In this edition of “Keeping the Hysteria in American History,” we’re honoring the United States Colored Troops (USCT).

Following USCT Heritage Month in May and leading up to Juneteenth, we wanted to highlight a woman most people have likely never heard of. She committed the “crime” of trying to fight for her freedom, and her arrest record is all that survived to tell the tale.

You can check out the original documents about Lizzie Hoffman's arrest in the National Archives online catalog here: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28035229

Thanks to Charles Pendleton of Vicksburg Civil War Museum for designating May as United States Colored Troops Heritage Month since the Bureau of Colored Troops was established in May 1863. Learn more about the museum at: https://www.vicksburgcivilwarmuseum.org/

Thanks to @reenactress and veteran Yvette Blake (pictured in our video) for bringing this little-known historic figure to our attention and to Shelby Harriel-Hidlebaugh, author of Behind the Rifle and the Forbidden, Hidden, and Forgotten: Women Soldiers of the Civil War blog, for directing us to the original documents found in the National Archives. Learn more about Forbidden, Hidden, and Forgotten here: https://forbiddenhiddenforgotten.blogspot.com/2021/03/paying-price-consequences-of-discovery.html

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