“I am glad to see a system of labor exists in New Haven under which laborers can strike when they want to.”
Abe LIncoln said that in New Haven. So did Otis Daniels, on the same street.
Lincoln delivered those words as part of an address given at the old Union Hall, on Union Street, during an 1860 campaign stop.
Daniels, a student at Lincoln-Bassett, delivered those words down the block at Union Station during a festive reenactment Saturday marking the 150th anniversary of the landmark speech.
Click on the play arrow above to watch Daniels in action.
Daniels was among a group of public school students recruited to take part in the reenactment — not just offering a public reading, but researching LIncoln and his visit. “After this celebration, the students will be encouraged and supported to teach younger students about what they have learned,” said Frank Cochran, one of the event’s organizers.
Other student participants included Imani Knight (Lincoln-Bassett), Andrew Powers (New Haven Academy), Marion Pritchard (Wilbur Cross), Kenisha Rogers (Lincoln-Bassett), Joseph Roy (New Haven Academy), and Jahi Stennett (Lincoln- Bassett).
The words they spoke tied together the causes of labor and abolition.
“One of the reasons why I am opposed to slavery” is the cause of free labor, Lincoln — and then Daniels — said. “What is the true condition of the laborer? I take it that it best for all to leave all men free.”
“Slaves are human beings,” noted Lincoln — and Joseph Roy of New Haven Academy, in the above video. “… Men, not property.”
The combined choirs of Lincoln-Bassett and John C. Daniels schools performed, too.
The organizing committee hopes that Saturday’s reading will mark the first of an annual New Haven history event. Cinque and the descendants of the Connecticut 29th Civil War regiment must be smiling.
It's wonderful for this to be seen at one of the most beautiful buildings in all of Connecticut. I wish I'd had known about this, I'd like to have seen it...