Black Tom a machine-readable transcription R. J. Weir Elizabeth Lorang Kristen Treen transcription and encoding Kristen Treen R. J. Weir Elizabeth Lorang aa.18631121.1 cwnewspaperpoetry Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing
http://www.scholarlyediting.org
Association for Documentary Editing University of Nebraska–Lincoln Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
319 Love Library University of Nebraska–Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-4100 http://cdrh.unl.edu
2012

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Derivatives must be credited to R. J. Weir and Elizabeth Lorang, made available non-commercially, and distributed under the same terms.

 Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing editor Amanda Gailey editor Andrew Jewell 34 2167-1257 [Unsigned] Black Tom The Anglo-African 21 November 1863 [1] The microfilm copy used for transcription was loaned by Indiana University-Bloomington. <imprint> <date sameAs="#issue_date"/> </imprint> </monogr> </biblStruct> </sourceDesc> </fileDesc> <encodingDesc> <p>This electronic text is a semi-diplomatic transcription of the source text. Hyphenation, punctuation, variant spellings, and errors present in the source text have been retained. The transcription does not attempt to capture all aspects of the original formatting or layout.</p> </encodingDesc> <profileDesc> <creation> <persName xml:id="unk">Unknown</persName> <persName xml:id="rh">Hamilton, Robert</persName> <persName xml:id="th">Hamilton, Thomas</persName> <date when="1863">1863</date> </creation> <langUsage> <language ident="en-US">modern American English</language> </langUsage> <textClass> <classCode scheme="http://authorities.loc.gov"> <term>African American families--History--19th century</term> <term>African American children--Southern States--Social conditions--19th century</term> <term>Confederate States of America</term> <term>Death--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century</term> <term>Death--United States--Psychological aspects--History--19th century</term> <term>Slavery--United States--History--19th century</term> <term>United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Military life</term> </classCode> </textClass> </profileDesc> <revisionDesc> <change when="2013-03-02" who="#el">made copyediting changes</change> <change when="2013-01" who="#el">revised transcription and encoding to address errors and inconsistencies; updated editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-11" who="#awj">added Scholarly Editing info to TEI header</change> <change when="2012-10-28" who="#el">added and encoded editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-09-29" who="#el">checked transcription and encoding</change> <change when="2012-09-25" who="#kt">encoded</change> <change when="2012-06" who="#bw">checked</change> <change when="2012-05" who="#kt">transcribed</change> </revisionDesc> </teiHeader> <facsimile corresp="#issue"> <surface xml:id="pp1"> <graphic url="aa.18631121.pp1.jpg"/> <zone xml:id="pp1_cropped" corresp="#poem"> <graphic url="aa.18631121.pp1_cropped.jpg"/> </zone> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp2"> <graphic url="aa.18631121.pp2.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp3"> <graphic url="aa.18631121.pp3.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp4"> <graphic url="aa.18631121.pp4.jpg"/> </surface> </facsimile> <text corresp="#poem #pp1_cropped"> <body> <lg type="poem"> <head type="main" subtype="authorial" rend="center">BLACK TOM.</head> <lg type="stanza"> <l>Hunted by his rebel master</l> <l rend="indented1">Over many a hill and glade—</l> <l>Black Tom, with his wife and children,</l> <l rend="indented1">Found his way to our brigade.</l> </lg> <lg type="stanza"> <l>Tom had sense, and truth, and courage,</l> <l rend="indented1">Often tried where danger rose—</l> <l>Once our flag his strong grasp rescued</l> <l rend="indented1">From the grasp of rebel foes.</l> </lg> <lg type="stanza"> <l>One day Tom was marching with us</l> <l rend="indented1">Through a forest as our guide,</l> <l>When a ball from traitor's rifle</l> <l rend="indented1">Broke his arm and pierced his side.</l> </lg> <lg type="stanza"> <l>On a litter white men bore him,</l> <l rend="indented1">Through the forest drear and damp,</l> <l>Laid him dying where our banners,</l> <l rend="indented1">Brightly fluttered o'er our camp.</l> </lg> <lg type="stanza"> <l>Pointing to his wife and children,</l> <l rend="indented1">While he suffered racking pain,</l> <l>Said he to our soldiers round him,</l> <l rend="indented1">"<emph rend="italic">Don't let <choice><orig>dem</orig><reg type="dialect">them</reg></choice> be slaves again.</emph>"</l> </lg> <lg type="stanza"> <l>"No! by Heaven!" outspoke a soldier</l> <l rend="indented1">And <emph rend="italic">that</emph> oath was not profane—<note type="editorial" resp="#bw #el">According to George C. Rable, "War and swearing seemed to go together" (<title level="m">God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010], 98). The line distinguishes the sincere "oath" from the common camp profanities that concerned contemporary chaplains and the producers of wartime tracts. "Our brigade will still protect them— They shall ne'er be slaves again."Under the terms of the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863), U.S. military and naval authorities were instructed to "recognize and maintain the freedom" of newly freed people. By this time, the First Confiscation Act (August 6, 1861) had given U.S. military commanders power to seize slaves owned by rebels. However, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was not repealed until June 1864, and so although it was enforced less often after January 1863 (Donald Yacovone, ed., A Voice of Thunder: A Black Soldier's Civil War[Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998], 130), loyal slaveholders could still utilize it as a means to recover human property—indeed, the government's early war policy allowed them to call on Union officers for assistance. Fugitive Tom's master is clearly identified as a "rebel"; the poem leaves readers in no doubt as to the legality of soldiers' oaths even as it emphasizes their personal antislavery commitment. Over old Tom's dusky features Came and stayed a joyous ray;The poem's title character and his death scene may have been influenced by Harriet Beecher Stowe's bestselling antislavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (serialized in the National Era from June 5, 1851 to April 1, 1852 and then published in book form). Little Eva's last moments are illuminated by a vision of "love,—joy,—peace!" (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly [Boston: Jewett and Company, 1852], 2:113). The knowledge that the freedom of his family will be defended after his death lends "old Tom" a similar radiance. And, with sadden'd friends around him, His free spirit passed away. Washington, Nov. 4, 1863. —Washington Chronicle.Established as a weekly in 1861 by Republican convert John W. Forney (1817–1881), owner of the Philadelphia Press (est. 1857) and clerk to the House of Representatives (1851–1856; 1858–1861). Lincoln helped Forney secure a position as Secretary to the Senate (1861–1868) in return for valuable assistance rendered during the election of 1860. Lincoln and the editor-politician became good friends. Forney turned the Washington Sunday Morning Chronicle into a daily in 1862, apparently at Lincoln's suggestion (Richard Carwardine, "Abraham Lincoln, the Presidency, and the Mobilization of Union Sentiment," in Themes of the American Civil War: The War Between the States, ed. Susan-Mary Grant and Brian Holden Reid, rev. 2nd ed. [New York: Routledge, 2010], 137). According to Frank Luther Mott, the Chronicle "came nearer to being the Lincoln administration organ than any other newspaper" (American Journalism: A History, 1690–1960 [1962; London: Routledge, 2000], 347).