HOPE & GLORY

In 1775, Dr Samuel Johnson – England’s most distinguished man of letters – wrote a pamphlet called ‘Taxation No Tyranny’ that was directed at the increasingly vocal dissenters for more representation in Britain’s 13 American colonies. Johnson was notably forthright in his loathing of slavery and scathingly pointed out the colonists’ double standards when he asked, “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?”

With one sentence, Johnson exposed the hypocrisy that was at the heart of American society even before the United States’ Declaration of Independence famously stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

In 1863, America was still grappling with this fundamental issue and tearing itself apart with the most brutal war in its history. White politicians in the Union and Confederacy were stalemated on what it meant to be free in the United States and it would take the courage of the oppressed African American minority to show the way forward in this huge moral struggle. Leading the vanguard were valiant soldiers who have since become legendary – the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

1st Kansas Volunteers

Contrary to its portrayal in the Academy Award-winning 1989 film Glory, the 54th