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Black Working People and the Civil War Era in New Orleans

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Black Working People and the Civil War Era in New Orleans UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ CRESCENT CITY RADICALS: BLACK WORKING PEOPLE AND THE CIVIL WAR ERA IN NEW ORLEANS A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY by James W. Illingworth March 2015 The Dissertation of James W. Illingworth is approved: ______________________ Professor Dana Frank, Chair ______________________ Professor Bruce Levine, Chair ______________________ Professor David Brundage ______________________ Professor Catherine Jones ______________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by James W. Illingworth 2015 Table of Contents Abstract: iv Acknowledgements: vi Introduction: 1 The Cook and the General Chapter One: 36 Capital of the Cotton Kings: New Orleans and the Rise of the Planter Class Chapter Two: 82 Black Enlightenment: Understanding African American Politics in Antebellum New Orleans Chapter Three: 157 “Worked for a Mistress as Long as I Want To”: Black Working People and the Union Army in Occupied New Orleans Chapter Four: 216 “We Stood before the Nation”: New Orleans and the Politics of Emancipation, 1863-1865 Chapter Five: 262 “To Seek Justice Themselves”: Urban Unrest and the Origins of Radical Reconstruction Chapter Six: 334 “Mischief Among the Freedmen”: Consciousness, Conflict, and the Death of Urban Radicalism Epilogue: 393 “They Will Not Vote at All” Conclusion: 405 Bibliography: 413 iii Abstract Crescent City Radicals: Black Working People and the Civil War Era in New Orleans James W. Illingworth This study examines the rise and fall of an alliance between black working people and the Republican Party in Civil War-era New Orleans. Between 1862, when Union troops invaded and occupied New Orleans, and 1877, when Reconstruction came to an end, the making and unmaking of this alliance had a crucial impact on the history of the Crescent City. In particular, the fate of this coalition was tied to the outcome of three of the central contests of the Civil War era: the military conflict between the Union and the Confederacy, the fight against slavery, and the struggle to determine on what basis Louisiana would return to the Union. This study shows how cooperation between African American working people and the Union army in occupied New Orleans contributed to the success of federal strategy in the lower Mississippi Valley, and how this collaboration led to the collapse of slavery in the city and its hinterland. Turning to the period after the Civil War, this study demonstrates how the freedpeople became the rank and file of a social movement that defeated the conservative policies of Presidential Reconstruction and elevated a Radical state government to control of Louisiana. Finally, this study reveals how growing social conflict between African American working people and the elite leadership of the Republican Party weakened the coalition’s hold on politics in New Orleans and allowed a resurgence of white terrorism, spelling doom for Reconstruction in the city. iii This study focuses on the impact of black popular political consciousness on the rise and fall of this coalition. It begins by examining African American politics in antebellum New Orleans, and shows how black working people, free and unfree, were able to construct an embryonic civil society, despite the efforts of the white elite. Turning to the Civil War years, this study demonstrates that the arrival of Union troops in New Orleans created a degree of political freedom without precedent in the city’s history, and allowed a much fuller development of black popular consciousness. As African American women and men gained in confidence, they helped to drive forward both the federal war effort and the struggle against slavery, forcing the Republican Party to adopt more radical goals and strategies. This dynamic persisted during Reconstruction, when a confident and combative social movement among black urban working people came to form the activist and electoral base for the Radical Republican state government of Louisiana. As Reconstruction progressed, however, the militancy of African Americans workers became unpalatable to elite Republicans, who increasingly sided with employers during the labor strife of the 1870s. Developments in the political consciousness of black working people therefore played a role in the retreat from Reconstruction. By focusing on New Orleans, this study reveals the particular experiences of the urban South in the Civil War era. It shows how the city provided a particularly conducive environment for the development of black political consciousness in this period. Before the Civil War, the needs of the urban-commercial economy forced slavery to adapt in several ways, introducing innovations such as slave hiring. These iv developments gave black working people much greater autonomy than was possible in the southern countryside, and permitted the emergence of a stronger and more politically