From Slaves To Soldiers: The ONLY Fully Literate Units in the Union Army - What Happened?

Added: 2026-06-01

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[00:01:09][music] It's free, 20 minutes. Speak to a real person. Know your worth. Um, Memorial Day. I'm going to play this clip here.

[00:01:19]Um, and I think we all need to take a moment of silence.

[00:01:25]to respect our fallen soldiers and their sacrifice for this country. But I want to talk about the origins of Memorial Day. So, let me play this.

[00:01:35]>> The first Memorial Day actually was created by African-Ameans celebrating [music] their freedom in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. The story was [music] just almost unbelievable when I first read it. On May 1st, 1865, [music] the Civil War had ended, just ended.

[00:01:53]People gathered on the old Planters Horset track, the racetrack in Charleston, and they held this extraordinary parade. In the last 6 to8 months of the war, [music] the Confederates had converted the infield of that racetrack into an open air prison, and about 260 Union soldiers had died. On May 1st, about 10,000 [music] people marched around the old planters racecourse, led by uh some 2 or 3,000 black children carrying arm loads of roses and flowers and singing John Brown's body, followed by black women, black men, and then Union troops. And they marched around the course, and then they gathered in this cemetery that had been created by local [music] black workmen. and they heard the preaching from five black ministers. According to this article, these were the freed people of [music] Charleston paying tribute to the Union Dead.

[00:02:53]That's the first memorial there that I've heard that story before. And I just want to bring this up here.

[00:03:04]Um it says in 1865, free black Americans honored 257 Union soldiers. And in 1868 the decoration day is established.

[00:03:17]So yeah and then of course um it became a national holiday called Memorial Day.

[00:03:24]So any thoughts on that judge?

[00:03:27]>> Essentially that's the bottom line on it. Also, one thing too, uh, an enormous number of black folk fought for their freedom because, as Grant himself acknowledged in his memoirs, by the time the Civil War was concluded, onethird of the Union Army was colored, negro, African-American, black, whatever you want to say. and number was increasing.

[00:04:02]Also a warning to the idiots who glorified dysfunction these days. Uh he remarked on something that had first startled him. He had a survey done [clears throat] and he discovered that the only completely literate units of company size in the Union Army.

[00:04:29]And a company in those days was anywhere between 140 and maybe 180 men.

[00:04:38]The only completely literate units in the whole Union Army, which at that time was the largest in world history, were black. So what happened between ex-slaves, runaway slaves, freed slaves, black freemen for real who fought in the Union Army and were illiterate right after the period of slavery when in large swats of the country it was illegal for lonius to teach a black person to read or write. How did they manage that? And now we have the lowest literacy rate in the country.

[00:05:18]What happened between then and now [snorts and clears throat] and the 170 year going on 170ear period?

[00:05:31]>> Good point. Good question.

[00:05:34]>> Well, Mike, I sent you a chart. I'm not trying to get off the subject, but just adding to it very quickly. It showed that Indian-Americans have the highest median income of $100,500 per family and 72% have an undergrad college degree who are over 25. And for black folk, we are at the very bottom of the heap with a median income of right below 35,000 a year. And we have basically 7% of our population uh that has a 4-year college degree, 25 and under. In considering how the statistics were so much higher even 50 years ago, even 70 years ago, and consideration of the black heroes that fought for their own freedom in the bloodiest war the country's ever been in. Uh, what happened?

[00:06:42]>> What happened? There is no Jim Crow.

[00:06:46]There is no sign out saying no colored allowed or colored allowed only with proper white supervision. There's no Englewood, California stopping anybody black coming through after sundown and demanding ID. And now it's a black haven. None of this goes on. We have black folk controlling all of the major urban areas of the United States.

[00:07:13]So what went wrong? [clears throat] And I can tell you this glorification of dysfunction, this buying into it, this componentry of the overall picture to emasculate the country and turn the male componentry into overgrown children, continuously dependent, unable to provide and protect. That is one of the main things that has happened and it's just because basically the boys uh in the hood are no longer motivated to be men in the hood. They remain boys subject to being taken care of their whole lives and they can get out from under that. And the first step is to stop being in a plantation in your own mind and in a natural habitat zoo for the rainbow negro that you have had adopted by so many because it's the trendy thing to do. Stand up, man up, and do what you have to do. And it doesn't embrace always being liked. And it certainly doesn't embrace your entitlement to emotional expression. Men are not allowed that. And men and women are not the same. And we have the honor of being able to die for what's right and protect womanhood from having to go there.

