Posted on 01/08/2004 6:40:27 PM PST by stainlessbanner
Black Confederates Why haven't we heard more about them? National Park Service historian, Ed Bearrs, stated, "I don't want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910" Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a "cover-up" which started back in 1865. He writes, "During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where 'soldier' is crossed out and 'body servant' inserted, or 'teamster' on pension applications." Another black historian, Roland Young, says he is not surprised that blacks fought. He explains that "some, if not most, Black southerners would support their country" and that by doing so they were "demonstrating it's possible to hate the system of slavery and love one's country." This is the very same reaction that most African Americans showed during the American Revolution, where they fought for the colonies, even though the British offered them freedom if they fought for them.
It has been estimated that over 65,000 Southern blacks were in the Confederate ranks. Over 13,000 of these, "saw the elephant" also known as meeting the enemy in combat. These Black Confederates included both slave and free. The Confederate Congress did not approve blacks to be officially enlisted as soldiers (except as musicians), until late in the war. But in the ranks it was a different story. Many Confederate officers did not obey the mandates of politicians, they frequently enlisted blacks with the simple criteria, "Will you fight?" Historian Ervin Jordan, explains that "biracial units" were frequently organized "by local Confederate and State militia Commanders in response to immediate threats in the form of Union raids". Dr. Leonard Haynes, an African-American professor at Southern University, stated, "When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South."
As the war came to an end, the Confederacy took progressive measures to build back up its army. The creation of the Confederate States Colored Troops, copied after the segregated northern colored troops, came too late to be successful. Had the Confederacy been successful, it would have created the world's largest armies (at the time) consisting of black soldiers,even larger than that of the North. This would have given the future of the Confederacy a vastly different appearance than what modern day racist or anti-Confederate liberals conjecture. Not only did Jefferson Davis envision black Confederate veterans receiving bounty lands for their service, there would have been no future for slavery after the goal of 300,000 armed black CSA veterans came home after the war.
1. The "Richmond Howitzers" were partially manned by black militiamen. They saw action at 1st Manassas (or 1st Battle of Bull Run) where they operated battery no. 2. In addition two black "regiments", one free and one slave, participated in the battle on behalf of the South. "Many colored people were killed in the action", recorded John Parker, a former slave.
2. At least one Black Confederate was a non-commissioned officer. James Washington, Co. D 35th Texas Cavalry, Confederate States Army, became it's 3rd Sergeant. Higher ranking black commissioned officers served in militia units, but this was on the State militia level (Louisiana)and not in the regular C.S. Army.
3. Free black musicians, cooks, soldiers and teamsters earned the same pay as white confederate privates. This was not the case in the Union army where blacks did not receive equal pay. At the Confederate Buffalo Forge in Rockbridge County, Virginia, skilled black workers "earned on average three times the wages of white Confederate soldiers and more than most Confederate army officers ($350- $600 a year).
4. Dr. Lewis Steiner, Chief Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission while observing Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's occupation of Frederick, Maryland, in 1862: "Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number [Confederate troops]. These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the Negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc.....and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederate Army."
5. Frederick Douglas reported, "There are at the present moment many Colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but real soldiers, having musket on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the rebels."
6. Black and white militiamen returned heavy fire on Union troops at the Battle of Griswoldsville (near Macon, GA). Approximately 600 boys and elderly men were killed in this skirmish.
7. In 1864, President Jefferson Davis approved a plan that proposed the emancipation of slaves, in return for the official recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France. France showed interest but Britain refused.
8. The Jackson Battalion included two companies of black soldiers. They saw combat at Petersburg under Col. Shipp. "My men acted with utmost promptness and goodwill...Allow me to state sir that they behaved in an extraordinary acceptable manner."
9. Recently the National Park Service, with a recent discovery, recognized that blacks were asked to help defend the city of Petersburg, Virginia and were offered their freedom if they did so. Regardless of their official classification, black Americans performed support functions that in today's army many would be classified as official military service. The successes of white Confederate troops in battle, could only have been achieved with the support these loyal black Southerners.
