{"id":1672,"date":"2019-08-01T08:50:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T08:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/?page_id=1672"},"modified":"2019-08-01T08:50:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T08:50:33","slug":"african-americans-debate-enlistment-1898","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/19-american-empire\/african-americans-debate-enlistment-1898\/","title":{"rendered":"African Americans Debate Enlistment (1898)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Thousands\nof African-American troops served in in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American\nWars. Confronted with racial violence and discrimination at home, they did so\nwith a mix of hope, skepticism, satisfaction, and disappointment. Here, the Indianapolis\nFreeman reports on recruiting efforts in Hartfod, Connecticut. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. recruiting officer is expected in Hartford\nthis week to receive names of men for the prospective Spanish-American war.\nGreat excitement prevails here among all classes, and some of our colored men\nseem enthusiastic over the idea of enlisting in defense of the government,\nwhile some are more reserved and common-sensed, asserting that no colored man\nshould never again offer his services to protect a government that does not\nprotect him. The government of the United States will allow some of her most\nloyal and true citizens to be burned and shot to pieces, like dogs, without\nprotection, and go right on ignoring their rights and claims as if all were\npeace and happiness in the family; and yet, when a foreign war is threatened,\nthese same ill-treated citizens are wont to be rushed to the front in the name\nof protecting the nation\u2019s honor. Such injustice is not tolerated by any other\ncivilized nation; not even is Spain guilty of such discrimination among her own\ncitizens. As a race what means have we for checking such unjust discrimination?\nColored men of Hartford, let us think before acting. If the government wants\nour support and services, let us demand and get a guarantee for our safety and\nprotection at home. We want to put a stop to lynch law, the butchering of our\npeople like hogs, burning our houses, shooting our wives and children and\nraping our daughters and mothers. In short, as a race, we want indemnity for\nthe loss of ten thousand Negroes who have been lynched and butchered and\nslaughtered since the civil war. When we are guaranteed freedom and equality\nbefore the law, as other American citizens, then we will have a right, as such,\nto take up arms in defense of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: \u201cThey Are Ready to Enlist\u201d <em>Indianapolis Freeman<\/em>, March 19, 1898, 1.\nAvailable online via Google News (<a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/newspapers?nid=FIkAGs9z2eEC&amp;dat=18980319&amp;printsec=frontpage&amp;hl=en\">https:\/\/news.google.com\/newspapers?nid=FIkAGs9z2eEC&amp;dat=18980319&amp;printsec=frontpage&amp;hl=en<\/a>).\n<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of African-American troops served in in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. Confronted with racial violence and discrimination at home, they did so with a mix of hope, skepticism, satisfaction, and disappointment. Here, the Indianapolis Freeman reports on recruiting efforts in Hartfod, Connecticut. The U.S. recruiting officer is expected in Hartford this week to receive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":370,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1672","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1673,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1672\/revisions\/1673"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}