@Andersonh1 has a thread on newspaper reports concerning
Black Southerners and the Confederate Cause--What the newspapers said: 1861-1865.
That thread brings to mind an important fact: there are no newspapers from enslaved people to say exactly what they thought about the Confederate Cause. Of course, most slave states made slave literacy illegal.
There is this crazy dynamic concerning period history, where there is Confederate history, African American History, and Emancipation History, but these are separate though intersecting things.
We know that enslaved African Americans were 39% of the Confederate population. The question of their status as Confederates has never been fully addressed or discussed, I think. It seems like the only Black Confederates out there were those who somehow attached to the Confederate military. Such people were less than 1% of the black population in the Confederacy; what does it mean that 99% of African Americans living in the Confederacy were not Confederates? Does it mean anything?
In August of 1862, a group of concerned citizens in Liberty County, GA, near Savannah, wrote this letter to Confederate Brigadier-General MERCER, Commanding Military District of Georgia, Savannah:
GENERAL: The undersigned, citizens of Liberty County, of the Fifteenth District, would respectfully present for your consideration a subject of grave moment, not to themselves only, but to their fellow- citizens of the Confederate States who occupy not only our territory immediately bordering on that of the old United States, but the whole line of our sea-coast from Virginia to Texas.
We allude to the escape of our slaves across the border lines landward, and out to the vessels of the enemy seaward, and to their being also enticed off by those who, having made their escape, return for that purpose, and not infrequently attended by the enemy. The injury inflicted upon the interests of the citizens of the Confederate States by this now constant drain is immense.
Independent of the forcible seizure of slaves by the enemy whenever it lies in his power, and to which we now make no allusion, as the indemnity for this loss will in due time occupy the attention of our Government from ascertained losses on certain parts of our coast, we may set down as a low estimate the number of slaves absconded and enticed off from our sea-board at 20,000, and their value at from $12,000,000 to $15,000,000, to which loss may be added the insecurity of the property along our borders and the demoralization of the negroes that remain, which increases with the continuance of the evil, and may finally result in perfect disorganization and rebellion.
The absconding negroes hold the position of traitors, since they go over to the enemy and afford him aid and comfort by revealing the condition of the districts and cities from which they come, and aiding him in erecting fortifications and raising provisions for his support, and now that the United States have allowed their introduction into their Army and Navy, aiding the enemy by enlisting under his banners, and increasing his resources in men for our annoyance and destruction...
It is, indeed, a monstrous evil that we suffer. Our negroes are property, the agricultural class of the Confederacy, upon whose order and continuance so much depends--may go off (inflicting a greet pecuniary loss, both private and public) to the enemy, convey any amount of valuable information, and aid him by building his fortifications, by raising supplies for his armies, by enlisting as soldiers, by acting as spies and as guides and pilots to his expeditions on lend and water, and bringing in the foe upon us to kill and devastate; and yet, if we catch them in the act of going to the enemy we are powerless for the infliction of any punishment adequate to their crime and adequate to fill them with salutary fear of its commission.
Surely some remedy should be applied, and that speedily, for the protection of the country aside from all other considerations. A few executions of leading transgressors among them by hanging or shooting would dissipate the ignorance which may be supposed to possess their minds, and which may be pleaded in arrest of judgment.
Question: is this Confederate history? It would seem so to me. But how many people outside the academy would think that a Confederate scholar would look to gain expertise on this subject matter? For a lot of people outside the academy, Confederate history is about Lee, Stonewall, the common soldier,
et al, and all the battles they fought. Runaway slaves and the reaction to them from white Southerners would not come to mind.
If I was at the conference, I would ask about this paradox that
• Confederates are typically thought of as white southerners, even though 40% of residents in the Confederate States were African Americans;
• Confederate history intersects Black History and Emancipation History, when it seems to me, Confederate history should include Black History and Emancipation History.
- Alan