10. Confederate General John B. Gordon (Army of Northern Virginia) reported that all of his troops were in favor of Colored troops and that it's adoption would have "greatly encouraged the army". Gen. Lee was anxious to receive regiments of black soldiers. The Richmond Sentinel reported on 24 Mar 1864, "None will deny that our servants are more worthy of respect than the motley hordes which come against us." "Bad faith [to black Confederates] must be avoided as an indelible dishonor."
11. In March 1865, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary Of State, promised freedom for blacks who served from the State of Virginia. Authority for this was finally received from the State of Virginia and on April 1st 1865, $100 bounties were offered to black soldiers. Benjamin exclaimed, "Let us say to every Negro who wants to go into the ranks, go and fight, and you are free Fight for your masters and you shall have your freedom." Confederate Officers were ordered to treat them humanely and protect them from "injustice and oppression".
12. A quota was set for 300,000 black soldiers for the Confederate States Colored Troops. 83% of Richmond's male slave population volunteered for duty. A special ball was held in Richmond to raise money for uniforms for these men. Before Richmond fell, black Confederates in gray uniforms drilled in the streets. Due to the war ending, it is believed only companies or squads of these troops ever saw any action. Many more black soldiers fought for the North, but that difference was simply a difference because the North instituted this progressive policy more sooner than the more conservative South. Black soldiers from both sides received discrimination from whites who opposed the concept .
13. Union General U.S. Grant in Feb 1865, ordered the capture of "all the Negro men before the enemy can put them in their ranks." Frederick Douglass warned Lincoln that unless slaves were guaranteed freedom (those in Union controlled areas were still slaves) and land bounties, "they would take up arms for the rebels".
14. On April 4, 1865 (Amelia County, VA), a Confederate supply train was exclusively manned and guarded by black Infantry. When attacked by Federal Cavalry, they stood their ground and fought off the charge, but on the second charge they were overwhelmed. These soldiers are believed to be from "Major Turner's" Confederate command.
15. A Black Confederate, George _____, when captured by Federals was bribed to desert to the other side. He defiantly spoke, "Sir, you want me to desert, and I ain't no deserter. Down South, deserters disgrace their families and I am never going to do that."
16. Former slave, Horace King, accumulated great wealth as a contractor to the Confederate Navy. He was also an expert engineer and became known as the "Bridge builder of the Confederacy." One of his bridges was burned in a Yankee raid. His home was pillaged by Union troops, as his wife pleaded for mercy.
17. As of Feb. 1865 1,150 black seamen served in the Confederate Navy. One of these was among the last Confederates to surrender, aboard the CSS Shenandoah, six months after the war ended. This surrender took place in England.
18. Nearly 180,000 Black Southerners, from Virginia alone, provided logistical support for the Confederate military. Many were highly skilled workers. These included a wide range of jobs: nurses, military engineers, teamsters, ordnance department workers, brakemen, firemen, harness makers, blacksmiths, wagonmakers, boatmen, mechanics, wheelwrights, etc. In the 1920'S Confederate pensions were finally allowed to some of those workers that were still living. Many thousands more served in other Confederate States.
19. During the early 1900's, many members of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) advocated awarding former slaves rural acreage and a home. There was hope that justice could be given those slaves that were once promised "forty acres and a mule" but never received any. In the 1913 Confederate Veteran magazine published by the UCV, it was printed that this plan "If not Democratic, it is [the] Confederate" thing to do. There was much gratitude toward former slaves, which "thousands were loyal, to the last degree", now living with total poverty of the big cities. Unfortunately, their proposal fell on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.
