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Reconstructing Philadelphia: African Americans and Politics in the Post–Civil War North
| As Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia moved north into central Pennsylvania in June 1863, some panicked Philadelphians began to reconsider what had been previously unthinkable. Since the summer of 1862, when Lincoln had authorized the recruitment of black soldiers, some of Philadelphia's black men had been drilling in anticipation of service in the Union army. Decades of antiblack violence on the city's streets, however, had led many of Philadelphia's political elite to fear the reaction to any effort to recruit black troops. As Lee advanced toward Gettysburg, Philadelphia's black community sprang into action, organizing a black company comprised of many of the most promising young men. Mayor Alexander Henry, who had earlier opposed the enlistment of black men, became convinced that Lee's army posed a greater threat to Philadelphia than did the potential reaction of its own negrophobic citizens.1 |
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The service of black troops in the Union army, in addition to being of crucial military importance, would prove to be a turning point in black Philadelphia politics. Throughout the antebellum North, free blacks had fought not just to end slavery, but for equal rights as well. Once it became clear that the Civil War was to become a war for emancipation, black Philadelphians joined the war effort with an almost unmatched patriotism, but also with a determination that, to quote one black veteran, "Soldiers in War be Citizens in Peace."2 In the coming decade, the service of black men in the Union army, and the loyalty of black civilians to the Union cause, would become the most important focus of black claims to full citizenship. Perhaps just as important, many of the men who marched off in June 1863 to defend their city against Lee's invading army would become leaders in the effort to secure the fruits of their war effort for black Philadelphians. |
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If African Americans saw the war and emancipation as forces that would transform the position of northern blacks, there were many in the city of Philadelphia who saw things differently. Sidney George Fisher, a cantankerous Philadelphia patrician and staunch Lincoln supporter, wrote in his diary on July 8, 1863, "The abolitionists are trying to make what they can out of the enlistment of Negro soldiers & are likely to cause a reaction & injure their own cause and the real interest of the Negro.... The orators claim equality for the Negro race, the right of suffrage, &c. All this is as absurd as it is dangerous."3 The Democratic Party of Philadelphia made opposition to black rights a centerpiece of its political culture. As black activists seeking to reconstruct Philadelphia increasingly allied themselves with state and national Republicans in order to fight for racial equality and full citizenship, Philadelphia Democrats—and even some Republicans—came to see parallels between the Reconstruction of the Confederate states and the efforts of the state and federal governments to interfere in matters they felt to be purely of local concern. This resistance to state and federal interference would shape not only the response to efforts to secure the rights of black Philadelphians, but it would, in turn, contribute to the ambivalence many Philadelphians had toward efforts to secure the rights of southern blacks. |
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