Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation is based on the true story of Benjamin Holmes.
Fisk University, ca. 1870
Holmes was born a slave on a plantation in South Carolina around 1846. His father had acquired a little education and had secretly taught him the letters of the alphabet when he was very young. Before he could learn more, his father was sold and they never saw each other again.
Around the age of ten, Holmes was apprenticed by his master to a tailor in the city of Charleston, a common arrangement in those days. Apprenticed slaves learned a skilled trade that could benefit their master’s household and generate income. Though they were not free, apprentices in urban areas often enjoyed a greater degree of independence than slaves doing agricultural work on plantations.
Holmes quickly found ways to capitalize on the relative freedom his new position offered him. On his frequent errands around the city he increased his grasp of literacy by studying labels, street signs, and shop windows.
During one of his rare visits home to the plantation, his mother showed him a gold coin which she had managed to earn by doing extra sewing for white families after her own chores were done. She promised him the coin would be his if he would learn how to write.
Despite the risk involved he proceeded to teach himself to write and received the coin on a subsequent visit home. Shortly thereafter, he and his mother were separated permanently by the outbreak of the Civil War.
In 1862, as Union troops neared the city, Holmes’ master removed him from his apprenticeship and sent him to a slave prison to await sale. The prison was a single large shed in which men and boys were confined together in close quarters. Somehow the prisoners got hold of a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, most likely by bribing guards with tobacco for a copy of the Charleston Mercury, which published a copy of the Proclamation in early 1863. Holmes read the entire text out loud to his fellow slaves, who acknowledged the words with cheers and applause.
Like most slaves, Holmes did not immediately gain his freedom. From Charleston he was sold and sent to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he worked in a general store. When his new master was drafted into the Confederate army, Holmes took over running the store. After the war he worked as a bookkeeper in a barber shop and in several other business. Education, however, remained his main goal. In 1868 he enrolled in Fisk University.
Founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1865, Fisk was one of the nation’s first universities dedicated to educating African Americans. Because so few former slaves at that time had had the opportunity to attend school, Fisk initially offered high school as well as college courses. Holmes swiftly completed the high school curriculum and started his college studies. He also joined the school’s choir, which became known as the Jubilee Singers in 1871. The Singers toured nationally and internationally, raising money for Fisk and introducing the world to African-American gospel music.
Holmes left Fisk and the choir in 1872. He taught in one room school houses for the children of former slaves in Tennessee, a job that exposed him to the hostility of his white neighbors who still did not believe that African Americans had the right to read. Ill health caused him to abandon his teaching after about a year. He is believed to have died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 in October 1873.
Sources:
The Story of the Jubilee Singers by J.B.T. Marsh, Houghton Mifflin, 1880
Dark Midnight When I Rise by Andrew Ward, FS&G, 2000. For more information click on the book cover below.
Around the age of ten, Holmes was apprenticed by his master to a tailor in the city of Charleston, a common arrangement in those days. Apprenticed slaves learned a skilled trade that could benefit their master’s household and generate income. Though they were not free, apprentices in urban areas often enjoyed a greater degree of independence than slaves doing agricultural work on plantations.
Holmes quickly found ways to capitalize on the relative freedom his new position offered him. On his frequent errands around the city he increased his grasp of literacy by studying labels, street signs, and shop windows.
During one of his rare visits home to the plantation, his mother showed him a gold coin which she had managed to earn by doing extra sewing for white families after her own chores were done. She promised him the coin would be his if he would learn how to write.
Despite the risk involved he proceeded to teach himself to write and received the coin on a subsequent visit home. Shortly thereafter, he and his mother were separated permanently by the outbreak of the Civil War.
In 1862, as Union troops neared the city, Holmes’ master removed him from his apprenticeship and sent him to a slave prison to await sale. The prison was a single large shed in which men and boys were confined together in close quarters. Somehow the prisoners got hold of a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, most likely by bribing guards with tobacco for a copy of the Charleston Mercury, which published a copy of the Proclamation in early 1863. Holmes read the entire text out loud to his fellow slaves, who acknowledged the words with cheers and applause.
Like most slaves, Holmes did not immediately gain his freedom. From Charleston he was sold and sent to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he worked in a general store. When his new master was drafted into the Confederate army, Holmes took over running the store. After the war he worked as a bookkeeper in a barber shop and in several other business. Education, however, remained his main goal. In 1868 he enrolled in Fisk University.
Founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1865, Fisk was one of the nation’s first universities dedicated to educating African Americans. Because so few former slaves at that time had had the opportunity to attend school, Fisk initially offered high school as well as college courses. Holmes swiftly completed the high school curriculum and started his college studies. He also joined the school’s choir, which became known as the Jubilee Singers in 1871. The Singers toured nationally and internationally, raising money for Fisk and introducing the world to African-American gospel music.
Holmes left Fisk and the choir in 1872. He taught in one room school houses for the children of former slaves in Tennessee, a job that exposed him to the hostility of his white neighbors who still did not believe that African Americans had the right to read. Ill health caused him to abandon his teaching after about a year. He is believed to have died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 in October 1873.
Sources:
The Story of the Jubilee Singers by J.B.T. Marsh, Houghton Mifflin, 1880
Dark Midnight When I Rise by Andrew Ward, FS&G, 2000. For more information click on the book cover below.
Photo Credits:
Fisk University
Library of Congress
Library of Congress