Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Fry. They were going
Speaker 1: to talk about a man named Thomas Morris Chester and
Speaker 1: he was the first African American war correspondent working for
Speaker 1: a major daily newspaper. And that's pretty much how you
Speaker 1: will see him talked about in most of the places
Speaker 1: where he has talked about. Yeah, if you ever are
Speaker 1: looking him up online in a search, that's usually like
Speaker 1: the text that appears next to his next to the
Speaker 1: primary link or picture. Yeah, it's that's pretty much how
Speaker 1: he's discussed often. And he's not really a well known
Speaker 1: figure in American history overall. Um. He covered the Civil
Speaker 1: War for the Pennsylvania Press, and in the course of
Speaker 1: his work he saw the Union Army sees the Confederate
Speaker 1: capital of Richmond firsthand. But he had a lot of
Speaker 1: aspects to his life besides just this war correspondent work, um,
Speaker 1: which are pretty notable. He played a role in pretty
Speaker 1: important parts of U. S history before and after the war.
Speaker 1: So we're not going to talk just about his war
Speaker 1: correspondence work today. We're also going to talk about his
Speaker 1: long and kind of troubled relationship with the colonization movement
Speaker 1: from before the war. Uh. That movement encouraged freed slaves
Speaker 1: to immigrate to Africa. And we're also going to talk
Speaker 1: some about the years after the war when he moved
Speaker 1: to the Deep South to try to work for civil
Speaker 1: rights for African Americans. So we'll start at the beginning
Speaker 1: with his birth, which was on May eleventh of eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty four in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His mother, Jane Murray, had
Speaker 1: escaped from slavery when she was nineteen, making her way
Speaker 1: from Baltimore, Maryland, to York, Pennsylvania in eighteen five. His father,
Speaker 1: George sold oysters, which we talked about oysters recently as well.
Speaker 1: Uh and Thomas had eleven siblings, six of whom actually
Speaker 1: lived to adulthood. Apart from the oyster selling, they also
Speaker 1: ran a successful restaurant near the courthouse in Harrisburg, and
Speaker 1: they were abolitionists, So their restaurant became this hub for
Speaker 1: both general socializing in Harrisburg and for the abolition movement.
Speaker 1: So abolitionists would meet at the restaurant to plan and
Speaker 1: organize and to pick up a copy of The Liberator,
Speaker 1: which was William Lloyd Garrison's anti slavery newspaper. And although
Speaker 1: there were many free African Americans living in Harrisburg, their
Speaker 1: lives weren't particularly easy. Laws restricted basic civil rights, and
Speaker 1: racism was prevalent. Since Thomas's parents were running a successful business,
Speaker 1: they were living pretty comfortably as a family, especially compared
Speaker 1: to many other black Americans at the time. His parents
Speaker 1: really worked to make sure all of their children received
Speaker 1: an education, and this was not really some thing that
Speaker 1: everyone was able to afford or do. No, that's notable
Speaker 1: for sure. So when Thomas was sixteen, he started attending
Speaker 1: the Allegheny Institute and Mission Church outside of Pittsburgh, and
Speaker 1: this was a co educational school for African Americans that
Speaker 1: was founded by abolitionist Charles Avery. It was reportedly also
Speaker 1: a stop on the underground railroad. He left the institute
Speaker 1: two years later, in part because of the changing climate
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania when it came to slavery. Pennsylvania had passed
Speaker 1: a gradual emancipation law in seventeen eighty. It was the
Speaker 1: first state to do this actually, and the law did
Speaker 1: not actually free any slaves when it passed instead, it
Speaker 1: gradually free the people born after that point who would
Speaker 1: have been slaves by having them be indentured servants until
Speaker 1: the age of Yes, this was kind of a it
Speaker 1: was a way to gradually free people, but it definitely
Speaker 1: did not confer immediate freedom on anyone. Like, No, probably
Speaker 1: most of the people living at the time it was
Speaker 1: passed would never really it would be their subsequent generations,
Speaker 1: very gradual. Yeah. If if a person was born into
Speaker 1: slavery the day before the law went into effect, that
Speaker 1: person was born a slave, but a person who was
Speaker 1: born to slave parents the day after, um would instead
Speaker 1: be an indentured servant until they were twenty eight years old.
Speaker 1: The Scott revised a little bit over the first few
Speaker 1: years after the law was passed so that that person
Speaker 1: would gradually become a free person rather than a slave.
Speaker 1: It was sort of meant to be a gradual way
Speaker 1: to give people their freedom without actually inconveniencing a lot
Speaker 1: of slaveholders. Yeah, there was a lot of progress in
Speaker 1: this time that was extremely slow and did not really
Speaker 1: seem like progress at all at the time. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that's that's when, um, you know, theory of government
Speaker 1: and politics is that gradual changes better than a media change,
Speaker 1: and it's just a mindset that was at play there. Well,
Speaker 1: there was also a mindset of wanting to appease people
Speaker 1: and not stoke the fires of anger among people who's uh,
Speaker 1: who were using slaves in their labor right, which is
Speaker 1: kind of those two things kind of played together. No,
Speaker 1: you need to get used to the idea that you're
Speaker 1: not going to have this forever, I know, and to
Speaker 1: a modern listener that can just be so horrifying that
Speaker 1: there was any appeasing of people who owned slaves. But
Speaker 1: that's really something that was going on pretty extensively. By
Speaker 1: eighteen forty, which is when Thomas was six, there were
Speaker 1: only sixty four slaves in Pennsylvania according to the Census.
