Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial

The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54^th Regiment Memorial commemorates one of the first Black regiments of the American Civil War. Although African Americans served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Northern racist sentiments kept African Americans from taking up arms for the United States in the early years of the Civil War. However, a clause in Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation allowed for the raising of Black regiments. Governor John Andrew soon created the Massachusetts 54^th Volunteer Infantry. He chose Robert Gould Shaw, the son of wealthy abolitionists, to serve as its colonel. Notable abolitionists including Frederick Douglass and local leaders such as Lewis Hayden recruited men for the 54^th Regiment. African Americans enlisted from every region of the north, and from as far away as Canada and the Caribbean.