[00:08:41]And that protects us from what is usually even today in the human experience the miserable experience of dying.

[00:08:53]Well, I agree with you. And then there are also other factors as well, but >> we don't need to allow them to intervene. We need to overcome them.

[00:09:04]That's adversity.

[00:09:06]>> Right. That's what I'm saying. So that's why I agree with you because that is the first level of defense. everything that you just laid out and it's a level of defense when you talking about as far as technology, you know, a a lot of I I'm looking at it to where whether it's social media, whether it's your phones, whether it's AI, these different apps, all of these things that is a big distraction, right? Is turning people to be so narcissistic. Lack of accountability. Um there are um there are too many males than men. Um the boys are not being taught real manhood. They want to be gentle with the gentle parenting. Give them what they want and um allowing the women to lead more in certain areas where they should not um because it just goes against not just biology but just the cycle of society of life. Um, so when you look at other cultures and other groups of people, whether it's here in this country or abroad, um, let's just take someone of the Middle East, they instill that manhood. They make sure that they separate the roles of a of a girl, of a boy, of going into woman and manhood, and that is instilled on top of it with religion.

[00:10:33]But when you come when you become more westernized especially here in America let's just stick to here in America too much coddling of all of everybody women and if you are not prepared you're not even a pawn on the on on a chess board. you're just going through life without consciously understanding your role in society. And and so so with that and then being specific when we're talking about black America, black Americans then and now, >> it is somewhat of a of of an embarrassment when you look at the state of black America um internally right in the 50s and 60s to the state of black America especially when it comes to our youth. Now there is a big difference to where there's lack of interest when it comes to education, lack of interest when it comes to career achieving more higher paying career um jobs or education.

[00:11:48]We're at the bottom economically with wealth. Now yes, the institutions and public policies have created that. But what I'm seeing today in 2026, I do not see an agenda or a plan to start economically uplifting and also culturally and the way we raise our children and the way the way we are bringing boys into men. I don't see an agenda. I don't see a plan. I don't see preparation for that. And with that, we're going to maintain at the bottom to damn near being extinct. Well, we are doing the plan thing and the implementation thing as we speak. We're trying to preach to something that's not in the choir that badly needs it. I can give a very succinct uh instruction on where to find the problem that you must face and also the solutions to those problems. Go take a trick to your bathroom and look in the mirror and you will see the problem and you will see the solution. It resides in you guys. It's a man thing or a lot of times a lack of manhood thing because adversity is welcomed by men is something to conquer and prove their worth. The other thing is do not be set off by trying to chase And when I say that, you will get feedback from the typical sister who says that when you have appropriate manly pride, decorum, demeanor, interest, and behavioral standards that have been universal for mankind since humans have been here on this planet and try to say that you are a narcissist, don't buy into it. Because if you buy into it, you won't get the And next thing is you won't do anybody any favors. Least of all yourself. And next least of all the woman who is telling you this foolishness. You have to be a man because that's what's lacking. And it has become popular for your mama, your grandmas, your aunts, their friend girls, the women you work with, the people that are the clericals, the ones that may be your bosses, the ones that you may be trying to date or lay and or lay. They want you to be nice and safe and not the most dangerous predatory being on the whole planet Earth or the most dangerous that's ever existed. They want you peaceful. They want you as a nice child they can give instructions to and pamper when it suits them. That's not how it works. You're in charge. Your job is to provide guidance and leadership. Your woman's job is to provide advisement and uh let's put it this way, a conscience for you. But you're the one that has to call the shots.

[00:15:03]You can be nice. You can be gentle. But you have to be dangerous. And if you're not dangerous in the right kind of way, you useless.

[00:15:15]>> But you have to be taught what exactly what that mean to be dangerous in a in a right kind of way.

