2. Woods 2
Matthew Woods
HIS-499
Dr. Trochim
Senior Thesis
11 Feb. 2010
Runaway Slaves: Mindset of Negroes, 1861-1865
“Either they deny the Negro’s humanity and feel no cause to measure his actions against
civilized norms; or they protect themselves from their guilt in the Negro’s condition and from
their fear that their cooks might poison them, or that their nursemaids might strangle their infant
charges, or that their field hands might do them violence, by attributing to them a superhuman
capacity for love, kindliness and forgiveness. Nor does this in any way contradict their
stereotyped conviction that all Negroes (meaning those with whom they have no contact) are
given to the most animal behavior.”
Ralph Ellison1
From the start of the seventeenth century, Negroes were transported to America and sold
into slavery.2
Because of their resentment to these oppressive conditions, some tried to escape
captivity by running away when they thought they could. Even though most slaves found
running away very daunting because of the fear from repercussions if they were caught, the
desire for freedom drove them to look for the perfect opportunity to escape. The Civil War
provided the key distraction they needed because slaves saw the Union soldiers as their saviors.
Benjamin Quarles quotes John H. Ransdell, a Louisiana planter, witnessing the coming of Union
troops on the plantation he was overseeing and the slave’s reaction to them:3
1
Leon F. Litwack Quoted Ralph Ellison in , Been in the Storm so Long (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.) p. 3, but
original source Litwack uses comes from Ellison’s Shadow and Act (New York, 1964), p. 92
2
Langston Hughes and others explore some of the ways slaves were brought to North America, but draws
emphases to the southerner’s agricultural economy as the main reason for Negroes subsequent enslavement. A
Pictorial History of Blackamericans (Canada: General Publishing Company Limited, 1973), p.1-11
3
Ransdell was in charge of Governor Moore’s plantation in Louisiana, and sent a letter to him detailing what was
transpiring. Benjamin Quarles ,The Negro in the Civil War (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969), p. 55
3. Woods 3
“The arrival of the advance of the Yankees alone turned the Negro crazy. For the
space of a week they had a perfect jubilee. Every morning I could see beeves
being driven up from the woods to the quarters - and the number they killed of
them, to say nothing of sheep and hogs, it is impossible to tell. The hogs are
mostly yours….”
Many slaves knew the war was not being fought with the intentions on freeing them, but they did
see the opportunity they were looking for to escape. Though the Union did not realize it at first,
the slaves and the Union had more in common than one could imagine: both desired the
destruction of the Confederacy.
The Civil War, which took place in 1861-1865 between the slaveholding Confederate
states of the South and the industrializing Union states of the North, affected the lives of the
slaves in two significant ways. First, many slaves in Confederate territory took the war as an
opportunity to run away toward Union lines. Second, the slaves who did not run away found
their relationships with their owners changed due to the war. Historians tend to focus on the fact
that slavery was simply abolished during the Civil War but seems to have forgotten about the
affects the war had on the mindset of Negroes who ran away and the ones that stayed behind.
These human beings were mistreated since their arrival in America and had to fight for their
freedom. If we can learn about their struggle through those long four years, then we can hope to
understand their mindset on being free.
The Underground Railroad for example, was one of the earliest forms of running away
(and one of the most successful). It consisted of numerous stations along its path where the
4. Woods 4
runaway slaves could stay and gain information on where to proceed to next. 4
The conductors on
the path served as guides to insure safe passage as well.5
Though the journey was long, many
slaves sung spiritual hymns to encourage themselves and others along the way such as this:
Bending knees a-aching,
Body racked with pain,
I wished I was a child of God,
I’d get home by and by6
If slaves knew people in the North, however, and did not want to take such a risky ordeal on the
Underground Railroad, they could impersonate someone’s free papers. Free papers were used by
Negroes to show they had somehow gained their freedom. These papers usually consisted of “the
name, age, color, height and form of the free man” that they were describing.7
Since more than
one man or woman could fit the same general description, many would use the free papers to
impersonate one another and escape to the North.
Though these examples refer to slaves getting miles away from their oppressors, some on
bigger plantations found easier ways to deal with their conditions. Unbeknownst to many people,
slaves would take turns hiding out in the woods during the day and return to the plantation home
4
See pictures and maps of various routes taken on the Underground Railroad and pictures of some famous
conductors A Pictorial History of Blackamericans p. 130-132; The “Railroad” started mostly in the upper Southern
states (VA, MD, and KY) and helped slaves escape to New York, Pennsylvania, and even Canada, text also gives
estimation numbers on how many slaves possibly ran away between 1830-1860, Gary C. Walker, Slavery and the
coming War (Roanoke: A & W Enterprise, 1996) p. 150-151
5
A Pictorial History of Blackamericans p.129-130
6
As quoted from Ervin L. Jordan Jr’s, Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (Charlottesville:
University Press of Virginia) p.31: “Caroline County slaves, in one of their favorite hymns, sang of freedom.”
