black Confederates

Black Confederate Resources

August 31, 2010 By Kevin Levin 4 Comments

A few of you have asked if I could put together an overview of the many posts that I’ve done on the subject of black Confederates. This is a start and it’s something that I will come back to to update and expand. This will hopefully answer common questions that new readers have about my own position on this subject as well as provide a reliable list of resources for further reading. You can find a link to this post in the navigation menu at the top of the page.

Overview

Regular readers of this blog are all too familiar with the frequency of posts on the hot topic of black Confederates. It is safe to say that the largest number of posts on this blog have been devoted to the subject and collectively constitute what I hope is a helpful resource for those who are trying to wade through the morass that defines this divisive topic and public debate. With so much attention focused on this subject it may be difficult for readers to know where to begin. This page is meant to serve as a road map to help readers to better understand the evolution of my own thought about this subject as well as advice on where to go for credible information and what to avoid. I should point out that my writing on this subject is not meant or intended as an authoritative or final word on the subject. I’ve used this blog to ask questions and to offer some of my own ideas about various aspects of the subject and on how others have approached the subject.

Content

You will find a wide range of posts on this issue, but all of them revolve around a basic assumption that this subject is part of a broader discussion of slavery and race relations during the Civil War. Most of the posts on this site can be found under a category heading, titled, “black Confederates.” [Keep in mind that you are reading them in the reverse order in which they were published.] I suggest that you begin with my two earliest posts on the subject in which I begin to sketch out my own interest in the subject in response to the publication of Bruce Levine’s book, Confederate Emancipation [Part 1 and Part 2 and here]. One of the biggest problems is the lack of any consensus on language and how to describe the presence of free and enslaved blacks in Confederate armies. In my view we must begin by assuming that blacks were not soldiers based both on the refusal on the part of the Confederate government as well as the almost complete lack of wartime evidence (enlistment papers/muster rolls, etc.)

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Civil War Culture, Lost Cause, Memory, Slavery Tagged With: black Confederates

“They Learn Here to Despise Whites”

August 29, 2010 By Kevin Levin 4 Comments

One of the books that I am currently reading is Julie Flavell’s When London Was Capital of America (Yale University Press, 2010). It’s one of those books that allows you to shift perspective on an important period in American history. In this case Flavell pushes her readers to acknowledge the political and cultural significance that London held for many Americans in the last decade before the Revolution. I always remind my students that our tendency to view the colonists as Americans in waiting obscures the extent to which they tried desperately to remain British. This book is fleshing out that idea for me.

Chapter 2 focuses on the challenges that slaveowners experienced when bringing their property to the metropolis. American slaves were exposed to an entirely new set of conditions and influences, which, in turn challenged and reshaped the master-slave relationship. Flavell structures this chapter around Scipio, who was the slave of Henry Laurens of South Carolina. Scipio changed his name to Robert upon arrival in England. The author uses Robert to discuss stories of runaway slaves as well as the Somerset trial, which resulted in the freedom of one slave. None of this is new to me. What is new to me is Flavell’s discussion of the influence of poor/destitute whites on the perceptions of American slaves:

Back in the colonies there was nothing to equal what Robert saw. What buildings, what monuments, what dress, display and equipage! The townhouses and the plantations of the Carolina rich only gave a foretaste of the reality. But at the same time – what poverty, what deprivation! Even the slave quarters at home probably did not prepare him for what he encountered on his solitary perambulations through the Great City.

What he saw were some of the poorest white people in the empire, degraded, half-starved, stinking and desperate, stripped of all dignity, people whose conditions was enough permanently to change his idea of the white race. ‘[T]hey learn here to despise whites.’ So wrote a West Indian planter of the plantation slaves who were brought to London.

This got me thinking about the extent to which such an analysis may apply to the thousands of slaves, who were present in the Confederate army as personal servants and impressed workers. We’ve discussed how different roles played by slaves in the army challenged and shaped the master-slave relationship, but how did the sight of poor whites contribute to this dynamic? The sight of poor whites and yeoman farmers following orders and, at times, living in squalid conditions may have been a shock for slaves. More specifically, the strict discipline imposed on enlisted men by officers, who were also their social and political superiors in peace time may have challenged slaves’ assumptions about their own place within the antebellum racial hierarchy. How often did slaves see the kind of wartime discipline imposed on white men by other whites before the war? I think this is something that needs to be analyzed much more extensively.

Just a few thoughts on this beautiful Sunday morning.

Filed Under: Southern History Tagged With: black Confederates

A Pension For a Vote

August 28, 2010 By Kevin Levin 12 Comments

I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of the help that I’ve received over the years from my readers. My Crater manuscript is filled with references shared by readers and my own thinking has been shaped by the rich commentary that follows many of the posts on the subject. That continues as I begin my next book-length study of black Confederates. Today I was contacted by NPS historian, John Stoudt, who came across the following reference in Ed Ayers’s book, The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 1992).

The following passage comes in a chapter that examines the culture of elections during the postwar period and the manipulation of the black vote.

