“Stories Collected from Slaves” by Leonarda J. Aimar is a bound volume of formerly enslaved people's stories. In her transcription, she attempted to capture the storytellers’ colloquial speech, now recognized as the Gullah language. The volume includes a list of addresses, occupations, and diseases of African Americans during their enslavement; an eye-witness account of the Battle of Secessionville on James Island during the Civil War in 1862; how enslaved people were returned to their slaveholders following the Revolutionary War; and an account of Sherman's march from Savannah, Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina during the Civil War. A formerly enslaved man, Sam, provides a detailed account of being a butler, coachman, and horse jockey. He also recounts how Union Army Major Robert Anderson took control of Fort Sumter and the events that transpired there on April 12, 1861. Other accounts include an enslaved man’s recollections of his time as a servant to a plantation overseer who sympathized with the Union during the Civil War and formerly enslaved man Jim Alston’s detailed eye-witness account of the 1876 Cainhoy Riot.
Caption: 'Caption: 'The rifled cannon which did so much execution on Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina'--[From a Sketch by our Special Artist.]' [full date May 18,1861.]
General Orders No. 50 from the War Department stating that Brevet Major-General Robert Anderson will raise the flag on Fort Sumter April 14, 1865. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher will deliver a public address at the ceremonies.
Caption: 'Night after the fight--the iron clads at anchor off Fort Sumter.--sketched by our Special Artist, Mr. W.T. Crane.--see page 81.' [full date May 2, 1863.]
Caption: 'The Old Flag again on Sumter--raised (on a temporary staff formed of an oar and boathook) by Captain H.M. Bragg, of General Gillmore's staff, February 18th, 1865.'
[Color image.] Caption at top: 'The harbor of Charleston, S.C.--From sketches by our special artist.--Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island.' Caption at middle: 'Fort Pinckney, Charleston, S.C.' Caption at bottom: 'Fort Sumter, Charleston, S.C.' [full date Dec. 1, 1860.]
