First Memorial Day – Hampton Park – Charleston, SC
By
John C Abercrombie
The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred May 30, 1868. At the time it was known as Decoration Day which was proclaimed by Commander in Chief John A Logan of the Grand Amy of the Republic. Before this date, there are many local claims of being the first.
Official recognition of Memorial Day spread among the states, starting with New York in 1873 and by 1890 every Union state had adopted it. To honor the soldiers of the World Wars it was turned to a day of reembrace for all United States military who died in service. In 1971, the observance was standardized by the United Stats Congress as “Memorial Day” and observed on the last Monday of May.
The first documented Memorial Day celebration took place in Hampton Park, located in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865. There are many cities that claim to have been first, but they were started in 1866, the year after the Charleston celebration.
There is a historical marker in Hampton Park on what was once home of the Washington Racecourse and jockey club. In 1864, that very site became an outdoor Confederate prison for Union soldiers. It was very crude and with no focus on the safety and well being of the prisoners, it was the site of 250+ soldiers dying there and being dumped into mass graves.
After being abandoned by the Confederates, Black ministers and Northern missionaries led an effort to reinter the bodies and erect a fence around the newly established cemetery.
Wade Hampton III for whom the park is named was a South Carolina plantation owner and politician and served as a Confederate States of America General during the Civil War, organizing the “Hampton’s Legion” he played major roles in:
- The First Battle of Bull Run also known as Manassas
- The Peninsula Campaign
- Battles of Fredericksburg
- Brandy Station
- Gettysburg
After the death of General JEB Stuart, Hampton assumed command of the Confederate cavalry corps and was instrumental in protecting Richmond and Petersburg.
After the war he was an outspoken critic of Reconstruction. Reconstruction was an effort to reintegrate Southern States from the Confederacy and four million newly freed people into the United States of America. Reconstruction began to be disassembled immediately after the death of Abraham Lincoln by now President Andrew Johnson a Southerner. In 1865 and 66 Southern state legislatures passed restrictive Black Codes to control the labor and behavior of former enslaved people and all people of African descent. As you may know, these legislatures were mostly people who had lost their free labor and the opportunity get rich on the backs of Black people. The next best thing was to pass laws aimed at keeping them from belonging to the middle class and having access to all of the privileges of citizenship. Slaveholders held a deep grudge at the loss of their free source of riches.
Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of all people of African descent and ensure the availability of cheap labor. In many states, the black codes required Blacks to sign yearly labor contracts. Failure to sign posed the risk of being arrested, fined, and forced into unpaid labor (condoned slavery). In fact, the use of black codes helped undermine support for President Andrew Johnson and the Republican party.
General Wade Hampton also served as governor of South Carolina and was a member of the United States Senate. There are many statures, schools, and other highly visible shows of support in the name of Wade Hampton, keeping in place the tradition of honoring those who fought against equality.
Wade Hampton died in 1902 at the age of eighty-four.
“On May 1, 1865, a group of newly freed black people gathered at Hampton Park to put decorations on the graves, they sang songs, made speeches according to the historian Damon Fordham. This story was covered not only in Charleston, but in New York newspapers and is credited with being the first Memorial Day.
The Black people had taken the bodies from the mass grave, dug individual plots, and given these honored men a proper burial. We see once again, the failure of history to mention or give credit to any accomplishments of Black people. In fact, this story is not mentioned in the plethora of cases citing claims of being first. If there is any revision of history, it is what we are being taught, not what is being revealed.
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The origins of Memorial Day
The Black Historical Origins of Memorial Day
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The First Memorial Day
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Diabetic Supplies
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Blacks in S.C. Started Memorial Day
“African-Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina”. – Dr. David Blight
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Glory
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Blood Pressure
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The overlooked Black History of Memorial Day.
I want to acknowledge those those died fighting for this country as well as the ones that weren’t deemed “worthy” enough to get honored. I cover (read) a Time article written by OLIVIA B. WAXMAN where she covers David Blight’s 2001 book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. It talks about the previous enslaved people that started memorial day to honor their fellow fallen soldiers.
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The Negro’s Civil War
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Ambulatory Aids
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The First Memorial Day
Author and historian Damon L. Fordham tells the story of what is believed to be the first Memorial Day Celebration which was conceived by Charleston SC’s black community in what is now Hampton Park in 1865. Filmed in Mt. Pleasant SC, May 28, 2017. Mr. Fordham is available for speaking engagements.
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The Black Civil War Soldier
ABH – The Black Civil War Soldier
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Medical Supplies
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Freed slaves started first Memorial Day in the US, historians say
Many cities across the U.S. claim to be the home of the very first Memorial Day holiday to take place in 1868 — but historians say that honor belongs to someone else: people who were once enslaved in South Carolina.
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Contrary to the beliefs of many, the Black soldier and civilians were more interested in following moral principals than in seeking revenge. While it would have been easy to just let these soldiers just pass from history, these people were more interested in seeing that they had an honorable burial with honors. They were interested in doing what was right!