Freedom is an innate, universal desire that dwells deep within the breast of every human being. It is a fact of history that the struggle for freedom has never been easy. Throughout human history, there have been many occasions where those who enjoy the pleasures and privileges of freedom have denied that same grace of freedom to others, and those who have had that freedom denied to them have had to fight and sacrifice much for it.
Our own history as a country came about through its own struggle for freedom. The great paradoxical irony of our own revolution was that, while our Founding Fathers were moved to fight for the freedom denied them by the tyranny and oppression of the British king and Parliament, many of them were also engaged in an even more inhumane tyranny of their own, that of chattel slavery.
The Founding Fathers themselves were profoundly and ultimately split on the issue of slavery. Some saw the irony of slavery in relation to the wording of our own Declaration of Independence and had intellectual and moral qualms about this overt irony. They argued for an end to chattel slavery to be written into the Constitution. Others, though, who were actively involved in and enjoying the privileges and profits that the institution of slavery afforded them, threatened to secede from the fledgling Continental Congress if such a move were made.
As a result, they were unable to solve the issue and essentially tabled it to keep the unity of the colonies against the British. They rationalized their reticence, hoping that the nation would somehow evolve away from that “peculiar institution” in the future, sooner than later. Because of this inability to resolve this morally and socially unjust issue, the nation would experience the horrors of the Civil War only seven decades later.
It is a truth that the desire for freedom grows exponentially in those whose freedom is being actively denied them. By the time of the Civil War, there were as many as four million enslaved people of African descent in the country. The transatlantic slave trade of African slaves was officially abolished on the first of January, 1808, but the institution was already a long-established and thriving economic reality.
Before the Civil War broke out, the efforts of escaped slaves, free Blacks, and Northern abolitionists were well known. The desire for freedom was being eloquently argued with ever-increasing force by people like the escaped slave, orator, and abolitionist Frederick Douglas, as well as by Sojourner Truth and others like William Lloyd Garrison, founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and writers like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The Underground Railroad was an active, ongoing effort engaged in helping slaves escape to freedom. But these efforts were being countered by very powerful forces like the southern representatives in Congress and by decisions of the Supreme Court like the Dread Scott decision and the Missouri Compromise.
In 1860, the United States of America would be torn apart by the Civil War. One of the powerful freedom stories within that monumental and bloody struggle was that of the free Blacks and former slaves who wished to join the fight for freedom as soldiers on the Union side. One of the powerful voices in favor of allowing these free Blacks and slaves to do this was abolitionist and Governor of Massachusetts John A. Andrew. He made the case to Abraham Lincoln at the outset of the war, but Lincoln did not take his advice until 1863.
It was in 1863 that Governor Andrew would order the formation of the 54th and the 55th Colored Massachusetts Regiments and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry. The 54th Massachusetts Regiment was formed under a white officer by the name of Col. Robert Gold Shaw. One of the actions they engaged in at Ft. Wagner in Charleston Harbor, in South Carolina, on July 18, 1863, is depicted in the great Civil War movie, Glory.
The 54th would be involved in smaller engagements prior to the battle for Ft. Wagner, where they showed the world that the courage, dedication, and determination of Black soldiers were as great as that of any soldier anywhere. During that battle, Col. Shaw and 40% of the 54th would be killed in the herculean effort to take Ft. Wagner. They were put in front of the rest of the Union forces, some nine other regiments, and sent alone against the fort, where Confederate batteries were turned on them. They never turned back. They kept going forward. They would successfully scale the parapets and enter Ft. Wagner but were eventually driven back.
One of the 54th’s own would later be awarded the Medal of Honor for his conduct on the battlefield that day in protecting and carrying the American Flag forward. His name was Sgt. William Harvey Carney. The original color bearer was cut down by Confederate fire. Carney rushed forward to take the flag before it could hit the ground and, though wounded several times himself, continued to carry it forward during the charge against the walls.
Carney took the flag over the walls of the fort before larger numbers of Confederates were brought to bear and they were forced out and had to retreat. While still carrying the flag, he helped several of his fellow 54th Regiment wounded off of the field. He refused, even though he was severely wounded himself, to let go of that flag. He refused to be treated for his own wounds and insisted on handing the flag over to the commanding officer personally, collapsing from his wounds after he did so.
Please watch this very informative video about the 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment. It is a defining piece of American military and social history. It is about the unquenchable desire for freedom that dwells deep within the heart of every human being. It is an American story, one that we can all be proud of. It is about the American spirit and love of freedom. It is about who we are and what we dream to be.