Shot Where You Stand!
“You, Ma’am, if you do not find yourself aboard this wagon immediately; I shall be forced to order you and your four children shot dead, right where you stand!”
With thoughtful pain in his expression, the soldier was recounting the story of a fellow soldier’s wife and children and hundreds of other black refugees being driven at gun point one November day—the “coldest day” of 1864—from Camp Nelson, a major Civil War Union recruiting camp.
Historical actor Hasan Davis portrays Sergeant A.A. Burleigh of the 12th United States Colored Heavy Artillery.
This testimony, set against the backdrop of the end of the Civil War, was delivered in Colorado just this week by Hasan Davis. Davis, a historical actor, presented a one-man show about Union soldier Sergeant A.A. Burleigh of the 12th United States Colored Heavy Artillery as part of Colorado Humanities Black History Month celebration. And it was a great show. Davis brought the sergeant and the 1860s and ’70s to life for nearly 100 people at Littleton’s Bemis Library Tuesday night.
Reconstructed Barracks at Camp Nelson, Kentucky.
Burleigh had fled from his Kentucky master, expecting kindness, generosity and abundance in the army of the nation for which he was willing to lay down his life. Instead, he gained a new harsh master. He found difficulty, cruelty, prejudice and bureaucracy at Camp Nelson. But as he testified, you could feel that, in spite of all he and fellow recruits and their families had suffered at the hands of those who should have been their friends, he was proud to be free and a soldier of the Union.
A.A. Burleigh, former Union soldier, became the first African-American to graduate from Berea College.
Burleigh, born on a ship to an English ship captain, was kidnapped along with his mother when his father died. Stolen in Virginia when he was 2, he and his mother were eventually sold into slavery in Kentucky. He escaped to enlist in the army at 16 and a decade later was the first African-American to graduate from Kentucky’s Berea College, the south’s first coeducational and integrated school. Following his graduation, he moved north, becoming a minister and educator. He died in 1939 at the age of 91.
Davis’ enthralling presentation, delivered in his gentle, rich voice with deep-felt passion, ended up containing three parts. The first covered Burleigh’s time as a soldier. The second covered his time at Berea, an institution that was struggling to challenge the era’s social inequalities. And the third covered the interesting life of Mr. Davis, who with learning disabilities and an urban street-culture environment, struggled to make something of his life. Each segment was inspirational and thoughtful, but the highlight of the evening for me was Davis’ rendition of his first arrest. He was 11, and his mother came to the police station to pick him up. He was expecting a lecture. Instead his loving mother told him that she could see greatness in him. It took him a while and three school expulsions before he could develop it. Today, Davis serves as Commissioner for Juvenile Justice for the state of Kentucky. For those of us at Bemis on Tuesday, our lives are richer because he succeeded.
If you’re interested in seeing a bit of his performance, Kentucky Public Television taped part of it and interviewed Davis several years ago: TV interview with Hasan Davis about his role as Sergeant A.A. Burleigh. But the small screen doesn’t do justice to Davis’ energy and live performance.
While in Colorado, Davis also is portraying York, a slave and member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I’m hoping Colorado Humanities brings him back next year. I’d like to experience it again.
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