Thank you all for the amazing stream of information.
Greetings,
Marlijn Kossen
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From: David W Babson <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, April 18, 2011 6:01:04 AM
Subject: Re: Slavery and the War (1861-1865)
I made the comment about Black soldiers in the Union Army largely because it was
backed up by the National Archives website. I regret not mentioning the many,
many ways in which African Americans who were not in the military resisted
slavery--in that time, it was (almost) exclusively adult men who joined the
army, once they had fled from their "masters," but the hundreds of thousands of
men, women, children and elders who fled deprived these masters of the labor,
skills and knowledge they had been forced to "contribute" under slavery, and
they irrevocably broke apart the plantation economy, based in slavery, that had
existed before the war. Any slave society has an immediate and ready fifth
column when it goes to war, since the people enslaved in that society will
usually recognize a common cause with its enemy. As in this story, that was
very apparent, even to a "most trusted servant." I think the idea that the U.S.
Civil War may have been, in some large part, one of the
world's few successful slave rebellions is greatly strengthened by these
accounts.
D. Babson.
________________________________________
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda Derry
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2011 11:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Slavery and the War (1861-1865)
Going back to Babson's comments, we mustn't forget that many more African
Americans than those that wore uniforms found ways to fight in that war.
For example, I have recorded an oral tradition from a family whose great
grandfather hid a Union Soldier that had escaped from the prison at Cahawba.
The family tradition maintains that he was in charge of the carriage horses
so the barn was essentially his, so he kept the soldier hidden there until
the war was over. The story, passed down through the family, maintains that
his white master actually knew something was wrong in the barn, but out of
respect for his "most trusted servant," he never again entered the barn and
therefore avoided the problem.
By the way, just recently in Selma Alabama (a place notoriously associated
with voting rights movement of 1965), the "Ancient Africa, Enslavement and
Civil War Museum" held a press conference to announce that they will be
honoring hundreds of black soldiers who helped to win the war against the
South. This announcement coming just in advance of the annual Battle of
Selma Re-enactment. The president of the museum , wife of a state senator,
was quoted as follows: "The Confederates lost the war and it's time for
teachers, ministers and children to recognize that the North won." Rev.
Franklin Fortier was quoted in the same article as saying " The Civil War
was not about state's rights but holding on to slavery. We're excited about
the new tours and exhibits coming that will detail these events."
So, I expect that the discussion that we archaeologists we are having on
this listserve may manifest in the streets of Selma during this anniversary
year - perhaps during the re-enactment.
It ought to be interesting.
Linda Derry
Site Director
Old Cahawba Archaeological Park
719 Tremont St.
Selma, AL 36701
ph. 334/875-2529
fax. 334/877-4253
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrew
Hall
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 6:47 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Slavery and the War (1861-1865)
Robert L. Schuyler wrote:
> Small numbers of slaves (free African Americans ?) served in the
> Confederate Army right at the end of the war. Are there any groups
> of their descendants who are organized or do reenactments?
The Confederate Congress, after much rancorous debate, authorized the
enlistment of slaves as soldiers in mid-March 1865, about three weeks before
the evacuation of Richmond, and about four weeks before Appomattox. Robert
E. Lee had urged the government to take this action and offer emancipation
in return for military service, but in the end the C.S. Congress did not
include that provision, explicitly saying that nothing in the legislation
was intended to change the pre-existing relationship between those slaves
and their masters.
As I recall, two companies (i.e., a "paper" strength of about 200 men) were
formed from African American men who had been working in military hospitals
in Richmond. I do not believe that any muster rolls exist from those units,
nor have I seen any organizations of descendants of those men.
Andy Hall
Dead Confederates Blog
http://deadconfederates.wordpress.com/
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