Celebrate Black History Month with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
Two unique artifacts go on display and ‘Small Beginnings’ returns

 

[February 07, 2025]  SPRINGFIELD – Two rare treasures illustrating highs and lows of Black history in America are going on display at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which will also celebrate Black History Month with the return of a short play telling the inspiring story of Robert Smalls and his daring escape from slavery.

For the first time ever, the ALPLM will display a badge that African Americans, whether free or enslaved, were required to wear in Charleston, SC, when outside their homes. The badges were primarily used to reduce the chance of anyone escaping by keeping tabs on enslaved people who were moving about the city to do work assigned by their oppressors.

The badge obtained by the ALPLM is a copper square, about two inches on a side, from 1819. That year, Charleston collected $3,700 by selling such licenses to enslavers and the city’s free Black population. That’s the equivalent of roughly $92,000 today.

Also going on display for the first time is a poster used to recruit African American men for the U.S. Army after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The poster depicts a Black soldier holding a U.S. flag and a banner saying, “Freedom to the Slave.” In the background, Black troops march to war, Black children attend a public school and Black men free enslaved people from their chains. Copies of the poster were probably distributed throughout the South as the Army took control of territory there, because the back of the poster encourages Black men to come “to the nearest United States Camp, and fight for the Stars and Stripes.”

“These historic treasures truly drive home what was at stake in the Civil War,” said Christina Shutt, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. “One reminds us that Black men and women were treated as mere property, rather than human beings. They were licensed and monitored the same way we treat cars today. But the poster offers an optimistic view of the future, with Black men rising up to seize the opportunity for freedom that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had created.”

“We are thrilled to unveil these artifacts during Black History Month, giving our visitors new ways to connect with a vital part of the nation’s past and Abraham Lincoln’s legacy,” Shutt added.

The presidential library and museum has developed a theatrical presentation about Robert Smalls, one of the most amazing figures of the Civil War era. Born into slavery, Smalls commandeered a Confederate ship in Charleston Harbor and used it to take family and friends to freedom in 1862. He then piloted that ship for the U.S. Navy. After the war, he returned to the Charleston area and was elected to Congress.

Actor Reggie Guyton portrays Smalls in a brief one-person play, accompanied by music from Randy Erwin. After each performance, Guyton, the play’s author, takes questions from the audience. Its schedule during Black History Month is Feb. 13, 14, 18, 27 and 28. All performances take place at 1:30, and tickets are free with regular museum admission.

The mission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is to inspire civic engagement through the diverse lens of Illinois history and share with the world the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. We pursue this mission through a combination of rigorous scholarship and high-tech showmanship built on the bedrock of the ALPLM’s unparalleled collection of historical materials – roughly 13 million items from all eras of Illinois history.

For more information, visit www.PresidentLincoln.illinois.gov. You can follow the ALPLM on Facebook, X/Twitter and Instagram.
 

[Christopher Wills (he/him/his)
Director of Communications
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum]