Images of Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site – Eastern Missouri, taken in August 2019.

Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site protects the White Haven house, which originally belonged to Grants wife’s family, and is where the Grant’s resided up to the time he became president. In fact, he learned that he had won the presidency on the front porch of this house.

Grant was a proponent of the abolition of slavery and freed his only slave early on. After the Civil War ended Grant was famous for declaring that those that pledged allegiance to the Confederacy would not be held as prisoners because they were once again ‘our countrymen’. Unfortunately some in the south did not accept the verdict that the war handed down and during Grant’s presidency he constantly fought with those southerners (KKK and White League) who could not accept the end of the war or the freeing of the slaves.

As I immersed myself in the history around this place and that of the 18th President of the United States all I could think of was that it was hard to believe that almost 150 years later we are still dealing with the issues of race in this country…we should be better than that; we are all equal, period!