Simon B. Malone was born into slavery on December 18, 1842 in Tippah County, Mississippi. During the war, he fled to freedom when the 5th Ohio Cavalry came through his home county. According to oral history and family tradition, Malone followed the 5th Ohio, making himself useful by caring for soldiers’ horses, fetching water and…
The war has barely ended and already restrictions are being placed upon freedpersons in the former Confederate capital of Richmond, restrictions in which federal military officials play a notable role. Fields Cook (1817-1897) is a former slave who while a slave learned how to read and write, learned the precepts of Christianity through the kindness…
In what proves to be the final hour of the Confederacy, the government authorizes the enlistment and arming of slaves to fight in the Confederate Army. With the signature of President Jefferson Davis, the bill is official. Although by no means putting an end to the debate in the South over slaves serving in the…