Libby Prison's "Rat Hell"

Recently in class we discussed Col. Federico Cavada and his book Libby Life, which describes the time he spent in Libby Prison, one of the most notorious Confederate POW prisons in Richmond, Virginia. Prior to the Civil War, the Libby Building was used as a warehouse involved in providing supplies to the major shipping industries in the United States. Shortly after the start of the war, the building was confiscated by the Rebel Army and converted into a prison. The top 2 floors was where prisoners (usually around 1,000) were held and the 1st floor was the guard quarters. The prison was overcrowded, lacked proper sanitation, and rations (usually beef, bread, soup, potatoes, or cornbread) were in short supply. The guards did not pay too much attention to the prisoners since Libby Prison was considered impossible to escape from...

This brings us to the basement, which early on was used as a storage area and kitchen for the inmates. But, the basement became so badly infested with rats that it had to be abandoned and was given the name of "Rat Hell"!

In 1863, a group of Union officers began plans to escape. They removed a stove on the first floor and chipped their way into a chimney, creating a passage for access to the eastern basement where a tunnel could be dug from the the prison under the street to Kerr's Warehouse. There were 3 five-man digging crews, using a broken shovel and knives for tools. Most of the digging took place at night and in complete darkness...with packs of rats squealing and moving in, around, and on the men!

After several failed attempts and  weeks of digging, 109 men broke through (February 9, 1864) to the surface, coming out in a storage shed of Kerr's Warehouse. Their escape went undetected and the Confederates were not able to organize a search party for nearly 17 hours. This delay ultimately enabled 59 Union troops to escape back to the Federal Line. Of course, this escape caused much panic in all Confederate POW Prisons.  

Col. Federico Fernandez Cavada

Later, Federico Cavada joked in his book...

"...when our distracted little Commandant now comes into our rooms, he keeps his knees well together, it is necessary to be very cautious, some of us might slip out between his legs!"

What is Africa?

 Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois

1868-1963

One of the greatest thinkers of the 20th Century, W.E.B. DuBois, was a master at posing and answering difficult questions.  He once asked (here is an excerpt) an interesting question as he pondered his humanity:

"As I turn to the east and face Africa I ask myself...What is Africa?  What is it between us that constitutes a tie which I can feel better than I can explain?"

I will leave it up to the reader of this post to dig into his answer (which I believe hints at unity, common history, social heritage, oppression/ exploitation/ violence, discrimination, segregation, insult, and systematic racism) to this question...

I am here suggesting additional questions to ponder:

What is Mexico?

What is Tibet?

What is Vietnam?

What is Nigeria?

What is El Salvador?

In other words, what is your "home" which you have no more to you?  Can this (America) be home?

I want to know your history...

I want to understand your pain...

I want to develop empathy...

I want to "stand in" your pride...

I want to know your message to the world...

I want to build this home together...

But, how could I do this by building a wall?

                                

"Dred Scott" Today?

Recently in class, we discussed Dred Scott and his pursuit of freedom. Most people know the narrative...

Dred Scott was born into slavery in Virginia ca. 1799 and later his owner moved from Virginia, to Missouri, a slave state. He was then sold to Dr. John Emerson (who interestingly spent several years stationed at Ft. Snelling with Dred and Harriet Scott), a surgeon in the U.S. Army. Scott sued for his freedom based on the fact that he had been transported to and lived in free states/ territories and therefore should have been freed. 

The case then went to the U.S. Supreme Court...where they ruled that:

• African Americans (slave or free) could never be U.S. citizens based on the Constitution.
• White men were entitled to own property...which included chattel slavery.
• The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional and that states did not have the power to decide slave or free state status.
• All of the United States was open to the ownership of slaves in "free" or "slave" territories.

How is this any different in 2015? 

Four miles north of where Dred Scott is buried and over a century later Michael Brown was gunned down by police in Ferguson, Missouri...can you hear the echoes of the Dred Scott Case ringing in your ears?

We must ask...

Why has our society not come to regard or fully recognize African Americans, Native Americans,
other people of color, women, etc. as full citizens?

Why is there an irrational fear of African Americans, etc. in our society?

Why is it dangerous to shop...drive...laugh...while Black, Brown, etc.?

Why do we need to patrol our streets in full military gear, tanks?

Why racial profiling, police brutality?

Why the school to prison pipeline?

Why the so-called "Drug War" manufactured to incarcerate our youth?

WHY?

Enslaved Inventors

Recently in class, we have been studying the insidious effects of the Industrial Revolution (new inventions and technology...especially the cotton gin, the idea of interchangeable parts, mass production, etc.) of the early 1800's on the exponential growth of slavery.

"McCormick's" Reaper

In 1858, the U.S. Attorney General (defending the U.S. Patent Act of 1793 and 1836 which barred slaves from obtaining patents because they were not U.S. citizens) - Jeremiah S. Black - said that because slaves were considered property, their ideas and inventions were the property of their masters. In other words, many slaves invented new technologies that are not credited in the so-called history books...

"Famous" Slave Inventors:


Sam- Sam and his father invented a comb that removed cotton seeds from cotton fiber.  Eli Whitney took this invention and developed a mechanized cotton gin.