Speaker 1: So by the time the Fugitive Slave Act was passed
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty, nearly all of the African Americans in
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania were free, although many of them were working off
Speaker 1: this indenture that the gradual Emancipation Law had put into place.
Speaker 1: In Harrisburg, in particular, Ler, most of the African Americans
Speaker 1: living there even owned their own homes by this point,
Speaker 1: but because the Fugitive Slave Act required runaway slaves to
Speaker 1: be returned south to their owners, and gave African Americans
Speaker 1: virtually no rights to defend themselves if they were accused
Speaker 1: of being runaways. Many free people in the North, regardless
Speaker 1: of whether they had been slaves, were legitimately afraid that
Speaker 1: they would be quote returned south into slavery, and as
Speaker 1: one can imagine, this made many consider leaving the country altogether.
Speaker 1: This desire to leave was compounded for many by the
Speaker 1: feeling that there was really no reason to fight to
Speaker 1: stay in a country where they would never have fair treatment.
Speaker 1: Slavery had been abolished in Canada along with the rest
Speaker 1: of the British Empire seventeen years before, so many free
Speaker 1: African Americans in Pennsylvania and elsewhere chose to flee to
Speaker 1: Canada to avoid the threat of being taken south. Others,
Speaker 1: including Thomas, chose to emigrate to Liberia. UM As a side,
Speaker 1: as I was researching this episode, I felt like everything
Speaker 1: about his life requires us to explain some context. So
Speaker 1: we've just explained the context of the fugitive slave law
Speaker 1: and why freed African Americans were at this point fleeing
Speaker 1: to Canada. UM Now we're going to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about Liberia, which is the place where Thomas chose
Speaker 1: to live a lot of his adult life. Yes, and
Speaker 1: that is again a whole other place with a huge history,
Speaker 1: so that that we could do whole episodes on the Fugitive
Speaker 1: Slave Law and a whole episode on Liberia and the
Speaker 1: colonization movement from the nineteenth century. Yeah. So the brief
Speaker 1: version is the American Colonization Society founded the Colony of
Speaker 1: Liberia in Western Africa in the early eighteen twenties, meaning
Speaker 1: it to be a home for freed slaves. The movement
Speaker 1: viewed Liberia is a place set aside by God for them,
Speaker 1: and if Africans and American returned there, they could rid
Speaker 1: the continent of the slave trade, spread cre chanity, and
Speaker 1: help improve Africa overall. Colonists began arriving there in eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty two, and while they did manage to make it
Speaker 1: a republic in eighteen forty eight, they met with extreme
Speaker 1: resistance from the native Africans already living there, and too
Speaker 1: few people migrated there for it to really thrive in
Speaker 1: the sense of its original intent. Thomas became Pennsylvania's most
Speaker 1: prominent and recognizable supporter of the colonization movement. He went
Speaker 1: to Liberia on the ship Banshee in April of eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty three, and he went to the capital, Monrovia and
Speaker 1: enrolled in Alexander High School. The curriculum, though, was basically
Speaker 1: a repeat of what he had already learned and studied
Speaker 1: at the Allegheny Institute, and this was really frustrating for him.
Speaker 1: He had wanted the life in Liberia that would be
Speaker 1: better than the opportunities that he had in America and
Speaker 1: not just a replay of what he had already done. Right.
Speaker 1: He had gone there because he really was hoping for
Speaker 1: a better life and that it wasn't working out that
Speaker 1: he was getting the same opportunities. So in September of
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty four, eighteen months after he got to Liberia,
Speaker 1: he went back to the United States to attend Thatford
Speaker 1: Academy in Vermont. His tuition was paid for by the
Speaker 1: New York colonizationists, with his parents contributing what they could afford,
Speaker 1: and the idea was that he would further his education
Speaker 1: and then go back to Liberia. The colonization movement was
Speaker 1: really eager for him to return, since it would be
Speaker 1: kind of damaging to the cause or at least damaging
Speaker 1: to people's perceptions of what they were trying to do.
