Sympathy For The Loss of a Comrade": Black Citizenship And The 1873 Fort Stockton "Mutiny

Summary

In the 19th century, white elites saw African American literacy as a dangerous tool that would allow black communities to make claims for equality. This was certainly the case in 1873, when the majority of the Black Regulars at Fort Stockton, Texas organized and signed a petition calling for the formal censure of the post surgeon, arguing that the recent death of a fellow soldier was due to the doctor’s intentional and malicious neglect. As a result of this attempt to seek justice through written expression, twenty-one men were tried for attempted mutiny. Their petition is a rare opportunity to hear from black soldiers of this period in their own words, and this artifact, along with other primary sources, secondary literature, and archaeological material, provides insight into how these soldiers may have come to understand and exercise the citizenship rights they had officially held for less than a decade. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Diaspora and Dispersal   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 670