7
Michael Meyer narrates Frederick Douglass’ recollection of his exhilarating tale of how he escaped slavery by
posing as a sailor using another Negro’s free papers. Free papers had to be renewed frequently and Negroes were
charged a fee for this. Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings (Canada: Random House, Inc., 1984)
p. 176-181
5. Woods 5
right before nightfall.8
The beauty of this is many owners of large plantations did not know every
single one of their slaves well enough to tell if one was missing or not. Though some slaves
would participate in hiding out for a few hours, few dared to run away completely like this
because of the fear of uncertainty they faced on their own. Slave owners by this time period
encouraged their slaves to breed to make more children so that they would not have to purchase
slaves and take the risk of that Negro being born from Africa. As one former slave stated, true
“African” Negroes were a hassle for overseers:
“Marse Dave wasn’t mean like some. Sometimes de slaves run away to de woods
and iffen they don’t cotch ‘em fust they finally gits hengry and comes home, and
then they gits a hidin’. Some niggers jus’ come from Africa and old Marse has to
watch ‘em close, ‘cause they is de ones that mostly runs away to de woods.”9
By the time of the Civil War however, many slaves were not from Africa anymore and many of
them had been born into captivity as a result. Albert Jones, for example, was seemingly on his
deathbed when interviewed by Thelma Dunston of the Federal Writer’s Project Administration,
and at age ninety-six, he recalled being “born in Souf Hampton county.”10
This seems to be the
biggest hindrance to me why so few slaves decided to run away. People always seem to ponder
why more slaves chose not to run away, but they must also ask themselves how can you run
away to something that you have never experienced before.
8
Former slave reminiscing on conversations he had with other slaves he came in contact with who participated in
activities such as these. The Federal Writers Project, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slaves in the United States
From Interviews with Former Slaves Washington, D.C., http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html, slaves give
random sporadic accounts of slaves resentment towards their condition throughout the entire collection of
interviews. Volume XVII p. 8
9
Quoted from the interview of Clinte Lewis in Slave Narratives: A Folk History Volume XVI p.2
10
Slave Narratives: A Folk History Volume XVII p. 42
6. Woods 6
The concept of a “runaway slave” in the United States can be traced back to slavery’s
beginning in this country. Some of the earliest signs of resentment slaves had towards their
masters can be seen in their behavioral patterns. From slaves being described as “unfaithful,
unreliable, lazy and vicious,” many whites saw that the slaves were becoming fed up with their
lives of servitude towards their oppressors.11
The open “day to day resistance” of slaves was
also alarming to slave owners since they knew that the slaves understood they would face
punishment if caught for their transgressions. These acts of resistance were never fully
documented; however, some of the results resistant actions were known to have been broken
farm equipment, damaged boats, ruined clothing, and anything else the slave could do to show
their growing dissatisfaction of being in captivity.12
Many white’s northerners, like Reverend
Samuel J. May, tried warning their southern counterparts that this was only the beginning and
that a “large opportunity” was on the horizon for slaves to make their escape:
“The slaves are men. They have within them that inextinguishable thirst for
freedom, which is born in man. They are already writhing in their shackles. They
will, one day, throw them off with vindictive violence, if we do not unloose
them.”13
11
Collection of slave owners from Texas and South Carolina, and other plantations describing rebellious slaves they
have encountered or that they own. Leon F. Litwack, Been in the Storm so Long (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.);
The Federal Writers Project, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slaves in the United States From Interviews with
Former Slaves Washington, D.C., http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html, slaves give random sporadic
accounts of slaves resentment towards their condition throughout the entire collection of interviews.
12
John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999) p. 2-4; Herbert Aptheker also discuss’ various methods of resistances including (but not
limited to) sabotage, faking illness, strikes, and self-mutilation, American Negro Slave Revolts (New York: Columbia
University Press) p. 140-142
13
Reverend Samuel J. May delivered this speech on July 3, 1831, Quoted in Herbert Aptheker’s, American Negro
Slave Revolts (New York: Columbia University Press) p. 49
7. Woods 7
This warning, however, seems to have fallen on deaf ears since slavery still remained as a staple
in southern economy. This speech seems to be ambiguous with the introduction of the commonly
used phrased “runaway slave,” because the term started becoming coined on Negroes who
attempted to escape.