[00:15:21]>> Yeah. Well, >> but if you but but if if you don't if you don't have that man leadership, whether it's in your household or in your community, no one is not no one's not going to be able to teach you with that. So, there are a lot of things. So, just to swing it back to Memorial Day and the black the free black Americans, you know, I don't want to I don't want to I don't need to go all the way back to there to that time to compare, but let's just say that was you were to be a slave, you you were just basically not even looked as as human. So what these black people did to say I'm going to fight on this land for a country that treated me horribly so that I can gain freedom and some type of a no and upliftment for my people right because I am a man I am a human being and and that's what they did in the hardest hardship of time going all through Jim Crow to you have all of these privileges today and we're still yelling racism, still yelling I am a victim. Those people weren't calling themselves victims then. Black people weren't calling themselves victims through Jim Crow. Not at all. Because they didn't want to be looked at as a victim. You have to learn that that basketball that most of us waste our time trying to play does have a lesson. So does football or anything else that involves a team. If you're a member of the team, you don't ask before you block or you tackle or you pass off or you take the shot or you do the rebound whether the person you're doing it for behind or along with is white, black, brown, red, yellow.

[00:17:18]They're part of the team. Even if you can't stand a son of a bitch's guts, right? you steal block for them, tackle for them, they you expect them to do the same because they are on the team. Uh Native Americans uh generally would not be considered for a chieftainship unless they had been able to count coup. In other [clears throat] words, to strike a blow against an enemy. And interestingly enough, as badly as Indians had been treated by the American system, they still found it satisfactory to uh to qualify for chieftainship. If you struck a blow even for the US calvary. So what they were doing is even if it was not their war, they participated in it like a lot of other men do because it is the masculine thing to be capable of war and to be war like but to be men of peace, dignity, and public order when that is the appropriate thing to be. But you cannot be those three things if you are incapable of vesting war. And I'm not talking about some damn fool trying to play cannibal down in the hood and then waste the meat by leaving it dead on the sidewalk and not eating it, >> right?

[00:18:38]>> Or trying to get suicide by neighbor or like suicide by cop. But anyway, look at a mirror and you'll see what the problem is. You'll also see the solution. And I'm saying this because our listenership is likely to be grown men or grown males.

[00:18:57]And if they're grown ladies listening, then they need to get it. So they back off of these guys and let them be men and stop calling them narcissist because they act like men. Now the other thing is >> last little point, raise your children, but you got to do something about yourself. So, one of the things that's important about Memorial Day is not just the dead folk, but the folk who took it upon themselves to have the honor to be part of the war or defense effort also understood something else that they didn't sit on their asses playing punk and not getting involved. They took it to the line. They took it to the limit. and whether they died in a basic training accident, they got hurt in a basic training accident, or whether they got injured, killed, disabled, or whatever in active combat. Everybody knew that could happen to you, but it was a thing where you took it on yourself or even if they drafted you, you accepted the risk factor and you did your part. And that's what we ought to be grateful to. We ought to be highly relevant. uh reverent of those people who took the stand that they had to take and when they needed to take it and they didn't flinch and run.

[00:20:25]>> Absolutely. Um and this is just a sidebar cuz I'm I'm going to move on to the next topic. Um I mentioned narcissism and technology and I was and I don't think I said it but I was not just putting that on guys on the men.

[00:20:40]women too. The society has become very narcissistic and technology um has just amplified that. So it's not I'm not putting that on on men, women too and children and the teens. Lack of accountability, narcissistic views, how just just it's a mess. And honestly, I'll save that for Thursday cuz I kind of want to go a little bit deeper into that for Thursday conversation.

[00:21:09]Let's do that because it's strange you brought that phrase up today.

[00:21:14]>> Mhm.

[00:21:15]>> All last week I've been getting getting a lot of the young men that I counel saying, "Chudge, am I a narcissist?" So where in the hell did you get that? And apparently amongst young women, it is becoming trendy to accuse the males in their lives of being narcissist because they have proper manly respect for themselves and others and they have confidence in the you know their ability to being able to face adversity when needed. So that is apparently becoming a trendy little catchphrase for I don't like somebody being a real man.