Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons (Engaging the Civil War) - Softcover

Newmark, Jill L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809339048 ISBN 13: 9780809339044

Verlag: Southern Illinois University Press, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

Advancing the cause of racial equality while saving lives

Of some twelve thousand Union Civil War surgeons, only fourteen were Black men. This book is the first-ever comprehensive exploration of their lives and service. Jill L. Newmark’s outstanding research uncovers stories hidden for more than 150 years, illuminating the unique experiences of proud, patriotic men who fought racism and discrimination to attend medical school and serve with the U.S. military. Their efforts and actions influenced societal change and forged new pathways for African Americans.
 
Individual biographies bring to light Alexander T. Augusta, who challenged discriminatory laws; William P. Powell Jr., who pursued a military pension for twenty-five years; Anderson R. Abbott, a friend of Elizabeth Keckley’s; John van Surly DeGrasse, the only Black surgeon to serve on the battlefield; John H. Rapier Jr., an international traveler; Richard H. Greene, the only Black surgeon known to have served in the Navy; Willis R. Revels, a preacher; Benjamin A. Boseman, a politician and postmaster; and Charles B. Purvis, who taught at Howard University. Information was limited for five other men, all of whom broke educational barriers by attending medical schools in the United States: Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed, William B. Ellis, Alpheus W. Tucker, Joseph Dennis Harris, and Charles H. Taylor.
 
Newmark presents all available information about the surgeons’ early lives, influences, education, Civil War service, and post-war experiences. Many of the stories overlap, as did the lives of the men. Each man, through his service as a surgeon during the war and his lifelong activism for freedom, justice, and equality, became a catalyst of change and a symbol of an emancipated future.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jill L. Newmark, independent historian, is a former curator and exhibition specialist at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Her exhibits include “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine,” “Within These Walls: Contraband Hospital and the African Americans Who Served There,” and “Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons.” She has published articles in Prologue and Traces, as well as online in Circulating Now and blackpast.org. Find more about her work at www.blackcivilwarsurgeons.com.
 

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INTRODUCTION

On a rainy morning in February 1864, Major Alexander T. Augusta, former surgeon-in-charge of Contraband Hospital in Washington, D.C., left his lodgings to head to a court martial hearing downtown where he was called to testify. As he stepped outside, he hailed the approaching streetcar. He attempted to enter the car, but was stopped by the conductor who told him that he would have to ride upfront with the driver because no Black passengers were permitted to ride inside. Augusta refused and moved forward to take a seat when the conductor physically ejected  him from the car forcing him to walk to the hearing in the rain and delaying his arrival. Outraged, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner introduced legislation to desegregate streetcars in Washington which became law the following year.   

Augusta’s position and status as a military officer and surgeon enabled him to be a catalyst for change through his public activism. His streetcar incident and Sumner’s response illustrate the challenges he and others faced in the fight for equality as well as the ability of an individual to be a force for social and political change. Historian Wilbert L. Jenkins noted that during the Civil War Black people were “central actors in their own lives and not…passive objects of a white-dominated society.” This is certainly true of Augusta and the thirteen other African American men who became physicians and took positions as medical officers in the U.S. Army. They were not complacent or satisfied with only achieving their goal to become physicians, but were committed to using their positions to advance the cause for freedom and equality.    

The lives and accomplishments of fourteen Black men who served as surgeons during the American Civil War are explored in this book through the themes of justice and freedom, patriotism and pride, and the individual as a force for change. The accounts of these men go beyond the obvious merits of their military service to explore the people and influences that shaped their early lives and the impact they made on their communities, their race, and their country. Their ambitions were not deterred by society's prejudicial dictates, and their dignified acts of resistance and pioneering new pathways challenged the status quo. They became symbols of an emancipated future.

In 1860, the enslaved population in the United States was nearly four million, and the country would soon be entrenched in a civil war fighting to unite the country and end slavery. After the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861 that launched the Civil War, many were anxious to fight for the U.S., including Black men, both enslaved and free, who were ready to take up arms. They believed joining the U.S. Army would demonstrate their right to citizenship and their patriotism. The fourteen men featured in this book were among those who were dedicated to the fight for freedom. They were committed to using their medical skills in support of emancipation and in service to thousands of Black soldiers and civilians during the war. Many of these men had been activists and advocates for social and political change prior to the war. Some had participated in the anti-slavery movement and actively promoted education and advancement for African Americans. When they became military surgeons, they moved their activism into a larger theater where they could use their newly acquired positions as military officers to advocate for change and support fellow Black soldiers and formerly enslaved people.  

The idea that Black men in the U.S. Army uniform used their positions and profession to make “claim to equality in the public sphere” and demand “a wider definition of freedom” for themselves and for all African Americans has been advanced by historian Gretchen Long. Enlisted Black soldiers demonstrated this when they publicly paraded with their regiments taking space on the city streets as free men. When Augusta, in full military uniform, refused to stand in an area for Black riders on a streetcar, he laid claim to equality in the public sphere. His act of defiance was a public protest against an unjust and discriminatory law. It was a demand for equality and an act of patriotism. As E.A. Bucchianeri writes, “it’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf, perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do.” Even the simple act of wearing a military uniform in public was patriotic. Black soldiers in uniform demonstrated their desire to unite the country and join in the fight for freedom despite the fact they were not recognized as full citizens with all the rights of citizenship. Though their presence would not usher in a resistance-free movement towards freedom and equality for African Americans, it would serve as a stepping stone towards emancipation and citizenship.

Black soldiers were met with both acceptance and resistance when wearing the U.S. Army uniform. African Americans were proud to see Black men in the Union blue and cheered them when their regiments paraded down city streets. When a battalion of Black soldiers in Little Rock, Arkansas paraded in the city, they were described as “a sight to send a thrill through the heart of every lover of freedom." But Black soldiers did not always face such a jubilant reception. While wearing the uniform in view of white civilians and soldiers, they were often met with resistance and violence. Augusta was attacked on a train in Baltimore by a group of white men while wearing his uniform. When he mustered in with his regiment, he faced opposition to his position as the ranking medical officer by fellow white officers. The white medical officers were not shy to voice their objections to his presence as their superior and did so in a letter to President Abraham Lincoln. Rank and file Black soldiers were often jeered and ridiculed by angry white soldiers and civilians, even suffering the indignities of having their insignia and stripes ripped from their uniforms.

Resistance to the participation of Black soldiers in the war was not unusual. It was expressed by people at all levels of society. President Lincoln did not publicly support the recruitment of Black men before January 1863, when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, as his primary concern was the preservation of the Union. In the summer of 1862, when a visiting delegation of men from the west met with Lincoln offering him two regiments of Black men from Indiana, he responded that “he would employ all colored men offered as laborers, but would not promise to make soldiers of them.” The delegation left with the understanding that “unless some new and more pressing emergency arises," Black men would not be enlisted in the U.S. Army. But as the war lingered on and U.S. Army resources became strained and depleted, it became evident that the recruitment of Black men was a necessity for the U.S. to be victorious.

Recruitment of Black men began in earnest after the formation of the U.S.C. T. in May 1863 with only white officers appointed to lead Black soldiers. Resistance against the full participation of Black men in the army was deep seated in racism. It was fueled by the stereotypes and mythologies about Black people created by a dominant white society in a largely slave-holding country that believed Black people were lazy, unintelligent, irresponsible, had no ambition, and were best suited to menial labor. Although Lincoln eventually supported the recruitment of Black men, many white officers and soldiers clung tightly...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Southern Illinois University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0809339048
• ISBN 13: 9780809339044
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 283
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar