Free Lecture: The Union’s First Black Hero | Hayward

Submitted by the Event Organizer

William Tillman, a free African American, is virtually unknown to Civil War specialists and history buffs alike, yet he was a genuine Union hero. This illiterate ship’s cook and steward, acting almost alone, recaptured a Union vessel from Confederate privateers in 1861 and sailed it safely into New York City’s harbor.

Join Professor Gerald Henig, in honor of Black History Month, for an account of Tillman’s deed and an analysis of how Northerners, Southern rebels, and observers across the Atlantic reacted to it.

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