Runaway slaves ranged from “young and old, black and mulatto, healthy and infirm…
male and female.”14
Although the number of slaves who ran away rose as the Civil War
approached, the profile of runaway slaves stayed consistent for more than sixty years. To make
the assumption that slaves only ran away during the Civil War would be false, but it is for certain
that a larger number of slaves risked their lives to escape servitude during this time period. 15
In
the brief clipping below, a South Carolina planter named E.M. Royall, posts a twenty-five dollar
reward in the Charleston Mercury for a slave who ran away from him. Reading the description,
enables one to see the trouble historians have in finding characteristics that make runaway slaves
stand out from other slaves:
TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD---Ranaway from the subscriber’s
plantation, in Christ Church Parish, his Negro Man TONEY. Said fellow is about
5 feet 6 inches in height; stoutly built, is very black, has a broad, full face, black
eyes, and when he laughs, shows a very white set of teeth. The above reward will
be paid for his apprehension and delivery to the Work House in Charleston, or to
the subscriber on his place.16
14
Typical range of runaway slave descriptions collected together. Franklin, Runaway Slaves p. 210-211
15
Table 1.3 on p. 15 in James H. Brewer’s, The Confederate Negro (Durham: Duke University Press, 1969) shows
the loss of slaves from VA in 1861-1863, and also breaks it down by the county totals and corporation totals.
16
Excerpt was published in the Charleston Mercury in November 1857, Runaway Slaves p. 209
8. Woods 8
Looking at vague definitions like this, runaway slaves were seemingly the same as the slaves
who choose to stay in servitude. This is not the case, however, because most runaway slaves
displayed behavorial problems before they fled the coupe.
Most would tend to think that it was a vast amount of slaves who ran away, but in
actuality it was only a minority.17
For example, imagine yourself on a plane with a bomb that will
explode in about ten seconds and there is only one parachute left. The dilemma you face is that
your family is also on the plane, but you are the only one who can successfully wear the
parachute. Now here is the real question, “Do you save yourself, leaving your family to face the
unknown, or do you stay and stick it out with them?” This question was one slaves dealt with on
a routine basis; should they leave or should they stay. The need to stay by their loved ones was
the main reason for many of the slaves not running away.18
Slaves who ran away successfully
usually faced the fear of their family members being punished for their transgression. Successful
escapee, Nathan McKinney, found out upon his escape that his wife had been jailed and his child
had been reclaimed by his owner. In a desperate attempt to free his family, McKinney writes a
letter to the federal commander in Louisiana asking for his help:
Neworleans [La.] Feb th 2 1863
kin Sire I wash to state to you this morning the hole mattor I am in truble
and like Jacob of old and Can not let the go untill you Comford me My
wife and felloservant was orded to go yeenkis and they left and went sence
that they hav taken them and put them in prison taken the mother from
17
A vast majority of slaves accepted their roles, only a fraction attempted to run away. Most ran because they had
broken the master’s rules or laws or simply wanted to be reunited with their families. Walker, Slavery and the
coming War p. 149
18
Franklin, Runaway Slaves p. 50-52; View Volume XVI 20-24, 48-62, 190-193, and XVII 7-11, 44-46 of Slave
Narratives: A Folk History of Slaves
9. Woods 9
hire Suckling Child put the mother in and taken the Child home I and
my wife and felloservant am not willing to go Back we had Rented a
house and living in it 20 Days then taken if you please Sire gave me a
premiat to gat my wife out of Prison and my things out off his house the
no 262 Cannal St mrs George Ruleff Reseadents your most obodent
Servent
Nathan mc kinney19
Acts such as this made slaves think twice about running away, but with Union forces realizing
the help Negroes could provide in repairing the Union, northerners gradually changed their
attitudes towards helping them.
The attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, can be seen not only as the beginning of the
Civil War, but also as the “opportunity” that slaves were looking for.20
With constant fighting
raging between Union and Confederate forces, the number of white men on plantations dwindled
as the need for more troops increased. Slaves soon realized they vastly outnumbered the whites
who were still there and saw this as the best time to plan an escape. Though slaves were well
aware that they were the majority in most cases, they went about escaping in different ways than
their predecessors did. Numerous cases involving assassination attempts on slave owners and
desertion of plantations upon the “Yankees” arrival were all common practices by slaves during
this era.21
Many slaves felt as if they offered some sort of “sacrifice” to the Union, they would be
allowed to enter Union territory. A young South Carolina slave named Robert Smalls is
19
Herbert Aptheker, Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States Volume I (New York: Citadel
Press Book, 1951) Chapter IV
20
Documentary History of the Negro People IV. The Civil War; Many of the slave testimonials refer to the starting of
the war and the ideas it sparked in their minds of freedom, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slaves Volume XVI p.