Jo Anderson- Jo helped his master Cyrus McCormick create and build the famous reaper...Jo has been acknowledged by the McCormick family for his many contributions to the reaper.

Ned- Ned invented the cotton "plow and scraper" which led to his master to argue (in favor of slavery), "the master is the owner of the fruits of labor of the slave, both manual and intellectual...when did a free Negro ever invent anything?"

Benjamin Montgomery- Benjamin (belonging to the Jefferson Davis family) invented a ship propeller (that cut into the water at different angles) that would help river boats to navigate quicker in order to deliver products more quickly from his master's store.  Sadly, this propeller helped the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Benjamin Bradley- Benjamin worked in a printing office and at the age of 16 began collecting junk scrap metal, modeling it into a small ship. Eventually, he built/ tinkered with a working steam engine for his "ship"...and so the steam engine was born. Bradley eventually worked at the Annapolis Naval Academy, where he became a classroom assistant in the science department. At the Naval Academy, he developed a steam engine large enough to drive the first steam-powered warships in the 1840's.


Our next invention?!?

Green-Wood Cemetery #3

June 2015...

This is my last post about my visit to Green-Wood Cemetery.

As I visited the highest point in Brooklyn and site of the first official battle of the Revolutionary War, I was surprised to find the beautiful statue "Minerva" apparently waving/ saluting "her sister" Liberty nearly 4 miles away!

Minerva...

Minerva was the Roman goddess of Wisdom...which included music, poetry, medicine, and the arts.

In 1920, Charles M. Higgins, decided to build an altar on Battle Hill to memorialize the first major battle after the Declaration of Independence. He chose to adorn the hill with a statue of Minerva. He made sure that Minerva faced Lady Liberty (erected in 1886) and her upraised torch.

Too me...a wonderful reminder that much liberty must be accompanied with much wisdom and much wisdom must be accompanied with much liberty.

Green-Wood Cemetery #2

June 2015...

This is my second post about my visit to Green-Wood Cemetery.

The highest point (~220 feet) in Brooklyn, NY is found at Battle Hill in modern day Green-Wood Cemetery.  This is the location of the first battle of the Revolutionary War after the United States declared independence on July 4, 1776. This (The Battle of Long Island...which we lost) was also the largest battle of the entire war in terms of troop deployment and fighting. The fighting on Battle Hill was especially brutal, with the Americans inflicting the highest number of casualties against British troops of the entire battle...if you stand and study long enough you can imagine the British attacking and the Americans valiantly attempting to defend the high ground.

As General George Washington watched the bloodshed that day he cried in despair, "“Good God... What brave fellows I must this day lose!”

Green-Wood Cemetery #1

Green - Wood Cemetery - Brooklyn, New York

June 2015...

I doubt that many people would find a cemetery to be an exciting place...but in my opinion, for a lover of history Green-Wood Cemetery is only surpassed by the likes of Arlington, Gettysburg, Andersonville, Pearl Harbor, and Normandy.

Green-Wood Cemetery occupies the highest elevation in Brooklyn (~200 feet) on nearly 500 acres and holds 600,000 bodies in a beautiful setting of rolling hills, mature trees, serene ponds, world class sculptures/ works of art, and spectacular architecture.

I will spend the next several posts chronicling my most memorable moments in Green-Wood...

"The Drummer Boy"

Clarence MacKenzie (Brooklyn's first casualty of the Civil War) was 12 years old when he marched off to the Civil War as a drummer boy with Brooklyn’s 13th Regiment. While camped/ resting in Annapolis, Maryland. Unfortunately, he was accidentally killed by a stray bullet fired by soldiers drilling nearby. Clarence is buried in "The Soldiers’ Lot" which Green-Wood donated specifically for Civil War Veterans. His grave is marked with a 10 foot tall “white bronze” monument inscribed: OUR DRUMMER BOY. The proud figure of the boy and his drum in uniform brought me to tears...

The Dead Drummer Boy

Midst tangled roots that lined the wild ravine
Where the fierce fight raged hottest through the day,
And where the dead in scattered heaps were seen,
Amid the darkling forest’s shade and sheen
Speechless in death he lay.

The settling sun, which glanced athwart the place
In slanting lines, like amber-tinted rain,
Fell sidewise on the drummer’s upturned face,
Where death had left his gory finger’s trace
In one bright crimson stain.

The silken fringes of his once bright eye
Lay like a shadow on his cheek so fair;
His lips were parted by a long-drawn sigh,
That with his soul had mounted to the sky
On some wild martial air.

No more his hand the fierce tattoo shall beat,
The shrill reveille, or the long roll’s call,
Or sound the charges, when, in smoke and heat
Of fiery onset, foe with foe shall meet,
And gallant men shall fall.

Yet may be in some happy home, that one,
A mother, reading from the list of dead,
Shall chance to view the name of her dead son,
And move her lips to say, “God’s will be done!”
And bow in grief her head.

But more than this what tongue shall tell his story?
Perhaps his boyish longings were for fame.
He lived, he died; and so memento mori.
Enough if on the page of War and Glory
Some had has writ his name.