sophisticated African American community. This tendency would continue to exert an influence on the trajectory of social contestation during the years of Civil War and Reconstruction. Black working people from New Orleans became an important connection between the Republican-led national government and the rural African American population, and thus played an especially important role in coalition-building efforts. Following emancipation, urban working people exerted a particularly powerful influence over the politics of Reconstruction thanks to their collective experience of work as wage laborers. v Acknowledgements I have accumulated a great many debts of gratitude during the many years it took to complete this dissertation. Among the largest are those I owe to my two advisors, Bruce Levine and Dana Frank. Since I first met him almost fifteen years ago, Bruce has been a constant source of intellectual inspiration, and it is no exaggeration to say that his classes on the Civil War and Reconstruction, which I took as an undergraduate exchange student all those years ago, have played a major role in determining the course of my life since then. I met Dana a little later in my academic career, but her impact has been no less profound. Dana has consistently challenged me as a writer and a historian, and pushed me to see the past from perspectives that I might otherwise have neglected. I feel extremely fortunate to have benefited from the mentorship of two such generous teachers and scholars. Although it has been several years since I was resident there, the scholarly community at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will always have a special place in my heart. In particular, I owe a special debt of thanks to David Brundage and Catherine Jones for agreeing, at fairly short notice, to serve on my dissertation committee. Going back a little further in time, Jon Beecher played a very important role in encouraging me to apply to the program and making me feel welcome when I arrived. I was fortunate to be part of a lively and talented cohort of graduate students during my time in Santa Cruz; Sara Smith deserves a special mention for the support she provided during the final stages of my dissertation in particular. Stephanie Hinkle vi has been ever-present in the History department office since I first arrived in Santa Cruz, and has never failed to provide crucial support and advice. More recently, and without ever having met me in person, Cindy Morris provided invaluable assistance in my return to the program and path to graduation. My parents, Lawrence and Alison, have done more than anyone else to make the completion of this dissertation possible. They have been an unflagging source of support throughout my years in graduate school, but particularly over the course of the last eighteen months. I would never have made it to this point without them. vii Introduction The Cook and the General In December of 1862, Marianne Edwards, a northern-born white woman who now called New Orleans her home, wrote to her father describing a three-way struggle between her friend Mr. Brenford, one of his slaves, and the occupying Union Army under Gen. Benjamin Butler. Edwards recounted how the enslaved woman working in Brenford’s household had taken advantage of an order from Butler “that all slaves bringing information of the disloyalty of their masters should have their freedom.” In Edwards’s telling of the story, the enslaved woman “went off and told Butler that her master had arms in his house.” When a squad of Union soldiers arrived to search the property, however, they found nothing. A few weeks later, the woman went to Butler once more and told him that her master had buried the weapons in his garden. According to Edwards, Brenford “had been digging and making a garden” to pass the time under northern occupation, and his slave “thought it would annoy him to have it all dug up.” Again, the Yankees found no evidence of wrongdoing. Eventually, the woman informed Union authorities that Brenford had been involved in an arson attack, and Butler finally had him arrested. To add insult to injury, the former slave returned to Brenford’s house with a permit from Butler and removed a “bed and pillows…and three trunks full of clothes,” according to Marianne Edwards. 1 Last seen, the newly free woman was working as a vendor, selling “cakes and such like to the [northern] soldiers.”1 As this story shows, the northern military occupation of New Orleans, which began in the spring of 1862 under the command of Benjamin Butler, initiated a period of profound social and political upheaval. During the war years, the Union army and black working people engaged in a mutual struggle against the planter elite and its allies that would ultimately produce both the defeat of the Confederacy and the destruction of slavery. Later in the 1860s, Republicans and their new allies would engineer Louisiana’s return to the Union, and build a loyal state government that became a central player in the violence and volatility of Reconstruction.
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