This month the First Colored Baptist Church of East St. Louis is established on Carr Island in the Mississippi River, straddling the line between Missouri and Illinois. The church is set apart from the city, reflecting the distance that yet remains among whites and blacks in much of the North. Carr Island is a local…
Born in Clarion County, Pennsylvania on September 26, 1832, Joanna P. Moore was raised by Episcopalian and Presbyterian parents. During a revival meeting in 1851, however, she joined a Baptist church. Attending Female Seminary in Illinois earlier this year, she learned of the needs among a colony of freed women and children on Union-controlled Island…
Today the Confederate fortress of Port Hudson, Louisiana, located on the Mississippi River, finally surrenders to sieging Union forces. Rebels are forced to give up due to the unbearable hot summer climate and lack of water and food. The entirety of the Mississippi River is now firmly under control of the United States, separating the…