5, XVII p. 1, 3, 42-43
10. Woods 10
notoriously famous for his daring escape and stealing a gunboat, which he gave to the Union
navy as a gift:
One spring night in 1862, when the white officers were sleeping ashore at their
homes in Charleston, Smalls smuggled his wife, his children, his sister-in-law,
and his brother’s wife and child aboard at midnight. He fired the boiler, hoisted
the Confederate flag and just before dawn steamed out to the open sea. There he
hauled down the Confederate colors and hoisted a white flag of truce as he came
within sight of the blockade vessels of the United States Navy… Congress voted
Smalls a sizable sum of money for his contraband and Lincoln signed the
appropriation.22
Instead of slaves following the traditional since of “running away towards freedom”, they used
well-thought out strategies like this one to not only escape but to also further cripple the
Confederacy.
With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on “midnight of the last day of
1862” the Union formally recognized Negro people as being equals.23
This was done, however,
as a military ploy to further weaken the Confederacy. Union forces used slave’s willingness to
21
Individual acts of property damage and assassination attempts by fire, knife, gun, clubs, axe or poison were so
common that numbering the events would be nearly impossible. American Negro Slave Revolts, p. 143; Ex-slave
Charles Crawley refers to slaves killing owners when they got mistreated. “You know, some slaves who were
treated bad; some of dem had started gittin’ together an’ killin’ de white folks when dey carried dem out to de
field to work.” Slave Narratives: A Folk History Volume XVII p. 10
22
See Slaves Deliver a Prize of War in, A Pictorial History of Blackamericans, p. 166-167
23
P. 476 of Aptheker’s, Documentary History of the Negro People, talks about the eve before the Emancipation
Proclamation was put into effect and how Negro people and friends held parties in Boston according to Frederick
Douglass, document was sampled by Aptheker from Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, written by himself (N.Y.,
Pathway Press), p. 387-389
11. Woods 11
join their ranks to replenish their manpower.24
Negroes however, saw this as their opportunity to
prove themselves to the Union. Famous black abolitionist Frederick Douglass argued that the
Negro as a soldier will help lay the foundation for a Negro to become an equal citizen as well:
Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S.; let him get an
eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, and
there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to
citizenship in the United States.25
It is estimated that “at least 38,000 Negro soldiers” died trying to repair the Republic and to end
the tyranny of slavery.26
Though the Union forces and the Negroes were fighting for different
purposes, they both found common ground to become unified against their common enemy: the
Confederacy.
Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters.
-Ephesians 6:5
Though some Negroes wanted nothing more than to escape as soon as possible, some
were more than willing to wait until the war was over to gain their freedom.27
Nannie Bradfield
24
Quotas were becoming hard to meet, so less than four weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued
Secretary of War Stanton allowed Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts to enlist Negro to serve. Quarles,
The Negro in the Civil War p. 184; Charles Grandy was a Civil War veteran and ex-slave who talked about his
willingness to serve without pay just to avoid being a slave again, Slave Narratives: A Folk History Volume XVII p.
22, also p. 42-43 tells of ex-slave war veteran, Albert Jones, who goes into detail his enlistment into the Union
Army and some of his daily tasks.
25
George L. Stearns was supervisor of enlistments and recruited well-known Negro leaders to help him recruit
troops. These leaders targeted specific homes, public meeting places, and barbershops to recruit young Negro
males. Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War p. 184
26
A Pictorial History of Blackamericans p. 182
27
Slave Narratives: A Folk History Volume XVI p.2, Clinte Lewis talks about the fact he had numerous chances to
run away during the war, but stayed and even stuck around the plantation after he was freed because the owners
were kind to him during slavery. Also refer to Volumes I and XVII to see various other examples of slaves doing the
12. Woods 12
of Uniontown, Alabama laughed of the question of being happy at the possibility of gaining her
freedom when asked:
“What I keer ‘bout bein’ free? Didn’t old Marster give us plenty good sompin to
eat and clo’s to wear? I stayed on de plantation ‘till I mah’ied. My old Miss give
me a brown dress and hat. Well dat dress put me in de country, if you mahie in
brown you’ll live in de country.28
Another unnamed slave in South Carolina also stressed the distaste fellow slaves he knew had in
being “free”:
De slaves, where I lived, knowed after de war dat they had abundance of dat
somethin’ called freedom, what they could not, wear, and sleep in. Yes, sir, they
soon found out dat freedom ain’t nothin’, ‘less you is got somethin’ to live on and
a place to call home. Dis livin’ on liberty is lak young folks livin’ on love after
they gits married. It just don’t work. No, sir, it las’ so long and not a bit longer.
Don’t tell me! It sho’ don’t hold good when you has to work, or when you gits
hongry.29
This feeling of unimportance in gaining freedom amongst some slaves is difficult to
comprehend to us because we enjoy are daily freedoms to say and do whatever we would like as
same thing. It’s of great importance that I stress the fact that majority of the slaves who said they were treated fair
were in upper-southern states, and not in the lower haves like Mississippi and Alabama where slaves were
routinely treated worse.
