[SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE FOR RECRUITING COLORED REGIMENTS.] All Slaves were made Freemen. By Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States ... Come, then, able-bodied Colored Men, to the nearest United States Camp, and Fight for the Stars and Stripes. [Philadelphia, c.1863/1864.]

Broadsheet (279 x 220 mm.), chromolithographed illustration on recto, lettering on verso (upper left corner clipped in margin, verso with small patch of tissue reinforcement nearby and a touch of soiling, also to top margin; bottom margin slightly unevenly trimmed).

Excellent example of this famous and rare recruiting broadside addressed to the formerly enslaved.

After Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863, the Union moved to organize African American regiments. That winter, the Philadelphia Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments opened the Free Military School in Philadelphia. Before closing in late 1864, the school helped produce officers for eleven African American regiments, including the 3rd, 25th, and 45th. "From its reference to emancipation, and the phrase urging 'colored men' to come 'to the nearest United States Camp,' (rather than any specific camp) suggests this handbill may have been circulated by Union troops in the South" (Library Company).

The broadsheet’s striking lithograph depicts a Union officer standing on a Confederate flag, raising his sword while holding the U.S. flag and a “Freedom to the Slave” banner. Broken shackles lie at his feet as a newly freed man tears apart the Confederate emblem. Nearby, a Black soldier releases unshackles a young Black woman. A public school is seen on the left with scores of adults entering the doors, and one leaving with a book under his arm. In the foreground, a Black man reads the newspaper as children play at his feet besides an idle plough. The scenes of reading, schooling, marching troops, and three waving Union flags, all highlight the promise of emancipation and the role of Black regiments.

On the reverse, the sheet announces Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and calls on Black men to join the nearest Union camp. It also includes a version of the John Brown Song, in part: "He has gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord / He is sworn as a private in the ranks of the Lord / He shall stand at Armageddon with his brave old sword / When Heaven is marching on."

See "John A. McAllister's Civil War, The Philadelphia Home Front," Library Company online exhibition, this broadside is no. 3 in the section "Men of Color to Arms."