Enslavement to
freedom

 
  An African American woman in circa 1930s attire sits at a desk typing a letter on an old mechanical typewriter.

 

 

Notes, observations, historical hints, tidbits and stories from the community.

Study Areas

Enslavement

Anti-Slavery

Free Persons of Color

Underground Railroad

The Violent Decade

US Colored Troops

Civil War

20th Century

Year of Jubilee

Old Mail

2002 Mail
2003 Mail
2004 Mail
2005 Mail
2006 Mail
2007 Mail
2009 Mail

 

2006 Mail

Eleven Civil War Ancestors

From Charles Anderson Robinson, January 20, 2006

Happy New Year to the editors of this project. My name Is Charles Anderson Robinson and I'm writing to share a bit of my family history in the Civil War and In Equal Rights. It is a very long history in which I have spent the past 13 years researching, along with my cousins Jackie Cunningham and Jeannette Molson. We all share different segments of our family history and you may hear from each of us individually. There is so much to share with your project, so I must shorten my information to you with the hope of following up on any information that you may find of further interest.

I will begin with my ancestor William Nesbit, who was the president of The Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League. I have much information concerning his work in that area, but will just mention at this point the most interesting part of his life that touched me the most, and that was his trip aboard the Isla De Cuba in 1853 to Liberia. He was a strong advocate for the equal rights of his people, and led a most interesting life. His trip to Liberia, without going into a lot of detail, involved finding out the truth of the matter about the ACS (American Colonization Society). He documented his findings In a pamphlet he wrote, which I have a copy of: Four Months in Liberia. Again, I would love to elaborate on a lot of this information but will leave it to the fine editors of this project to inform me of how much detail you would like for me to share with you.

William Nesbit was known by the likes of Frederick Douglass, as Mr. Douglass spoke of him in his writings, and I have that information. William Nesbit corresponded with Senator Charles Sumner, and I have two of those letters, one that is quite interesting in light of the fact that he was asking Mr. Charles Sumner for a pass to sit in on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

William Nesbit was from Altoona, Pennsylvania. William Nesbit's son, William Jr., was a soldier in the 54th Massachusetts, and one of eleven Civil War veterans in my ancestry. Their names are:
Elias Anderson
William Nesbit
Levi Chaplin
William Chaplin
George Penlow
Henry Snowden
Thomas Richardson
John Norris
Charles Slaughter
William H Burton
George Coffey

Four of these Civil war ancestors are from the 6th United States Colored Infantry and can be found in a book I have called Strike The Blow For Freedom, by James M Paradis. Those four men are Levi Chaplin, my third great grandfather and John Chaplin's Brother, Elias Anderson, my second great grandfather, John Norris, who died in the battle of New Market Heights, and Henry Snowden. I own the full pension records for all 11 soldiers. The stories from these records are simply remarkable. I will add as an attachment a few articles of interest concerning a few of the men mentioned in this email. Thank you very much for you work.
sincerely,
Charles Anderson Robinson.

Editor's Note: William Nesbit traveled from Altoona to Harrisburg in 1855 to debate T. Morris Chester on the subject of Liberian Colonization, a subject much on the minds of free Blacks at the time. Chester did not appear at the meeting to debate Nesbit. Read the story here.

In addition, the life of John G. Chaplin is detailed here.

Afrolumens Project Home | Letters Index

Original material on this page copyright 2024 Afrolumens Project
The url of this page is https://www.afrolumens.com/letters/060120.htm