- Joined
- Nov 8, 2018
- Location
- Palm Coast, Florida
I am working on an Alt history story involving the enactment of Cleburne's proposal to arm slaves, and one of the central characters in my story is supposed to be a freeman from Atlanta or Mobile (or somewhere from the Deep South).
As I came up with the character (Scipio Johnson is his name, will refer to him as such), I realize I knew quite little about a) what it was like being a freeman in the south in the middle of the Civil War, and b) if there was even a sizable number of them at all that far in the Deep South, so late in the war.
The way I have him so far is that he's a minor shop-keep in one of the cities who joins the C.S.C.T. in order to be seen as an equal in society...only to discover after the war, even with his status as a hero of The Cause (becoming the only confirmed black Confederate officer in the war, being promoted to Lieutenant by his regiment's colonel for his apparent intuition, and then being brevet promoted to Captain after valorous action capturing an enemy battle flag), he is still looked down upon by the White Strata.
So, my questions are:
What was life like as a free man in the deep south during the Civil War?
Was there a sizable population of freemen in the deep south, specifically in Alabama and Georgia?
Is this man's story plausible?
(Note: I posted this in the Secession & Politics forum for I didn't know where else i should have put this thread)
As I came up with the character (Scipio Johnson is his name, will refer to him as such), I realize I knew quite little about a) what it was like being a freeman in the south in the middle of the Civil War, and b) if there was even a sizable number of them at all that far in the Deep South, so late in the war.
The way I have him so far is that he's a minor shop-keep in one of the cities who joins the C.S.C.T. in order to be seen as an equal in society...only to discover after the war, even with his status as a hero of The Cause (becoming the only confirmed black Confederate officer in the war, being promoted to Lieutenant by his regiment's colonel for his apparent intuition, and then being brevet promoted to Captain after valorous action capturing an enemy battle flag), he is still looked down upon by the White Strata.
So, my questions are:
What was life like as a free man in the deep south during the Civil War?
Was there a sizable population of freemen in the deep south, specifically in Alabama and Georgia?
Is this man's story plausible?
(Note: I posted this in the Secession & Politics forum for I didn't know where else i should have put this thread)