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Abolishing mental slavery
What was the day like—May 28, 1863? For the citizens of Boston, it was certainly no ordinary day. As historian Russell Duncan writes, "The largest crowd in the city's history assembled on Essex and Beacon streets, leaned from balconies, waved from windows, ran out to touch or praise, and surrounded the reviewing stands around the State House and in the Common to cheer ...."
One thousand troops, the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry, were receiving tribute as they headed south to join in the Union's struggle against the Confederacy. Although the Civil War itself had been raging for more than two years, the Emancipation Proclamation received President Lincoln's official signature only five months earlier. And it was Lincoln's action to end slaveholding in the United States that had finally set the stage for this remarkable event in the city of Boston.
The ranks of proud soldiers who were marching that day through the Common constituted the first regiment of African Americans to be mustered into combat. The significance? Again, in Duncan's estimation, these courageous individuals now had the opportunity to take their own place in history as they carried forth the "vision of black men redeeming them-selves from 250 years of slavery." See Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, ed. by Russell Duncan (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992), pp. xi, xv, and 1 .
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
July 11, 1994 issue
View Issue-
"What hast thou in the house?"
as told by Alberta T. Raffaelli
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Love in the neighborhood
Jan Kassahn Keeler
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Love one another—God's law of healing
Marian English
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All-inclusive
Marietta G. Lyon
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The bond we all have in divine Love
with contributions from Cornelia Schacht, Michael Pabst, Ute Lorch Keller
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The view above opinion
Tony Lobl
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Don't ruminate over the past
Louise Clarke Harsch
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Looking for answers?
Robert R. MacKusick
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Abolishing mental slavery
William E. Moody
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Days filled with extraordinary opportunities
Russ Gerber
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Christian Science has blessed me in so many ways over a...
Patricia H. Smith
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In Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy writes, "No evidence...
Judith M. Osmycki
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Last year I was boiling a mixture of sugar and butter to...
Patrick T. E. Abrahall
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I am indeed grateful to be studying Christian Science
Donna Myers Gibbs
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When I was eight years old I became very ill
Martha Louise Duke