Speaker 1: For such a prominent advocate, who have gone to Liberia
Speaker 1: and then turned around and come back home again. So
Speaker 1: he was definitely on the radar of the people who
Speaker 1: were organizing and leading this movement, and they were willing
Speaker 1: to pay for his education so that he could return. Yes,
Speaker 1: so that he could go back to Liberia and and
Speaker 1: do more work. Uh, he wanted to go to law school,
Speaker 1: but he couldn't afford it, and the colonization movement was
Speaker 1: anxious for him to return to Liberia as we were
Speaker 1: just speaking of, so they were not willing to pay
Speaker 1: his way through law school. So in May of eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty five, he offered his services as a teacher, and
Speaker 1: he was granted free passage back to Liberia in steerage
Speaker 1: if he taught the settlers on board during and after
Speaker 1: the journey. He didn't really like the idea of traveling
Speaker 1: steerage and thought that based on his prominence in his work,
Speaker 1: that he should be able to get an actual cabin,
Speaker 1: so he tried to negotiate for terms that would let
Speaker 1: him buy a cabin on his owns and that was
Speaker 1: going to require some money. What he really wanted to
Speaker 1: do was to found and lead a school, and eventually
Speaker 1: he was able to make a case that the executive
Speaker 1: committee of the a c S, the American Colonization Society
Speaker 1: that we referred to earlier, they agreed to this plan.
Speaker 1: So he boarded the Mary Caroline Stevens for a Liberria
Speaker 1: in November of eighteen fifty five. Unfortunately, uh this plan
Speaker 1: was not an overwhelming success. However, in addition to paying
Speaker 1: him a lower salary than it had earmarked, the a
Speaker 1: c S didn't set aside funds or have plans for
Speaker 1: building a new school, so Thomas's classroom was in a
Speaker 1: hallway in a place called the Receptacle, which was sort
Speaker 1: of an acclamation center for new colonists. He also wound
Speaker 1: up in the middle of a power struggle both within
Speaker 1: the colony and between the colony and the a c
Speaker 1: S back in the States. He was constantly at odds
Speaker 1: with the leadership there, which led to a whole lot
Speaker 1: of gossip and accusations of wrongdoing and mismanagement on all sides.
Speaker 1: And at this point there's not a lot to go
Speaker 1: on about who was actually right. We have a whole
Speaker 1: lot of documentation of what everyone said, but not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of documentation of what actually happened. But eventually
Speaker 1: Thomas resigned and went back to America again, racking up
Speaker 1: the frequent travel miles that this is one of the
Speaker 1: things I understand why a lot of biographical information seems
Speaker 1: reluctant to talk about this period in his life, because
Speaker 1: number one, the colonization movement was pretty contentious in the
Speaker 1: world at that point. There were a lot of people
Speaker 1: who didn't agree with the movement, and then obviously there
Speaker 1: were also some some internal conflicts going on within the movement.
Speaker 1: Um So I think a lot of people they don't
Speaker 1: want to sort of tarnish anyone's opinion of either the
Speaker 1: movement or of him or anything like this. But having
Speaker 1: to go back and forth across the ocean so many
Speaker 1: times at this point in history, I think makes it
Speaker 1: uh pretty big to omit that whole part. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a lot of time to spend going back
Speaker 1: and forth, and a lot of effort. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was not an easy sea boy. You know, It's not
Speaker 1: like booking a flight now. You kind of have to
Speaker 1: prepare for a long time and prepare to be not
Speaker 1: in delightful circumstances the whole time, and upon his return
Speaker 1: he was actually viewed with suspicion by the rest of
Speaker 1: the movement. He actually became enough of a pariah that
Speaker 1: it's somewhat surprising that he and the Athist didn't just
Speaker 1: part ways instead, and he tried to stay into the
Speaker 1: radar and not get embroiled in the in fighting or
Speaker 1: politics that were going on within the movement. He also
Speaker 1: started working to support individual people and small groups who
Speaker 1: wanted to emigrate, and eventually he started to put together
Speaker 1: another plan too were returned to Liberia himself, this time
Speaker 1: to start a newspaper. The capital of Liberia, which was
Speaker 1: called Monrovia, didn't have a newspaper at the time, and
Speaker 1: people generally thought it really needed one at this point.
Speaker 1: Though both the American and Pennsylvania Societies for Colonization were
Speaker 1: reluctant to deal with Thomas after his previous trip I,
Speaker 1: eventually he made a successful case and he was once
Speaker 1: again bound for Liberia in exchange for sixty dollars of
Speaker 1: his own money in an annual subscription for twenty five
Speaker 1: copies of the newspaper to his benefactors. He was also
Speaker 1: to teach at the Brewster Receptacle for a few months
Speaker 1: so that he could earn enough money to actually launch
Speaker 1: the newspaper when he got there, so his way was paid,
Speaker 1: but he was going to have to earn his own
Speaker 1: money to the newspaper, which he did, although by that
Speaker 1: point Liberia's original paper, The Liberrian Harold, had been resurrected,
Speaker 1: so there wasn't that gap that he had counted on.
Speaker 1: The Harold was a government supported paper and Thomas's was independent,
Speaker 1: and it quickly came under fire for publishing things that
Speaker 1: were critical of the government. Thomas didn't agree with the
Speaker 1: positions of Stephen A. Benson, who was the Liberian president.