28
Not only does Mrs. Bradfield talk about her attitude towards freedom, but she also talked about the kindness of
her masters and how lucky she was compared to other slaves. Slave Narratives: A Folk History Volume I p. 45
29
Litwack, Been in the Storm so Long p. 328, but primarily sampled from Slave Narratives: A Folk History South
Carolina Narrative (Part 1) 5-6,
13. Woods 13
long as it does not harm or offend anyone else. Depending on where the slave was located, he or
she may have been living very comfortably compared to others and did not want to join in on the
fighting. When slaves heard of their upcoming liberation from slavery to freedom, many
wondered what it would be like for the first time. Charlie Davenport, like many other slaves,
responded with enthusiasm at the news of his possible freedom:
I was right smart bit by de freedom bug for awhile. It sounded pow’ful nice to be
tol’: “You can th’ow dat hoe down an’ go fishin’ whensoever de notion strikes
you. An’ you can roam ‘roun’ at night an’ court gals jus’ as you please. Aint no
marster gwine a-say to you, ‘Charlie, you’s got to be back when de clock strikes
nine.’” I was fool ‘nough to b’lieve all dat kin’ o’ stuff.30
After much thought however, Charlie, like other slaves, became scared of the uncertainty they
faced when being set free.31
Slaves who wanted to remain in their “familiar surroundings” found it extremely difficult
to maintain the trust of their masters due to the daily fighting and suspicions of rebellion.
Nervous slave masters began moving their slaves from plantation to plantation in an attempt to
avoid the Yankees, even if the slaves preached their loyalty to their masters.32
No matter what the
slaves would say, the slave owners, at the end of the day, viewed them as “property” and wanted
to keep them at all costs.
30
Litwack, Been in the Storm so Long p. 329-330
31
Charlie revised his expectations because he said couldn’t comprehend the term “freedom.” Litwack, Been in the
Storm so Long p. 329-330
32
“Running the negroes” was practiced in the South but waned during the end of 1862 because of Union
campaigns in the South. The youngest and most “productive” slaves were taken with or moved by their masters
deeper south so that Union forces could not free them. Usually, the old and maimed slaves were left for the
Yankees. Bell Irvin Wiley, Southern Negroes 1861-1865 (New Haven: Yale University Press) p. 4-6
14. Woods 14
Although slavery was considered a “southern thing,” it is unfair assumption to label every
southerner as a slave owner, or state that every northerner wanted Negroes to be free. Slavery, at
its core, is an economic institution set up to make money, and everything else are attributes
human beings have added on to it.33
Slave owners during the war started to realize that slavery
was coming to an end, and that the days of “whips and shackles” had long passed. New
alternatives sprang up to keep slaves obedient. Masters turned to offering wages to “secure the
services of the Slaves” and to keep them from running away.34
Though these settlements worked
for awhile, all they did was buy time before the Union crushed the last of the institution of
slavery in the United States
In comparing and contrasting the mindsets of Negroes who ran away, and Negroes who
stayed in captivity, it is presumptious to think that they were at all different because of their
circumstances. Both groups had different ideologies on their perspectives of freedom, but to say
that one group was right over the other is absurd. The totality of a Negro’s life determined his
mindset towards understanding and accepting the situation he was born into. Being a slave can
be viewed as the most dehumanizing affliction in the world. An ex-slave named Georgina Giwbs
[Giwbs] recalled a story that her father told her in which it sums up the evil destructiveness
slavery can cause to a human being and how it can dramatically shatter someones psyche:
“My father told me ders wuz once a mastah who sold a slave woman and her son.
Many years after dis, de woman married. One day when she wuz washing her
husband’s back she seen a scar on his back. De woman ‘membered de scar. It wuz
33
In slave economics, slave owners would by labor; so in essence, labor became part of the capital. Walker, Slavery
and the coming War p. 11
34
As one random observer recalled in Ira Berlin’s book, Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation 1861-
1867, Series I Volume I: The Destruction of Slavery p. 264-265
15. Woods 15
de scar her mastah had put on her son. ‘Course dey didn’t stay married, but de
woman wouldn’t ever let her son leave her.”35
Though this example is extremelly graphical (and rare in its nature), it underlines the evil that
slavery trickles down to and how it can ruin relationships and lives.
Having to serve someone all day and do what they say while ignoring your own impulses
of life must have been difficult. Try to imagine how the slaves during this time frame felt. One
cannot find it hard to imagine the numerous slaves who ran away during the Civil War or to
recognize the issues they faced while trying to escape their captivity. To imagine the fears that
crowded the slaves minds and the uncertanity always present in their daily lives must have been
a scary realization to them.
Will it be possible for anyone to ever be able to really understand the sincere desire for
freedom that the slaves really sought after? Will we ever be able to capture in words the pain that
their bodies felt from the extreme heat and the sharp thorns that ripped their flesh while at the
same time they were being mistaken for the common stereotype “they all look alike?” The slaves
ran as fast as they could or stayed behind and waited for the golden opportunity to get relief from
the oppressor and to seek out any means of escape into a free world.
