuclear weapons. 

1992 – Russia and Ukraine agreed to put the Black Sea Fleet under joint command. The agreement was to last for three years.

1995 – Eyad Ismoil was flown from Jordan to the U.S. to face charges that he had driven the van that blew up in New York’s World Trade Center.

2004 – In New York, the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

2004 – NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011. On April 30, 2015, Messenger crashed into the surface of Mercury after sending back more than 270,000 pictures. 

2009 – Bolivia became the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.