Speaker 1: After The Star published an anonymous letter that was critical
Speaker 1: of the government, the Harold fired back with accusations of
Speaker 1: sexual impropriety between Thomas and another teacher. This led to
Speaker 1: both the Board of Trustees investigating the teacher and a
Speaker 1: grand jury and investigation into the Brewster Receptacle. In the
Speaker 1: aftermath of all of this, both Thomas and the other
Speaker 1: teacher resigned and left Liberia. As with problems during his
Speaker 1: previous trip to Liberia. It's unclear at this point exactly
Speaker 1: who did what. His accusers often fell back on how
Speaker 1: Thomas was tall, muscular, really attractive, and had a reputation
Speaker 1: for having away with the ladies, so they kind of
Speaker 1: circumstantially judged him based on his just appeal as a
Speaker 1: human being. Those either, you know, played a role in
Speaker 1: what people perceived he was doing or or maybe played
Speaker 1: a role in his actual behavior. It's unclear at this point.
Speaker 1: Back in the United States, he spent several months promoting
Speaker 1: colonization on behalf of the Pennsylvania Society, and in September
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty he went back to Liberia again. The
Speaker 1: Star had stopped publishing after he left, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to get it going again. He really wanted people who
Speaker 1: didn't agree with the Librarian government to have a voice
Speaker 1: in the newspaper. He was hoping to use the newspaper's
Speaker 1: influence to sway the course of upcoming elections. But when Benson,
Speaker 1: who previously said that he did not agree with, was
Speaker 1: re elected, he once again decided to return to the States.
Speaker 1: This I feel like I sort of characterize him as
Speaker 1: just a strong idealist. He was really committed to his
Speaker 1: own beliefs and not willing to play politics to compromise
Speaker 1: them in any way. So he wound up butting heads
Speaker 1: with a lot of people in the whole context of
Speaker 1: this movement. Yeah, I think I'm glad you said that,
Speaker 1: because it is easy to start, you know, with these
Speaker 1: repeats of I went and tried it, and I got mad,
Speaker 1: and it came home that you want to be careful
Speaker 1: not to characterize him as just kind of a foot
Speaker 1: stomp e like angry. Fine, I'm leaving. You know that
Speaker 1: there are ideals behind this behavior. It's not just that
Speaker 1: it didn't go his way so he was out of
Speaker 1: the are. Yeah, there were strong ideals behind the whole
Speaker 1: movement and how it was going to be better for
Speaker 1: freed slaves to move to Africa then to stay in America.
Speaker 1: And he really felt like sometimes when I got there,
Speaker 1: it was not actually better, and he was not willing
Speaker 1: to back down on that idea. He was like, no, seriously,
Speaker 1: this needs to be better. We are moving to Africa, um,
Speaker 1: And he just he really raised a lot of ire
Speaker 1: from people. But back in the US in eighteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: Thomas kept speaking on behalf of the colonization movement. So
Speaker 1: even though he was frustrated with how it was going.
Speaker 1: He was still, you know, promoting it in some ways,
Speaker 1: but there was heavy resistance at that point to the
Speaker 1: idea of colonization. A lot of people who wanted to
Speaker 1: immigrate were choosing to go to other places, including Haiti,
Speaker 1: but many felt like America was their home, and even
Speaker 1: though they weren't treated as full citizens there, it was
Speaker 1: the option that they were most interested in. The prevailing
Speaker 1: desire of most African Americans to stay in the United
Speaker 1: States got stronger and stronger as the government started to
Speaker 1: actually encourage colonization. In eighteen sixty two, for example, following
Speaker 1: the District of Columbia Emancipation Act, Congress earmarked a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to fund the immigration of freed slaves. Lincoln
Speaker 1: and others in the government had supported emigration action plans
Speaker 1: as well, which led to really vocal protests. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons why people were reluctant to leave
Speaker 1: the United States and to move somewhere else, most off
Speaker 1: in Africa, but a lot of it boiled down to
Speaker 1: people thinking, Okay, why should we give up our home
Speaker 1: and property just to appease a bunch of racists, which
Speaker 1: I think is a valid question. Um. There's also a
Speaker 1: really great long read at the Route about why people
Speaker 1: chose to stay. A lot of that is focused on
Speaker 1: why why freed slaves chose to stay in the South,
Speaker 1: but it's still relevant. A lot of the issues that
Speaker 1: it brings up as reasons for people to stay apply
Speaker 1: to anyone who was staying at a place where they
Speaker 1: were facing just serious discrimination and unfairness at all. Turns, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and these why why don't you go away somewhere else?
Speaker 1: You'll be happier there, I'm sure of it. There was
Speaker 1: a there's a lot of question about what what will
Speaker 1: we do once slaves are freed, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people in the government proposing as an actual solution in
Speaker 1: quotation marks, well, we could just send them back to Africa.
Speaker 1: I don't recall learning a ton about that in my
Speaker 1: school about it was more and then we've freed slaves
Speaker 1: and everything was great. Wait, no, that's not true at all.
Speaker 1: Heavy simplification, that is not accurate. Uh. Throughout all this,
Speaker 1: Thomas had been thinking about returning to Liberia again, but
Speaker 1: after Lincoln issued the Emancipatient Proclamation in eighteen sixty three,
Speaker 1: it became clear that there wasn't going to be a
Speaker 1: mass immigration, and so Thomas decided not to go. He
Speaker 1: started working on a way to get to Britain to
Speaker 1: continue his education, but in the meantime he turned his
Speaker 1: attention to the Civil War. Following a call for black
Speaker 1: soldiers to fight for the Union, he became a recruiter
Speaker 1: and he recruited African American soldiers into the fifty fifth
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Regiments. And he didn't stay entirely on the sidelines.