Sometimes I feel discouraged,
And think my work’s in vain.
-African American spiritual
Annotated Bibliography
35
Slave Narratives: A Folk History Volume XVII p. 16
16. Woods 16
Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro Slave Revolts. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.
In Herbert Aptheker’s, American Negro Slave Revolts, he examines the many slave
revolts that have happened in early American history that were left undocumented do to the fear
slave owners had of a huge slave revolt in the United States. In keeping with his goal, Aptheker
states the reasons why the owners would fear a huge uprising and lists examples of early
underlying causes which he feels sparked slaves to revolt in the first place. Aptheker goes on to
list documentation and article clippings and ties them all in to establish a corelation between
slave revolts and the growing population of African Americans from the early 1790’s to the end
of the Civil War. He takes careful consideration to break the revolts into segments of 10-15 year
periods and looks at the causes of some of the major ones during those periods and prominent
figures of that time as well.
This book’s fifteenth chapter called, The Civil War Years, will be very influnetial in my
paper because Aptheker lists detailed accounts of runaway slaves who terriozed southern slave
owners and were labled as “revolts and gangs”. They were actually slaves who were attempting
to runaway and trying to cause enough trouble to escape. Also there are qoutes from letters from
Union and Confederate soldiers talking about the uprisings of the slaves as well.
—. Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, Volume 1. New York: Carol
Publishing Group, 1951.
Volume 1 of Negro People is an assorted collection of documents relating to African
Americans in the United States from the revolutionary era to the Civil War era. Each document
or article is prefaced with a paragraph summarizing its intentions and purpose it held. Aptheker
states in his introduction that he refrained from using documents he felt were similar so each one
you read feels drastically different from the rest. After reading over this secondary source, I’ve
discovered additional sources and new reflection questions to ponder which the author intended
for the reader to ask. One example is the published Appeal in August 20th
1862 dispatched to
Lincoln expressing opposition to his idea of Negro colonization after the war:
“We rejoice that we are colored Americans, but deny that we are a “different race
of people,” as God has made of one blood all nations that dwell on the face of the earth, and has
hence no respect of men in regard to color, neither ought men to have respect to color, as they
have not made themselves or their color (p. 472).”
Berlin, Ira and Leslie S. Rowland. Families and Freedom. New York: The New Press, 1992.
Berlin and Rowland team-up to make Families and Freedom which is a recount of slave
family life during the Civil War. Unlike other books, the authors choose to examine the affects of
the war on the families of the slaves and how they adapted to what was going on around them.
The 259 page book lists documents, testimonies, pictures, and letters relating to events that
happen chronologically as they occur in the book. It uncovers the misconceptions people have
17. Woods 17
about slaves who served in the war on the Union sides, parent and children relationships, and the
many other complex family ties during this period. The underlying motive of the book is to look
at and describe slave families from their moment of emancipation and shed light on their
previous domestic lives as slaves. Using detailed examples, it also exposes black’s intentions as
well during this time and lists narratives supporting their findings as well.
Berlin, Ira, Barbara J. Fields, Thavolia Glymph, Joseph P. Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowland.
Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation 1861-1867 Series I Volume I The
Destruction of Slavery. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
The Destruction of Slavery is the first volume of a series entitled Freedom. This volume
picks up at the start of the Civil War and addresses the “death” of slavery and its final years of
existence in the United States. The first eight chapters target a specific section of the confederacy
and provide insight into when slavery was issued emancipation there. The authors provide
detailed information and background into how each part of the confederacy felt about this radical
change to their way of life and why it took longer for slaves to be freed in certain areas compared
to others.
The last chapter titled “The Confederacy” wraps everything together to establish a
correlation of events that lead to the end of the confederacy and to point out the problems the
South should have addressed to win the war. The entire 852 page book is a great source for
anything relating to slavery during the Civil War because of all the aspects it talks about and
compares throughout the book.
Brewer, James H. The Confederate Negro. Duram, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1969.
The title may be very misleading, but the book documents the importance of black labor
during the Civil War and their sustainability of the Confederate war efforts in VA. If not for the
slaves, the confederacy would have lost the war in the opening months of battle. VA’s black
population was made up of a considerable amount of common laborers and highly skilled
craftsmen; they were exploited for their talents during this time to compensate for the amount of
white labors that were fighting in the war. The book shows how the black population was an
inseparable part of the southern economy and how the decisive decision of President Abraham
Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation changed the black labors from being pro-
confederacy to against it.
The Confederate Negro contains many charts and graphs depicting the black population
compared to the whites and list the various jobs they were employed for as well. Brewer also
does an excellent job of establishing the difference between a black laborer and a soldier, and
provides insight into the differences between them.
