The Attleboro Area Civil War Commemorative Committee (AACWCC) invites you to join Chuck Veit, president of the Navy and Marine Living History Association and member of the AACWCC, as he tells the unknown stories and historical facts about the African American contribution to the Navy during the Civil War.
The event will be held On Saturday, August 4, at John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church, 32 Broad Street, North Attleboro, 2:00 p.m.
Like much of Navy history from the Civil War, the experience of African Americans in the Navy is little known.
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According to Veit, African American sailors would come to make up 16% of the Union fleet. Unlike the Federal Army, however, this was not an experiment or anything new for the Navy, which had always been integrated to varying degrees. In 1862, says Veit, one newspaper reported that, “The Navy has not been in the habit of examining a seaman’s complexion before shipping him. ‘Can you fight?’ is the only question.”
Thus, the story of African Americans in the Navy “was very different from the more familiar stories of the men who served in the Army’s segregated regiments,” Veit says.
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In contrast to the black experience in the Army, the men afloat enjoyed an equality that was rare in the 19th century. During the war, eight African American sailors earned the Navy Medal of Honor. And, in a virtually unknown episode, black sailors volunteered (and were accepted) to crew a ship intended to run down the ironclad CSS Virginia—eight months before the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation. The contribution of African Americans (from the North and the South) to naval victory in The War of the Rebellion was key, says Veit.
Veit’s presentation is part of AACWCC’s programming to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
The event is free. RSVP appreciated: ethel.garvin@gmail.com
