Joseph T. Wilson

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Joseph T. Wilson
Wilson as depicted in The Black Phalanx (1888)
Bornc. 1837
Norfolk, Virginia, US
DiedSeptember 25, 1891
Other namesJ.T. Wilson
Known forActivism, writing, lecturing
Notable workThe Black Phalanx

Joseph Thomas Wilson (c. 1837 – September 25, 1891) was an American journalist, politician, and author. He served in several regiments, including the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, during the American Civil War. After the war's end, he was the publisher of several Reconstruction-era publications and a radical member of the Republican Party, active on a state level. Wilson was also a successful author; his 1888 The Black Phalanx sold well and has been described as the "most comprehensive study of African American military service" of the era.[1]

Biography

Joseph T. Wilson was born in 1836 or January 1837 in Norfolk, Virginia. He may have been enslaved at birth;[1][2][3] his mother, Louisa Wilson, was likely free and his father, Bristow, enslaved. He was later described as "mulatto". He left Norfolk after turning in a fugitive put his safety in danger and attended schools in New Bedford, Massachusetts.[2][3]

According to his writings, Wilson was out of the nation on a whaling ship for what was to be three years. He learnt of the outbreak of the

chronic diarrhea, at one point hospitalized and was eventually honorably discharged.[2] After moving back to Massachusetts, Wilson enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, Company C. He was discharged on May 8, 1864, after having been injured in the Battle of Olustee in February 1864.[5] In September 1864 he was involved in the attempted capture of Fort Fisher as a boat pilot. For a time after this Wilson was a member of the Army of the James' secret service.[5][2]

Though Wilson was permanently disabled after his injury in the Battle of Olustee, his attempts to receive a pension, which began as early as November 1864 and continued for the next 25 years were unsuccessful into the 1880s.[2] He married Elizabeth Hattie Smith on March 19, 1868; the couple had three children but none survived past childhood.[3]

In early 1865 he moved back to Norfolk and initially found work in a supply store before taking editorship of The True Southerner.[6] He was in a group that formed the Colored Monitor Union Club on April 4, 1865, a group advocating for suffrage that voted in the elections on May 25. Their votes were not counted.[2] He was elected to serve on a committee of eight that drafted the "Address from the Colored Citizens of Norfolk, Virginia, to the People of the United States" in June 1865. The address advocated for equality of Black people with white and particularly in favor of equal suffrage. It warned that former slaveowners would deprive freed slaves of their rights, which they were willing to work hard to secure. It also proposed land associations to allow African-Americans to purchase land.[7][2]

Wilson was still The True Southerner's editor when a white mob destroyed its press in 1866. He then left the region to settle in Petersburg, Virginia. There, he founded and published the short-lived paper The Union Republican in 1867.[6] In the 1870s he returned to Norfolk and worked for a time for the Internal Revenue Service, gauging and inspecting customs, and at one point was colonel aide-de-camp to the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. Returning to Petersburg, Wilson published The American Sentinel and The Right Way in the 1880s.[6][2][8]

Wilson was politically active as a member of the

presidential elector. His house was attacked in 1871 for his activism. Wilson continued to advocate vocally for the rights of Black people, speaking and publishing widely. He criticized the Readjuster Party.[6][2]

History work

Following the end of the Civil War, Wilson embarked on research into Black history. He published Emancipation: Its Course and Progress in 1882, charting Black history from 1481 BC, which he identified as the year of an exodus, to 1875 AD. The historian

American Publishing Company sought to make the book a success, with a door-to-door campaign, subscription sales, agent selling, and widely advertising. Their efforts were successful; the educator Irvine Garland Penn wrote three years later that sales "surpass[ed] that of any other work written by an Afro-American."[2]

Thorpe thought Wilson's coverage of the first two wars had "nothing new", but the later ones used credible sources but suffered from excessive quotation (around half of the book) and numerous grammatical mistakes. It also lacked an index. The public positively received it,

Arthur Schomburg and John Edward Bruce deemed it a foundational text in its field in 1911. Carter G. Woodson wrote in 1944 that it had "shaped" his "historical consciousness" according to Varon.[2]

Later life and death

Wilson died on September 25, 1891.[2] Despite its early success and influence, Varon wrote in 2019 that The Black Phalanx had received little critical attention in the modern era; Wilson himself has often been "overshadowed" by George Washington Williams.[2] According to the scholar Donald Yacovone, the book was the "most comprehensive study of African American military service" for at least a generation after its publication.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Yacovone 2004, p. 336.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Varon 2019.
  3. ^ a b c "Wilson, Joseph T. (1837–1890)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  4. ^ Aptheker 1991, p. 100.
  5. ^ a b c Trudeau 2002, p. 128.
  6. ^ a b c d Trudeau 2002, pp. 128–129.
  7. ^ Aptheker 1991, pp. 142–144.
  8. ^ Parfait 2016, p. 16.
  9. ^ Thorpe 1971, p. 44.
  10. ^ a b c Thorpe 1971, pp. 44–45.
  11. ^ Yacovone 2004, p. 335.

Bibliography

External links
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