Franklin, John H., and Loren Schweninger. Runaway Slaves. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999.
18. Woods 18
This 455 page book starts off with a brief story about a slave named Jake who kills his
owner and tries to escape but is eventually caught in hanged. From that example on, the book
goes right into the “daily” resistance of slaves and looks at the ones who successfully runaway
and problems that they face in doing so. Franklin and Schweninger elaborate on the many
different aspects that go unnoticed when slaves would run away and be considered outlaws. Not
only do the authors look at the problems facing runaways, they give factual accounts of how
some slaves did escape and the measures they had to go through to do so. The last few chapters
of the book talk about the impact runaways had on other people’s lives such as: other runaways,
slave catchers, “masters”, family members, and many others. The additional information at the
end of the book lists a detailed appendix labeling all the primary sources they used if anybody
wants to go behind them and do their own research.
Gladstone, William A. United States Colored Troops, 1863-1867. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas
Publications, 1990.
Gladstone’s book about Civil War troops of the Union and the Confederacy are detailed
very well in this illustrated reading. The book is mostly a collage of pictures and graphs with a
brief summary under each one indicating their purpose. The author broke it down into parts
indicating where certain pictures are to avoid confusion. For example, there is part labeled
“officers” which shows some of the most prominent officers of the Union and Confederate forces
and provides a brief description about them. The ending of the book has compiled lists of every
single battle that black units participated in plus other many useful fun facts that one may need.
Hughes, Langston, Milton Meltzer, and C. Eric Lincoln. A Pictorial History of Blackamericans.
Canada: General Publishing Company Limited, 1973.
In this work, A Pictorial History of Blackamericans, the authors set it up like a traditional
history book in the sense that the information is just given with no bibliography stating where the
information comes from. The book starts off talking about black’s journey from Africa to the
United States for slavery purposes; then it looks at the development of blacks in this country up
to the 1950’s. A crucial point which makes this a literary classic is its telling of African-
Americans as a species instead of a race; in this way, the book takes on a non bias role and lists
information as known facts instead of opinions. Blackamericans also includes a large index of
prominent African-Americans with a brief summary of their lives and any contributions they had
to black culture in America. The main purpose of this literary piece is to be a book in which
anyone can pick-up and learn a general background history of blacks in America.
Jordan, Ervin L. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia. Charlottesville,
VA: University Press of Virginia, 1995.
Ervin Jordan’s, Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia is a 447 page
narrative about African Americans in Confederate Virginia and the role they played in the Civil
War. The author seeks to give the black experience of the Civil War by examining and
19. Woods 19
summarizing documents left behind by white people giving their perspective of black life and
culture. The book is broken up into two parts, with the first one examining the many roles blacks
could play on the war front and the growing fear of the slaves revolting. The second part lists
what they were and were not allowed to do.
Jordan’s book offers a nice perspective of what “whites” believed “blacks” were thinking
during the Civil War. When compared with other scholarly sources, it will provide me with a
look at not only black’s actions during this time, but the stereotypes that were associated with
them.
Litwack, Leon F. Been in the Storm So Long. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1979.
Been in the Storm So Long is a 637 page book dealing with the bondage of slavery in
America. Starting at the beginning of the Civil War, Mr. Litwack examines the South’s overall
dependence on blacks as a source for labor. The social upheaval that set into motion because of
the Civil War proved impossible for loyal southerners to contain, leading to black’s anticipation
of their release from servitude. The book is divided into ten detailed chapters with the purpose of
uncovering specific characteristics of black’s freedom that the author feel’s is not spoken of in
other books.
This book is almost entirely made up of primary sources- interviews with ex-slaves and
diaries by former slaveholders- which I have looked up using Litwack’s bibliography, which will
help support some of my own opinions I make in my own paper.
—. North of Slavery. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1961.
Litwack’s North of Slavery deals with the blacks in free territory between the years 1790
to 1860. The author argues his thesis that slavery ceased its existence in the North because it was
unprofitable do to the economic structure set-up there. He uses examples of industries and the
small-scale agriculture in the North to explain his reasoning. Expanding from this proposition,
Litwack then looks at the “trials and tribulations” that free blacks faced in free territory such as,
separate education, politics, religion, and working conditions. The author expands upon his
initial suggestion that even though free blacks had a better life than their southern counterparts;
they still were not on an even scale with whites.
This book will come in handy on the part of my paper when I talk about the advantages
free blacks had over blacks in bondage. One interesting thing I learned from this book was the
stereotypes that slaves held over free blacks which were not true which I plan on elaborating
more on in my paper.
Meyer, Michael. Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings. New York:
University of Connecticut, 1984.