Speaker 1: When Harrisburg was threatened with Confederate attack, he actually briefly
Speaker 1: became a captain in the Pennsylvania State Militia. So what
Speaker 1: Thomas is most known for is his war correspondents, and
Speaker 1: we have finally gotten to the Civil War. In August
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four, an editor named John Russell Young, who
Speaker 1: had himself been a war correspondent, offered Thomas a job
Speaker 1: at the Philadelphia Press to report from the front lines
Speaker 1: and focus on the work of black troops. And the
Speaker 1: job of a reporter was not entirely respected in America
Speaker 1: before the war. Often reporters were reviewed as nosy people
Speaker 1: airing other people's business, but that changed when they became
Speaker 1: the primary way for news from the front to reach
Speaker 1: the rest of the people. Hiring Thomas and giving him
Speaker 1: such an assignment was really a huge risk on the
Speaker 1: part of the paper, both politically and financially. There was
Speaker 1: you know, there was a risk of everything from people
Speaker 1: attacking the offices of the paper to just not buying
Speaker 1: the paper anymore. But white papers weren't really reporting on
Speaker 1: the African American soldiers, and at the time there were
Speaker 1: only two black weeklies covering things from a black perspective.
Speaker 1: And at this point, the Union Army was only about
Speaker 1: a month into a congressional effort under Lincoln's direction to
Speaker 1: try to work out massive inequalities between black and white soldiers.
Speaker 1: Black soldiers were unfortunately basically cannon fodder, given inferior everything,
Speaker 1: and we're sometimes beaten and abused by their white commanding officers.
Speaker 1: Thomas was in part working to draw attention to these issues.
Speaker 1: Right even if a unit, if a fighting unit was
Speaker 1: entirely made up of African American enlisted men, almost always
Speaker 1: the commanding officers were white, and that led to all
Speaker 1: kinds of issues within the Union Army in terms of
Speaker 1: fairness and how people were treated and all of that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff um and taking this job. As we
Speaker 1: alluded to earlier, Thomas became the first African Americans to
Speaker 1: be a war correspondent for a major ailing newspaper. In
Speaker 1: addition to the risk of being hurt or killed in
Speaker 1: the front, he also really was at genuine risk for
Speaker 1: being sold into slavery if he were captured by the Confederates.
Speaker 1: He wrote often with empathy and sometimes even with humor.
Speaker 1: His very first dispatch was about an explosion at the
Speaker 1: headquarters outside Petersburg. Here's what he wrote about it. For
Speaker 1: several hundred yards the ground was thickly strewn with debris.
Speaker 1: The million of property destroyed was but little thought of
Speaker 1: in the midst of the immense loss of life. Fragments
Speaker 1: of humanity were scattered around in the immediate vicinity of
Speaker 1: the tragedy and frightful profusion. Sorrow was depicted in every
Speaker 1: countenance that gazed on the ruins, but those loudest in
Speaker 1: their grief for the contrabands who mourned their relatives and comrades.
Speaker 1: Being employed in great numbers where the accident occurred, more
Speaker 1: of them were killed and wounded than any other class
Speaker 1: of individuals. And not much later he wrote this passage.
Speaker 1: This is of the funny ones. YEA, the enterprising managers
Speaker 1: of the firm of Grant and Lee take pleasure in
Speaker 1: announcing to the public in and around Petersburg that they
Speaker 1: are now prepared, and will continue until further notice, to
Speaker 1: give every evening a grand exhibition of fireworks for the
Speaker 1: benefit of their respective employees. The past experience of the
Speaker 1: firm has enabled it to acquire a success in this direction,
Speaker 1: which it feels satisfied a liberal minded public will concede.
Speaker 1: The managers will not, in any case hold themselves responsible
Speaker 1: for any accidents which may occur to those who may
Speaker 1: be attracted from curiosity or otherwise to witness their exhibition.
Speaker 1: That makes me chuckle, it does. It's really charming. Most
Speaker 1: of the action he witnessed was near Petersburg and Richmond.
Speaker 1: He spent almost all of his time reporting from Virginia,
Speaker 1: although he did accompany the Union army to Fort Fisher,
Speaker 1: North Carolina in December of eighteen sixty four. The Union
Speaker 1: had planned to take out the fort at the mouth
Speaker 1: of the Cape Beer River using a barge of explosives,
Speaker 1: which was and to cut off the south supply route,
Speaker 1: but the plan failed because the walls of the fort
Speaker 1: were too strong for this barge of explosives to blow up,
Speaker 1: they had to call off the attack. Like other Union writers,
Speaker 1: part of Thomas's job was to make it seem as
Speaker 1: though the war was going well, so he could not,
Speaker 1: you know, feed into the perception that this was a horrible,
Speaker 1: catastrophic error on the part of any particular person. This
Speaker 1: is what he had to say. There will probably be
Speaker 1: much speculation in reference to the failure of this expedition,
Speaker 1: attributing it to the want of military foresight on the
Speaker 1: part of General General Whitzel and not providing the expedition
Speaker 1: with the necessary implements for a siege to Other causes are, however,
Speaker 1: responsible for the result, the first being the publicity which
Speaker 1: naval officers in Norfolk previous to sailing gave their impressions
Speaker 1: as to the destination of the fleet, and secondly, the
Speaker 1: delay caused after the arrival of the fleet off Masonboro Inlet.
