author

Alfred M. Green

A powerful Black abolitionist voice from Civil War–era Philadelphia, he is best remembered for urging African Americans to claim citizenship and dignity through action as well as words. His surviving speeches and letters still read with urgency, courage, and moral clarity.

1 Audiobook

Letters and Discussions on the Formation of Colored Regiments,

Letters and Discussions on the Formation of Colored Regiments,

by Alfred M. Green

About the author

Alfred M. Green was a 19th-century Black abolitionist and writer associated with Philadelphia. Records in the Black Abolitionist Archive show his speeches and published pieces appearing in venues such as the Weekly Anglo-African, where he argued for civil rights and spoke against laws that threatened Black freedom.

He is most often remembered for his Civil War–era call for the formation of Black regiments. In letters later collected as Letters and Discussions on the Formation of Colored Regiments, Green urged African Americans to serve and to press the nation to recognize their loyalty, bravery, and claim to full citizenship.

Although many details of his life are not easy to confirm from widely available sources, his work clearly places him among the prominent Black voices who linked abolition, military service, and equal rights. What remains most striking today is the force of his argument: freedom and citizenship had to be demanded, defended, and lived.