Today’s post comes from Rachel Bartgis, conservator technician at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. During the U.S. Civil War, the manufacture of gunpowder became a serious concern for the Confederacy. While there were several powder mills located in the country, the United States had imported most of the wood ash, sulfur, and saltpeter … Continue reading Enslaved Women of the Confederate Nitre Works
Today’s post comes from Rachel Bartgis, conservator technician at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. During the U.S. Civil War, the Confederate Army required enslavers to loan their enslaved people to the military. Throughout the Confederacy from Florida to Virginia, these enslaved people served as cooks and laundresses, labored in deadly conditions to mine … Continue reading Confederate Slave Payrolls
Today’s blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. Only 100 days after promising in the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that slaves in the Confederacy would soon be freed, Lincoln fulfilled that promise by signing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. This proclamation changed the character of the war, adding moral force … Continue reading Emancipation Proclamation: “It is my Desire to be Free”
