Abraham Lincoln's Speech to the Indiana Volunteers

[David Lockmiller]

Laurie did not cite the source of her information.

I found the source for Laurie's Post. I used the search term in Google Books: "Forrest offered freedom to 44 of his slaves if they would serve with him in the Confederate army"

Forrest : Memphis' first White Civil Rights Advocate

As I recall, the following excerpt from this article was not in Laurie's post:

After the Civil War, General Forrest made a speech to the Memphis City Council (then called the Board of Aldermen). In this speech he said that there was no reason that the black man could not be doctors, store clerks, bankers, or any other job equal to whites. They were part of our community and should be involved and employed as such just like anyone else. In another speech to Federal authorities, Forrest said that many of the ex-slaves were skilled artisans and needed to be employed and that those skills needed to be taught to the younger workers. If not, then the next generation of blacks would have no skills and could not succeed and would become dependent on the welfare of society.

Forrest's words went unheeded. The Memphis & Selma Railroad was organized by Forrest after the war to help rebuild the South's transportation and to build the 'new South'. Forrest took it upon himself to hire blacks as architects, construction engineers and foremen, train engineers and conductors, and other high level jobs. In the North, blacks were prohibited from holding such jobs.