20. During the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913, arrangements were made for a joint reunion of Union and Confederate veterans. The commission in charge of the event made sure they had enough accommodations for the black Union veterans, but were completely surprised when unexpected black Confederates arrived. The white Confederates immediately welcomed their old comrades, gave them one of their tents, and "saw to their every need". Nearly every Confederate reunion including those blacks that served with them, wearing the gray.
21. The first military monument in the US Capitol that honors an African-American soldier is the Confederate monument at Arlington National cemetery. The monument was designed 1914 by Moses Ezekiel, a Jewish Confederate. Who wanted to correctly portray the "racial makeup" in the Confederate Army. A black Confederate soldier is depicted marching in step with white Confederate soldiers. Also shown is one "white soldier giving his child to a black woman for protection".- source: Edward Smith, African American professor at the American University, Washington DC.
22. Black Confederate heritage is beginning to receive the attention it deserves. For instance, Terri Williams, a black journalist for the Suffolk "Virginia Pilot" newspaper, writes: "I've had to re-examine my feelings toward the [Confederate] flag started when I read a newspaper article about an elderly black man whose ancestor worked with the Confederate forces. The man spoke with pride about his family member's contribution to the cause, was photographed with the [Confederate] flag draped over his lap that's why I now have no definite stand on just what the flag symbolizes, because it no longer is their history, or my history, but our history."
If you will reread my posts, I've made the colonial, post-colonial and 19th century divides clear for those who take the trouble to read rather than blindly push their own agenda.
And if you will reread (or read for the first time) you will also see that I am and have always been adamant that slavery was an evil practice and a negative influence on ALL that participated in it. All I am saying is that (1) that includes ALL - including those New Englanders who began the American slave trade in the first place; and (2) all those who found themselves in that time and place were not irredeemably evil, and many made efforts to ameliorate the evil.
How you get from there to Lew Rockwell or the Lost Cause, maybe you better look in the mirror.
Think there's any money in that? ;-)
David Balfour in Stevenson's Kidnapped missed the same fate by a hair, but HIS problem was a Wicked Uncle.
But Wikipedia says "It was Oglethorpe's idea that British debtors should be sent to Georgia instead of imprisoned; however, no debtors were chosen to be settlers of Georgia." They got enough solvent volunteers, apparently.
Another myth exploded (I had always assumed it was true!)
BTW, When I studied Georgia History in 8th grade, it seemed like it was 90% Oglethorpe.
Washinton may have been "Father of our Country" but Oglethorpe, by God, was "Father of Georgia"!
In the upper South, such issues weren't enough to put secession through at first. It required the emotions sparked by Fort Sumter, the upsurge in sectional loyalty and the opposition to federal war measures to make secession win in those states. But even there, it's worth pondering the relationship between freedom and slavery, and not automatically to assume that what the Revolutionaries of 1861 meant by liberty was necessarily what we mean by that word today.
As for slavery and health care, doctors and hospitals weren't as common as today. People would have to rely more on traditional and herbal remedies, and when doctors came they could do much less than they can today. If a slave were seriously ill, a master might well summon a doctor, but it's not clear that slaves got better medical care than free people. More here.
Many slaveholders contrasted the lives of their slaves with the those of slum dwellers in New York, London, or various mill and factory towns. While lives in those places could be truly wretched, it's not clear why this was regarded as the best comparison: why not compare slave's lives with those of small farmers or craftsmen who might be poor, but independent and self-supporting? In any event, it's not automatically clear that slaves got better health care than poor free people could get from doctors or charity wards.
I think it was less Southern nationalism than state loyalty, but pro-slavery ideology certainly played a substantial part, at least among the leaders of the political class. I disagree re racial anxiety - that is more or less a Northern thing, as most of us in the South have grown up side by side with black people - something that definitely didn't happen up North. (When I happened to be in Muskegon Michigan for a week back in the 70s, the only black person I saw was a one-legged water skier in a touring show.)
The further the Irish came west, the more well off they were. The really dirt poor (shanty) Irish got off the boat in Boston because that was the closest and cheapest American port. Baltimore was another big entry point, and Savannah was next - then came New Orleans.