It usually took far more than such bullying, though to gain the votes of disaffected or apolitical blacks. One Democrat wrote to North Carolina Senator Matt Ransom to solicit his support for a pension for “a very deserving honest old colored man He is very destitute and unable to work and he certainly is deserving a pension (if any body is). He votes the democratic ticket straight out and uses his influence for the democrats, and in the last election his vote and influence with that of twenty or thirty more colored voters saved the democrat party in my county.” The white Democrat had promised his black ally that he would “do all in my power to get his pension for him. I want him to have it and I want him to have it bad.” [W.H. Lucas to Sen. Matt Ransom, Jan. 6, 1892, Ransom Papers, UNC-SHC]

My question is whether it is possible to narrow down the type of pension that an elderly black man might have received in 1892. According to James G. Hollandsworth Jr., former slaves did not begin to receive pensions for their time in the Confederate army until 1927. Regardless of whether the pension had anything to do with the war itself, this should remind us that “black Confederate” pensions must be interpreted within the context of Jim Crow and white political control. Black men, who applied for pensions based on their roles as servants/slaves during the war had to maneuver through this structure and the possibility of financial gain surely would have influenced how they responded on the official forms. This passage also should caution us in drawing a direct connection between a pension form and the war. It is possible that some pensions given to former slaves reflect the kinds of election practices described above.

Filed Under: Civil War Historians Tagged With: black Confederates

The National Park Service’s Black Confederates

August 26, 2010 By Kevin Levin 36 Comments

[Hat-tip to Keith Muchowski]

Update #2: The information sheet has been removed.

Update: I just got off the phone with an NPS employee at Governors Island. It turns out that the document was published just this month and was written by an undergraduate at Columbia University. The woman I talked to was very nice and encouraged me to contact the individual in question as well as her supervisor. It looks like the student used titles by Barrow and Rollins and other books that you can find on SCV websites. In fact, I stated specifically that if I did not know anything about the document’s origin, I would have guessed that it was written by the SCV. I will keep you updated. This is a perfect example of why I am so focused on this subject.

Many of you know that I am a big supporter of the National Park Service and their commitment to battlefield preservation and interpretation/education. Unfortunately, it appears that the quality of historical scholarship that exists at many sites is not uniform throughout. At least that is the feeling I am left with after reading the following handout from Governors Island in New York City. I am going to quote the document in its entirety, which includes a section, titled, “Black Confederates”:

Some black Americans in the South left to fight for the Union army, but 65,000 black men served as Confederate soldiers. The Confederate States Colored Troops were officially organized in 1865, just months before the war ended. However, many officers ignored rules banning black soldiers and allowed blacks to fight in biracial units. Other black soldiers fought in state militias. Free black soldiers were generally paid equally to white soldiers, unlike the disparate pay rates received by white and black soldiers in the North. Eligibility for pensions differed by state, but black soldiers often did not receive pensions or received pensions much later than white soldiers. In South Carolina, for example, black soldiers were considered ineligible for old age pensions until 1923. Black men also built entrenchments and fortifications and served as cooks and teamsters. People fulfilling these jobs for the Army today would be considered soldiers, but at the time these sorts of tasks were not considered real soldiering. This contributed to the perceptions of many white Southerners that blacks in the Army were more like servants than soldiers.

Black Southerners had many reasons for fighting for the Confederacy. Like white Southerners, many held strong loyalties to the particular states in which they resided. Some slaves were offered freedom for serving in the Confederate Army, while other slaves were required to fight or serve in support roles. Many black Southerners desired the pay offered by the Confederate Army, as well as the new experiences, adventure, and pride that being a soldier entailed. Other black Confederates were defending their homes from invading Northern troops, who would sometimes capture large groups of slaves to punish white secessionists, as well as rape black women.

I don’t really know where to begin in critiquing this narrative. I have no idea how they arrived at a number of 65,000. The author apparently missed the fact that in South Carolina the pensions were given to former slaves and not to black Confederate soldiers. There are no documented biracial units in the Confederate army that I know about. At times there is a failure to clearly distinguish between soldiers and slaves. In addition, it is news to me that a significant number of white Southerners were confused about the status of the presence of black men with the Confederate army. I am going to try to find out more about this through some friends in the NPS. Unfortunately, this is as bad as anything you will find on the Internet.

Filed Under: Civil War Culture, Public History, Slavery Tagged With: black Confederates, National Park Service

John Tenniel’s Black Confederate

August 26, 2010 By Kevin Levin 13 Comments

A brief analysis of this cartoon is available here.

Filed Under: Memory, Slavery Tagged With: black Confederates

Ann DeWitt Responds (well, sort of)

August 25, 2010 By Kevin Levin 9 Comments

I was surprised to find a brief reference to this site over at Ann DeWitt’s black Confederate website (scroll down to bottom of page). I’ve written quite a bit about the interpretive problems on her site as well as the complete lack of any reference to her qualifications to discuss this subject given her requests for money and hopes that the site will eventually be used by teachers and students. This is her own understanding of her qualifications:

I believe being an American Citizen is credibility enough to create a website with links to the sources of Civil War documents and historian accounts. Who owns American History? We, The People.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what this vague reference is supposed to mean and it is apparent to me that Ms. DeWitt will continue to ignore legitimate questions about the content of her site that I have posted as well as others. That’s fine. I will continue to monitor the site and continue to point out the obvious problems. Yes, everyone has the right to contribute to the Web, but responsibility for what you choose to post follows.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: black Confederates