Thread by @ZinnEdProject

In Nov. of 1863, Sgt. William Walker organized his soldiers to put down their weapons to protest the Union policy of paying Black soldiers a fraction of what was paid to white soldiers. Walker, a formerly enslaved man, served as an officer in 3rd SC Volunteers. 🧵 1/4

Walker & his soldiers said they “would not do duty any longer for $7/month.” Pay was not only area of inequality. Black troops died at three times the rate of white troops b/c they were they assigned the hardest, harshest work duties and often denied access to medical care. 2/4

“For an account of the treatment that has been given to the men of the 3rd Regt S. C. Vols by a large majority of their officers,” Walker declared at his court-martial, “nine-tenths of those now in service there will be my witness that it has been tyrannical in the extreme.” 3/4

#tdih 1864: In a heartbreaking outcome, Walker was convicted of mutiny & killed, one of 19 Union soldiers executed by Union army for mutiny during Civil War, 14 of whom were Black.
Let's be sure to teach about Walker's organizing, words, & bravery. 4/4
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/sgt-…