Speaker 1: We experienced previous to the storm four days of splendid weather.
Speaker 1: There could not have been better weather for the attack.
Speaker 1: So he was trying to diffuse the blame and not
Speaker 1: make it seem as though any particular person should take
Speaker 1: the fall for this unsuccessful attempt. Multiple factors will play here, people,
Speaker 1: it's kind of his approach. On April three of eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five, he saw the fall of Richmond, the first
Speaker 1: troops to enter the city, where the fifth Massachusetts Cavalry
Speaker 1: and the Army Corps, both of which were black units.
Speaker 1: Blacks within the city welcomed them as heroes, and he
Speaker 1: wrote on Sunday evening strange to say, the jails in
Speaker 1: this place were thrown open, and all runaway negroes, those
Speaker 1: for sale and those for safekeeping, were told to hop
Speaker 1: out and enjoy their freedom. You may rely upon it
Speaker 1: that they did not need a second invitation. Many of
Speaker 1: these persons will have no difficulty in convincing themselves that
Speaker 1: they were always on the side of the Union and
Speaker 1: the freedom of the slave. Great events have a wonderful
Speaker 1: influence on the minds of guilty trembling wretches. So upon
Speaker 1: entering Richmond, he went to the Virginia Statehouse, which had
Speaker 1: been home to the Confederate Congress, and rode his first
Speaker 1: dispatch after the fall of the city. While sitting at
Speaker 1: the desk belonging to the speaker of the Confederate House.
Speaker 1: A Boston correspondent named Charles Carrollton Coffin wrote this tale
Speaker 1: about the event, which is just ranking up there with
Speaker 1: the recent story we told about how Hypatia the touring
Speaker 1: a suitor with favorite historical antidotes. And so here is
Speaker 1: what Charles Coulson Coffin said. Visiting the capital. He entered
Speaker 1: the Senate chamber and sat down at the Speaker's chair
Speaker 1: to write a letter. A paroled rebel officer entered the room.
Speaker 1: Come out of there, you black cuss, shouted the officer,
Speaker 1: clenching his fist. Mr Chester raised his eyes, calmly, surveyed
Speaker 1: the intruder, and went on with his writing. Get out
Speaker 1: of here, or I'll knock your brains out. The officer, bellow,
Speaker 1: pouring out a torrent of oaths, and rushing up the
Speaker 1: steps to execute his threat, found himself tumbling over the
Speaker 1: chairs and benches, knocked down by one well planted blow
Speaker 1: between the eyes. Mr Chester sat down as if nothing
Speaker 1: had happened. The rebel sprang to his feet and called
Speaker 1: upon Captain Hutchins of General Devons's staff for a sword.
Speaker 1: I'll cut that fellow's heart out, said he. Oh, I
Speaker 1: guess not. I can't let you have my sword for
Speaker 1: any such purpose. If you want to fight, I will
Speaker 1: clear a space there and see that you have fair play.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you that you will get a
Speaker 1: tremendous thrashing, said Captain Hutchins. The officer left the hall
Speaker 1: in disgust. Once again. There are so many levels of
Speaker 1: things that I love about the story, starting with him
Speaker 1: running a dispatch in the speaker chair and including punching
Speaker 1: a guy between the eyes calmly, calmly, and then getting
Speaker 1: back to his work. After the fall of Richmond, Thomas
Speaker 1: stayed in the city to report on rebuilding efforts. The
Speaker 1: city was war torn, it was partly destroyed, and it
Speaker 1: was full of impoverished displaced people. After the war, he
Speaker 1: also traveled to Washington to advocate for civil rights before
Speaker 1: Andrew Johnson. From there, he returned to his hometown of
Speaker 1: Harrisburg and until he left for England to study law.
Speaker 1: That fall, he worked as an advocate for equal rights
Speaker 1: and joined the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League. He actually
Speaker 1: became its solicitor in literary critic and its corresponding secretary.
Speaker 1: He earned his law degree in England at the age
Speaker 1: of thirty six. While he was overseas, he also toured
Speaker 1: Europe and Russia on behalf of the League. He was
Speaker 1: invited to meet and have a meal with the Czar
Speaker 1: as well. Then he spent two years in Europe serving
Speaker 1: as a diplomatic representative of Liberia, having been appointed as
Speaker 1: an aide to camp of James Spriggs Payne, who was
Speaker 1: President of Liberia. Sometime in eighteen sixty eight, he left
Speaker 1: that post after an election again brought a brought an
Speaker 1: administration into power which he didn't entirely support. And while
Speaker 1: he continued to think about returning to Liberia and he
Speaker 1: actually referred to Liberia as home for most of his
Speaker 1: adult life, he was reluctant to do so based on
Speaker 1: all of his experiences there Before he came to the
Speaker 1: United States again, where he moved to the Deep South,
Speaker 1: becoming the first African American to practice law in the
Speaker 1: state of Louisiana, with his goal really working on the
Speaker 1: reconstruction effort. And this was obviously not a welcoming situation.