20. Woods 20
This autobiography of Frederick Douglass is an essential part of not only black history,
but American history as well. This is not the first publishing of his autobiography, but instead it
is an edited edition by Michael Meyer. Meyer’s adds an introduction to make Douglass’ writings
sound more coherent and better to understand. Meyer’s argues that this autobiography by
Douglass (he wrote three all together) is the most direct and focused because of its graphic
account of his life, and his honesty in regards to his means of escaping slavery. From there, the
book picks up from Douglass’ point of view and he starts to tell of his life journey.
Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969.
This book, The Negro in the Civil War, is a 360 page in-depth look at the slaves in
conjunction with the Civil War and the parts they played in it. Quarles looks at both sides, North
and South, and compares and contrasts the actions they had on blacks. Quarles draws importance
to the fact that he does not list his opinion in this book like most historians do, but argues both
sides so the reader may come to his own conclusion of how slaves should have been handled in
war times. The five battles he uses as examples of blacks handling in the war were very well
thought out because they all were mostly comprised of black units. Also the stats he uses such as
the number of black troops stationed at certain military camps and the wages they were paid help
bring clarity to ideas that were not elaborated on in other books.
Walker, Gary C. Slavery and the Coming War. Roanoke, VA: A & W Enterprise, 1996.
In this work, Walker illustrates slavery in America from its inception as a country all the
way to the Civil War. Walker seeks to “provide a general look at the institution of slavery” in
America. Even though the author says this in his thesis, he tries to define what it means to be a
“slave in America” and relate it to the different views of the country. Though slavery was seen as
mostly a “North fighting the South” thing, Walker provides testimonials from five different
viewpoints, European, Northern, Northwestern, Free Black Southern and Southern. From their
each chapter deals with the topic in that region and how it directly or indirectly influenced the
way of life there.
Wiley, Bell I. Southern Negroes 1861-1865. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1965.
If Litwack’s North of Slavery dealt with the blacks in the North, then Bell Wiley’s
Southern Negroes 1861-1865 deals with the blacks who were in the south during the Civil War.
Wiley argues that slavery during the Civil War era is sketchy in history books and attempts to
use this as a monograph to fill in the gaps he thinks are left out. The beginning of the book leads
off with the “Yankees” occupying territory of the South during the Civil War; from there Wiley
examines the affect their presence has on the slaves and the ideas of freedom they start
formulating. After he brings everything into historical context, the author shifts towards talking
about their daily life such as their labor conditions, religion, and military lives. The title however
is a tad misleading because even though it says 1861-1865, it carries on to the 1867 looking at
21. Woods 21
the racial persecutions that have lessened down some since the Civil War is over at that time and
racial stereotypes are beginning to shift.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with
Former Slaves. Typewritten Records of Interviews. District of Columbia: Library of Congress,
1941.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery is a collobarated collection of interviews by
researchers and journalists about Negroes lives during slavery. The interviews are collected into
volumes by the each slave-holding state and are just a recollection of their most vivid accounts of
what happen. Some were childern of slaves and jus recalled stories their parents and ancestors
told them about their lives, but others were freed slaves and remebered the trials and tribulations
they faced while living a life of servitude.
For this paper, I only used Texas, VA, and Alabama slave volumes to give it a spaced out
view of slavery in the South and see if the same treatment of slaves was evident everywhere else.
This paper includes a lot of refrence and quotations from these selected interviews to give the
audience a sense of closeness to the persecution Negroes faced.
Works Cited
Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro Slave Revolts. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.
—. Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, Volume 1. New York: Carol Publishing
Group, 1951.
Berlin, Ira and Leslie S. Rowland. Families and Freedom. New York: The New Press, 1992.
Berlin, Ira, Barbara J. Fields, Thavolia Glymph, Joseph P. Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowland. Freedom: A
Documentary History of Emancipation 1861-1867. Series I Volume I: The Destruction of Slavery. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
22. Woods 22
Brewer, James H. The Confederate Negro. Duram, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1969.
Franklin, John H., and Loren Schweninger. Runaway Slaves. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Gladstone, William A. United States Colored Troops, 1863-1867. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications,
1990.
Hughes, Langston, Milton Meltzer, and C. Eric Lincoln. A Pictorial History of Blackamericans. Canada:
General Publishing Company Limited, 1973.
Jordan, Ervin L. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia. Charlottesville, VA: University
Press of Virginia, 1995.
Litwack, Leon F. Been in the Storm So Long. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1979.
—. North of Slavery. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1961.
Meyer, Michael. Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings. New York: University of
Connecticut, 1984.
Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves.
Typewritten Records of Interviews, District of Columbia: Library of Congress, 1941.
Walker, Gary C. Slavery and the coming War. Roanoke, VA: A & W Enterprise, 1996.
Wiley, Bell I. Southern Negroes 1861-1865. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1965.
