Primary Source Analysis of a document from the New York Daily Tribune, written on February 13, 1865, titled "Negroes of Savannah".

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Jerry Tran

History 213

Primary Source Analysis

        The source of the document was clipping from the New York Daily Tribune, written on February 13, 1865, titled “Negroes of Savannah”.  The document was a couple of minutes of an interview between the colored ministers and church officers with the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, and Major General Sherman.  The meeting took place on January 12, 1865-8 P.M. at the city of Savannah, GA, Headquarters of Major General Sherman.  Among the colored ministers and church officers that had attended the interview were of African descent and originated from bondage.  Some of them were released from their bondage and received their freedom by purchasing it or by the will of their masters.  There were twenty members of the colored people and an appointed representative, Garrison Frazier, to “express their common sentiments upon the matters of inquiry”; some of which were various issues being addressed by Stanton and Sherman for the duration of the interview.  

        The source addresses the African sentiment towards various issues apparently in South and the rest of the country. The South was clearly being the aggressor and the issue of slavery was increasingly becoming important to the war.  The date this document was written was in the middle of the Civil War.

        The intended audience of the document was anyone that was literate.  The interview displayed African sentiment towards political and racial issues both in the city of Savannah, GA and the rest of the United States.  This is known because the document was printed in the New York Daily Tribune, which was published in the north.  The literacy rate of both the black and white populations were higher in the North than that of the South.  The document was also beneficial to the abolitionists cause because it had shown the ideas, opinions, and the existence of literate African Americans.

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        For the duration of the interview between Frazier, the twelve ministers present, General Major Sherman, and Edwin M. Stanton and that there were twelve issues that were addressed.  The first question addressed the African sentiment towards the understanding of Congress and President Abraham Lincoln’s [Emancipation] proclamation.  Frazier had replied with the statement, “President Lincoln’s proclamation to the rebellious States, it is, that if they would lay down their arms and submit to the United States” then all shall be forgotten, but if stubbornness of South does not cease “then all the slaves in the Rebel States should be free henceforth ...

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