Speaker 1: Racism and violence against African Americans were rampant, and the
Speaker 1: local political environment was full of corruption. At one point,
Speaker 1: he was actually shot in the head during an altercation
Speaker 1: related to a possibly fraudulent election. He survived and went
Speaker 1: on to work for equal rights and an end to
Speaker 1: racism in segregation for the rest of his career. He
Speaker 1: also became a brigadier general in the Louisiana State Militia
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of a different election, that of William
Speaker 1: Pitt Kellogg to the office of governor, which was disputed
Speaker 1: by the Democrats and led to a violent rebellion. As
Speaker 1: if he had not had enough careers at this point,
Speaker 1: he became a politician, and he served in a number
Speaker 1: of offices, including the superintendent of public education in more
Speaker 1: than one Louisiana division. He continued to be active in
Speaker 1: the Republican government until eighteen seventy seven, when the Democrats
Speaker 1: took control. From there, he became U S Commissioner for
Speaker 1: New Orleans, which was a federal appointment, and he held
Speaker 1: that post until eighteen eighty three. The Republican government had
Speaker 1: been much more supportive of African Americans than the Democrats
Speaker 1: were at the time, so the change in leadership left
Speaker 1: Thomas feeling pretty frustrated and disillusioned. Like we said before,
Speaker 1: he was really an idealist, and he did not want
Speaker 1: to back down on anything, but he started to spend
Speaker 1: more time in Harrisburg. He eventually married a teacher named
Speaker 1: Florence Johnson, and the couple split their time between Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: and Louisiana, uh and she was teaching during this time
Speaker 1: and he was practicing law. In another turn late in
Speaker 1: his life, he became president of the Wilmington's Rights, Fell
Speaker 1: and Onslow Railroad, an African American owned company in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: in eighty four. This might have been a financial move,
Speaker 1: since his law clients were often extremely poor, which made
Speaker 1: it hard for him to make an actual living from
Speaker 1: his law work. Unfortunately, though, the railroad company eventually failed
Speaker 1: and finally on September thirty eight, two Thomas died at
Speaker 1: the age of fifty eight. His name is really not
Speaker 1: very well known in most of the United States, but
Speaker 1: he became really prominently known in his hometown of Harrisburg,
Speaker 1: where a school was named after him in two thousand four,
Speaker 1: and the book Thomas Morris Chester Black Civil War Correspondent,
Speaker 1: which was edited by R. J. M. Blackett, includes quite
Speaker 1: a lengthy biography on him, and it also includes all
Speaker 1: of his dispatches as a correspondent I ordered a copy
Speaker 1: of that book before before doing research on this podcast,
Speaker 1: and I did not comprehend how cool what was to
Speaker 1: be arriving in the in the mail was. Like I
Speaker 1: knew it was his dispatches from the front, I didn't
Speaker 1: quite realize that it was a very detailed biography of
Speaker 1: his whole life, followed by every dispatch that he wrote.
Speaker 1: So if you were interested in this at all, this
Speaker 1: is a highly worthwhile. Yeah, it's much more. It's much
Speaker 1: more comprehensive than you might think. It gets into a
Speaker 1: lot of detail about all the various like he said,
Speaker 1: he said, she said, going on while he was working
Speaker 1: uh in Liberia. It gets a lot into a lot
Speaker 1: more detail about that particular movement. Um. As we said,
Speaker 1: there are many many things in this episode that could
Speaker 1: have been episodes on their own. We keep finding them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this why I feel like this had more of that
Speaker 1: than in any episode that I've researched in a while.
Speaker 1: I felt like every time I turned a page there
Speaker 1: was something else that was going to need context explained
Speaker 1: because it has not maybe been talked about very much
Speaker 1: in your typical school room. Well, and it's dates. He
Speaker 1: was busy, he was he said a lot of very
Speaker 1: different interesting things. He broke a lot of ground in
Speaker 1: terms of color barriers. He just I see where eight
Speaker 1: podcasts could come off at this one. Yeah. Well, and
Speaker 1: it makes me really sad that he I think the
Speaker 1: general perception is that by the time he died he
Speaker 1: was very frustrated with the state of race relations in America.
