[Mark in the Old South]

Re: "The significance of such facts may be subject to debate"

Yes I can agree on this, which is the value of a thread such as this, if we can get the feelings police from high jacking it. "Boo hoo hoo you are siding with the South the Union is great and anything that questions that must be stomped out or silenced." I have noticed it is white Northerners who are most prone to this type of thing.

The sort of thing you are talking about is available. One of the good things to come out of the social programs of the Depression. Out of work journalist //sigh// were employed to interview the elderly former slaves. Some criticize this body of work but at least one of the journalist was a black woman. I hear she got a slightly different take on things. I have never seen her work so I do not know.

There is a good book on the subject written by a black professor at the University of Virginia by the name of Jordan. His book is Afro Americans and Black Confederates in Civil War Virginia. I am pretty sure it is still in print. His book was limited to the 4 years of the war and just in Virgina but what a gold mine. Lot of fascinating stories dealing with all aspects of slave life. He was trying to figure out why a slave would fight for the South.

His conclusion? It was their country same as the white man.

[Bogolyubski]

People of that era often had a stronger loyalty to their state or region than they did to the harder-to-grasp United States. Mobility wasn't nearly as great and folks developed a much stronger sense of community than they do today - even in the South. This community loyalty may have even been rpesent in a segment of the slave population, especially if they had relatives who were free and living in the area.