My maternal grandfather's grandfather married a lady who was the widow of an Irishman named Sherlock who got to Baltimore some time in the 1830s. He was a sailmaker in Baltimore but became the county constable when he moved to Augusta GA.
Sad, but true.
I am of the opinion that the men on both sides showed courage in plenty.
From Nat Turner to John Brown, there had been much fear that if White control slipped, the result would be murder or the destruction of civilization. The Democrats appealed to such racial fears in both the North and the South, and found plenty of adherents. Similar anxieties about Blacks taking over were still present in the 1950s and 1960s.
The other side of the coin is that White Southerners weren't afraid of Blacks as such, since they'd lived among them all their lives, so eventually after centuries, desegregation might be more successful and thoroughgoing in the South than in the North. That's because both races tended to live in the same neighborhoods, so residential segregation wasn't as much of an issue. But if we are talking about the past, we can't pass over its distinctive features.
And while Southern fears of Blacks as such were less, one can turn that around as well, and say that if Northerners had a slave class and a system of subjugation, they wouldn't have been so afraid of Blacks, either. When charges of hypocrisy come to dominate arguments, the charges can get tossed around forever without the argument or knowledge or agreement advancing. "You're not as good as you think" is something that depends more on how one thinks other people think about themselves than about actual circumstances.
In both the North and the South, some people ran ahead and drove events and passions toward conflict and others lagged behind. After the Civil War, many people accepted the "Robert E. Lee" view that most Confederate notables were sorrowing stoics with no enthusiasm for slavery, secession or war, who dutifully went with their states or at most, fought to defend their ideas of state's rights and liberty. But without passionate pro-slavery agitators, war would have been less likely.
If you look at DeBow's, the Charleston Mercury and other Lower South publications, you'll find much idealization of slavery and much enthusiasm for Southern nationhood. Probably only a minority thought that way, but it was an influential minority. You could draw a parallel between abolitionists in the North, and pro-slavery or Southern nationalist fire-eaters in the South. The importance of both groups outweighed their numbers, since they were able to drive the debate ever further from the mainstream. As the terms and limits of debate changed, moderates and centrists followed where the radicals led.
I just get tired of Northerners talking out of their hats about racial fears, when they will cross the street to avoid meeting a black person. The worse racist I ever knew was a Vermonter, I do wonder if he ever saw a black face in St. Albans.
So New Englanders began the American slave trade, eh?
It must have been as a result of all the demand for slaves to work on tobacco plantations in New England (lol).
And it was really New Englanders and not the Dutch VOC who first sailed into Jametown with their human cargo for trade in 1619, right?
Then they came back and wrote the laws that established slavery in the Virginia in the 1660s, is that it?
And I suppose it was New England who created the Royal African Company to ensure their monopoly on the slave trade in 1672, right?
Seriously, I hope you have more than a college student's term paper and a personal dislike for the north, to support such a specious assertion.
Originally, the slaves did not go to the Southern part of the mainland. The Triangle brought slaves to the Caribbean islands, where they were sold to labor in the cane fields. Cane sugar went to New England, where distilleries turned it into rum (New England rum at the time was considered the best in the world). The rum went back around to pay for the slaves. And so it went around - and around - and around.
Did you go to the websites I posted? In one case a Rhode Island college, in the other the Mass. Historical Society, acknowledge the predominant role of New England ships and traders in the Triangle Trade. This is pretty well known to anybody who studies history.
First, Britain did not stop trading slaves upon the entry of New England. There was no take over of the slave trade from Britain by New England. As I pointed out quite a while ago, the Brookes was an English vessel involved in African slave trade to the Americas from 1746 to 1802.
Secondly, New England did not pioneer the American slave trade, European trading companies did. To suggest otherwise (as you have twice), is either intellectually dishonest, or a pretty good indication you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
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