Speaker 1: He was not very optimistic that things were going to
Speaker 1: get better, and that is very sad. It makes me
Speaker 1: very sad that, having accomplished so much, that seems to
Speaker 1: have been his state of mind at the end of
Speaker 1: his life. Yeah. I empathize with it. I cannot say
Speaker 1: I identify with it because I am not an African
Speaker 1: American person and that would be a just terribly pretentious
Speaker 1: thing to say. But it does make me sad that
Speaker 1: that I think of at the end of his life
Speaker 1: he was in a place of frustration. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't want anybody to feel that way at the
Speaker 1: end of their lives, but a particularly with as much
Speaker 1: as he had gone through and as much work and
Speaker 1: effort as he had put into the race relations movement. Uh,
Speaker 1: you hate to think that he felt like it was
Speaker 1: for not right and so much of his writing and
Speaker 1: his actions make it clear that that his motivation always
Speaker 1: was a sense of wanting things to be better for people,
Speaker 1: and that is another reason why it was so deeply
Speaker 1: frustrating so often, because things were not getting better very
Speaker 1: quickly at all. I think I also have some listener mail. Fantastic.
Speaker 1: This is actually two pieces of mail about the same
Speaker 1: thing from our Facebook, from people who have raised very
Speaker 1: interesting questions about our Plan and Aisle Lighthouse disappearance episode.
Speaker 1: The first is from Ashley, and she says, Hi, Tracy
Speaker 1: and Holly, I listen to your podcast while I'm working,
Speaker 1: so I may have missed some information in your most
Speaker 1: recent podcast concerning the mystery surrounding the Plan and Aisle Lighthouse.
Speaker 1: At any rate, I am curious to know why thieves, bandits,
Speaker 1: and or pirates were not considered as possible culprits in
Speaker 1: the disappearance of three men. There may not have been
Speaker 1: anything of worth in the lighthouse, but seems to me
Speaker 1: a more likely option than some of the other suggestions.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the research to keep it up. I would
Speaker 1: say definitely, uh, piracy is more likely than aliens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it it has been theorized by various historians and
Speaker 1: that was that could have been the cause. But it
Speaker 1: was such a remote location, like the the island itself
Speaker 1: was uninhabited by anyone else, like there was no other
Speaker 1: human presence on the island besides the lighthouse. Um, it
Speaker 1: would have required some serious work for thieves or abandons
Speaker 1: to make their way out there. Yeah, and to make
Speaker 1: their way. We talked a little bit about how it
Speaker 1: was it was difficult to um doc at the landing
Speaker 1: stage there they had as it was there uh, And
Speaker 1: how that one man had had to jump from his boat,
Speaker 1: he had to back in the small boat into the
Speaker 1: slip and jump, and how it was a little bit dangerous,
Speaker 1: so that could have potentially been a deterrent as well. Uh.
Speaker 1: We also got a note on Facebook from Jim, and
Speaker 1: Jim said, did you consider that the source of a
Speaker 1: rogue wave that might have killed the three lighthouse keepers
Speaker 1: might have been an undersea earthquake? After all, Iceland and
Speaker 1: the mid Atlantic Ridge aren't that far away. However, a
Speaker 1: large tsunami probably would have been reported by others along
Speaker 1: the west coast of Scotland if one happened. This had
Speaker 1: a very similar answer of basically what Jim said, which
Speaker 1: is that where the flann and Aisles are located between
Speaker 1: Iceland and bigger, more inhabited islands. If there had been
Speaker 1: something as large as a tsunami, that almost certainly would
Speaker 1: have been reported by other people, and that would have
Speaker 1: led the investigation to be like they must have been
Speaker 1: wiped out by the tsunami and not I wonder what happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think we might have referenced it briefly in
Speaker 1: the episode. But I know there is at least one
Speaker 1: author that has written a book that he thinks it
Speaker 1: was potentially a seaquake, but he there wasn't enough supporting
Speaker 1: evidence for me to include that one in the list.
Speaker 1: Just you know, eventually you have to edit out some
Speaker 1: things for time. I think like a frequent roague wave
Speaker 1: situation is probably a little more likely than seaquake because
Speaker 1: that would have made a much larger wave. Probably. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's um, you know, such an isolated incident. And even
Speaker 1: though these are kind of out on their own, they're
Speaker 1: not the only thing they are. We know there were
Speaker 1: people nearby, for example, the gamekeeper that was um keeping
Speaker 1: an eye on things. He surely would have seen there
Speaker 1: had been a So yeah, those are the answers to
Speaker 1: those questions really not really answers other than do you
Speaker 1: have Some people think that might be the thing, right, So,
Speaker 1: if you would like to write to us about this
Speaker 1: or any other episode, you can at History Podcast at
Speaker 1: Discovery dot com. We're also on Facebook at Facebook dot
Speaker 1: com slash history class stuff, and on Twitter at Misston History.
Speaker 1: Our tumbler is that mist and his Right dot tumbler
Speaker 1: dot com, and we're on Pinterest too, or we can
Speaker 1: penned a whole bunch of pictures of that lighthouse. If
Speaker 1: you would like to learn more about what we've talked
Speaker 1: about today, you can come to our website and put
Speaker 1: the word Newspapers in the search bar. You will find
Speaker 1: how Newspapers Work, which is freshly updated for this century.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, you can have changes in that industry so many.
Speaker 1: You can learn about all that and a whole lot
Speaker 1: more at our website, which is how stuff Works dot
Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
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