A Civil War-era African-American spiritual, Go Down, Moses, was first used as a rallying anthem for people who had escaped slavery sometime before July 1862. It could have originated from Virginia in 1853. The sheet music was published under the title Oh! Let My People Go: The Song of the Contrabands in 1862, words and music by Rev. L. C. Lockwood, arranged by Thomas Baker and published by Horace Waters.
The spiritual, also known as When Israel Was in Egypt's Land, describes the exodus of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. The lyrics discuss freedom to both Israelites and enslaved people.
In an authorized biography of Harriet Tubman, she stated she used Go Down Moses as one of two code songs during her work with the Underground Railroad. It is possible that the song predates the 1853 claim.
On February 8, 1865, Martin Delany, born as a free man in Charles Town, Virginia January 24, 1812, was commissioned as a major in the US Army, becoming the first African-American field officer.
Growing up, Delany and his siblings learned to read and write by their mother, despite the prohibition of educating black people. His mother moved them to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to ensure their continued freedom and learning. His father joined them a year later, after he was allowed to buy his freedom.
At 19, Martin traveled to Pittsburgh, where he attended the Cellar School of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and apprenticed with a white physician. He was one of four black men accepted into Harvard Medical School, but were dismissed after white supremacists complained.
Delany continued to be active in medicine and politics, attending his first National Negro Convention in 1835. He began publishing The Mystery, the first black-owned newspaper printed west of the Appalachians.
In 1856, he moved his family to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, where he assisted in the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves who reached freedom in Canada.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for a military draft. Delany began recruiting black men for the Union Army, and raised thousands of enlistees, forming the new United States Colored Troops. In early 1865, Delany was granted an audience with Lincoln and proposed a corps of black men led by black officers, who could win over black Southerners to the Union.
He was commissioned as major February 8, 1865 as the first black major in the US Army, and achieving the highest rank a black man would reach during the Civil War.
Read more on this amazing man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Delany
Wade in the Water is an African-American spiritual, a genre of music created and sung by African-Americans in slavery. Wade in the Water was estimated to be written during the Civil War around 1863, but the lyrics were not published until 1901, by Frederick J. Work and his brother John Wesley. The first commercial recording was made by the Sunset Four Jubilee Singers and released by Paramount Records.
The song is associated with Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. It is believed that Tubman, who made thirteen trips to the South and helped free more than 70 people, used this song to warn slaves to get off the main trail and into the water to prevent the slavers' dogs from finding them.
The song has been modified, updated, and recorded many times in the past one hundred years. Billy Preston and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass have released instrumental versions of it.
Shadrach Minkins escaped slavery in Virginia in 1850 and fled to Boston. He worked as a waiter until February 1851 when he was arrested by federal marshals and taken to the courthouse. The Boston Vigilance Committee, an abolitionist organization to protect escaped slaves from being captured and returned to slavery in the South, hired lawyers to defend Minkins.
On February 15, 1851, about twenty black activists stormed the courthouse, overpowered the marshals, and released Minkins. They spirited him away in a wagon to Beacon Hill and hid him in an attic until nightfall. With the help of the Underground Railroad, he escaped to Canada.
He settled in Montreal and never returned to the United States. He passed away in December 1875.
Thomas Elkins, born in 1818, was a dentist, surgeon, pharmacist and inventor. He received an education in pharmacy and ran a small drugstore until economic difficulties forced him to close. He focused on dentistry and minor surgery. He studied dentistry under Dr. Charles Payne, and surgery under Dr. Marsh.
He participated in the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to Canada. The house where he and his wife operated the "best-run" Underground Railroad station in New York is now owned by the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region, Inc.
During the Civil War, Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts appointed him to be the medical examiner in the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantries. He improved the refrigerating apparatus, which prevented the decay of human corpses and food.
He patented an chamber-commode, a predecessor to the toilet.
Harriet Tubman: American abolitionsit, humanitarian and armed scout and spy for the US Army.
Harriet Tubman, born into slavery about 1822, became an
armed scout and spy during the Civil War. She saved her family and
approximately seventy more enslaved family and friends. Tubman used the Underground Railroad, a
network of safe houses, making thirteen successful trips.
She is also the first woman to lead an armed expedition in
the Civil War, the raid at Combahee Ferry, in which she helped liberate 700
slaves.
Harriet Tubman will be featured on the new $20 bill,
entering circulation in 2020.
