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| John Brown pike and captured rifle, Frederick Douglass and AHC brochure (Civil War Picket) |
I might
recommend a repeat visit, as I did this week just ahead of Friday’s formal
opening.
If you are pressed for time, or want to get the AHC’s take on stars of the show, I suggest seeing the following "Top 10." Five of these are mentioned in a printed brochure, “Curator Highlights,” while the other five artifacts were gleaned from an interview with Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator, and a tour he gave to the media on Wednesday
It is
remarkable Jones, now in his mid-60s, was leading the effort at the AHC when it
opened its signature Civil War exhibit, “Turning Point,” in 1996. Over the past
couple years, Jones has shepherded a new exhibition for the DuBose Gallery space. It is much larger in the topics it tackles.
“The new
exhibition moves beyond traditional military history to explore the full scope
of the era. It challenges us to ask,” the AHC says. “Who was included in the
promise of American democracy? Who was excluded? And what does the legacy of
that struggle mean today?”
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| Curator Gordon Jones during a media preview of the exhibit on July 8 (Civil War Picket) |
Without
further ado, 10 must-sees at “More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era.”
These are in sequence as you walk through the space. (All photos by the Civil War Picket except as noted)
Dutch map of African coast, navigational chart for the Transatlantic slave trade, circa 1680
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| (Courtesy Atlanta History Center) |
“This is one
of several items in the exhibition that demonstrates the deep roots of chattel
slavery in the New World, and how the long tail of slavery led directly to the
American Civil War,” the AHC brochure says.
British blunderbuss musket often used
in slave trade
This circa 1750s short-barreled firearm, or blunderbuss, was made by the John Whately family in England. The European slave cartel traded guns for enslaved persons along the West African coast. It was typical for the buyers to supply weapons, iron bars, printed cloth and other metals as part of the barter.
"This one is extremely lightweight, cheaply made, and incredibly rare to find in this condition," said Jones, who believes this one may have been a sample weapon or used for another purpose.
'What to the American Slave is Your Fourth of July?'
The address “confronted
the contradictions in the American promise of freedom and equality with
its central question” about the holiday’s meaning to those in bondage,
according to the AHC. It is considered to be a defining moment in U.S. history.
"There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the every day practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival," Douglass told the audience.
The presentation at the AHC includes audio of an actor reading Douglass' remarks.
John
Brown letter, pikes, rifle and figurine
The story goes that a young John Brown witnessed an enslaved boy being
beaten with a shovel. From then on, Brown was determined to put an end to the
system of bondage.
Years later and while in his 50s, Brown and his family moved to “Bleeding Kansas," where they became engaged in the struggle over slavery. After an attack on abolitionists in Lawrence, Brown led an 1856 raid that left five men and boys believed to be slavery proponents dead.
Brown
traveled to his native New England in 1857 to raise money for the cause. He
carried a captured Bowie knife and contracted with Connecticut blacksmith
Charles Blair to make 950 pikes for $1 each. At some point, Brown decided to
use them in the South, rather than Kansas. He hatched a scheme for the weapons
to be given to freed and escaped blacks, who would use them on anyone who dared
to stop their rebellion. That effort ended in failure at Harpers Ferry, West
Va., in 1859. Brown's radical actions hastened the Civil War, historians say.
The AHC display includes Brown’s letter to the pike manufacturer, a figurine, token, a pike and detached pike head, along with a U.S. Model 1855 rifle-musket captured by Brown during the doomed raid on Harpers Ferry.
Film 'Battle Ground / Freedom Ground: What Happened in the Civil War?'
The
centerpiece of the new Civil War exhibit is an
18-minute visual timeline presentation. It is quite compelling and is in a
semicircular shape, with several viewing benches.
“The film
surrounds the audience in the costs and consequences of the Civil War – real
quotes help tell the story of the era in the words of those who lived through
it, and the audience is flanked on their left by the military costs – changes
in territory, successful battles waged – and on their rights by the human costs
– the increasing casualties as the war enters history as the bloodiest in
American history,” says the brochure.
Flag from freedmen’s refugee camp at Craney Island, Va.
Most of the American flag is long gone, save for the 34 stars
and upper-left canton. It flew over a camp on Craney Island near Hampton Roads,
Va., that protected about 1,800 escaped slaves, whom Jones said were active in
their liberation.
The camp operated for just over a year before closing in September 1863; it was one of dozens of such camps in southeast Virginia.
“Here
on small island near Fortress Monroe, formerly enslaved people married, found
work, attended school, and built new lives. But freedom was not always what
they had imagined. Federal authorities were unprepared for the massive influx
of refugees," the museum says.
Jones marvels at the work of conservators. “I almost didn’t recognize it as an
artifact (when donated), he said. “It came in a bag.” The DuBose family –
central to Atlanta’s memory of the Civil War -- donated the precious artifact.
The impetus
for the AHC’s investment in artifacts related to African-American soldiers came
in 2019, when it bought a hand-painted flag
made for the 127th USCT infantry. The flag depicts a soldier waving farewell to Columbia, a symbol of the United States,
with the words “We Will Prove Ourselves Men" at the top
“It’s an iconic knock-your-socks-off artifact,” Jones said at
the time. Even an enlisted man’s USCT uniform wouldn’t be as historically
significant as this flag.”
This is one of three surviving examples of at least 12 USCT flags painted by David Bustill Bowser.
The 127th trained at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia in 1864. It took part in combat during the siege of Petersburg and the surrender at Appomattox. USCT units -- which helped turn the tide in several campaigns and battles -- were led by white officers and it took time for soldiers to receive pay equal to their white counterparts.
The flag captures the essence of why 180,000 African Americans volunteered in the Union army during the Civil War. These soldiers and refugees showed the world Blacks were ready and able to liberate themselves.
List of
enslaved Africans landed in Cuba, 1863
They were found abandoned after their illegal landing near San Juan de las Playas.
The galling ledger includes their age, physical condition and, most chillingly, the branding mark burned in their bodies. The latter were recorded under the heading “distinguishing marks.”
Many of the enslaved are described by their African and Christian names.
“Placed in
the colonial emancipado indentured
labor system, they were ‘free’ in name but bound to years of forced labor,
often on sugar plantations, the exhibit says.
Check for New York Draft Riot damages
Many opposed
to Northern military conscription in 1863 rioted in New York City, overwhelming
police and leading to scores of deaths and widespread destruction.
Black residents were targeted out of fears of labor competition following emancipation. The home of Hiram Dalton, 61, was ransacked and most of the household possessions were lost. A city relief fund awarded $115 to Dalton for “Damage by rioters.”
“It brought
tears to my eyes,” its very human connection shining brighter than the check’s
bureaucratic ink, Jones told me.
Confederate battle flag of the 6th/9th
Tennessee combined
Charles
Turner Jr. of Atlanta in recent years donated this Georgia-made flag that flew at the “Dead
Angle” at Kennesaw Mountain during the epic June 27, 1864, battle.
The 6th and 9th Tennessee regiments consolidated during the war and its soldiers took part in the Atlanta Campaign under the Army of Tennessee as its commanders defended against the approach of Union forces.
The 6th-9th
were stationed at Cheatham Hill, the bloodiest part of the Kennesaw Mountain
battlefield, also known as the Dead Angle.
As the AHC brochure points out, the subsequent capture of Atlanta secured President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election, “and with it, the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery.”
MORE COVERAGE:
https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/06/atlanta-history-center-hopes-to-make.html
https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/04/compelling-civil-war-artifacts-are.html
https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2025/05/first-on-picket-compelling-artifacts.html
https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/07/old-number-9-confederate-capt-keys.html
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