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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR 77-24,610 CIMPRICH, John Vincent, Jr., 1949- SLAVERY AMIDST CIVIL WAR IN TENNESSEE: THE DEATH OF AN INSTITUTION.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1977 History, United States

University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan 4sio6

(§> Copyright by John Vincent Gimprich, Jr. 1977 SLiWERY iÊilDSÏ CIVIL Y;AR IE TENNESSEE:

THE DEATH ÜE AN INSTITUTION

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State university

By John Vincent Cimprich, Jr., -LB. , Ji.-A.

The Ohio S tate U niversity

1977

Reading Committee: Approved By Dr. Merton L. Dillon Dr. Michael Les Benedict Dr. Robert H. Bremner

L_ Adviser Department of History ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Upon completing this dissertation, I would like to

express my deep gratitude to my adviser. Dr. Merton 1.

Dillon, who throughout ray graduate career has served me as

an educator in the most literal sense of the word, %ith

much skill, dedication, and patience he has led me through

a great deal of intellectual development in a relatively

short time. Discussions with Dr. Dillon and several others

over this dissertation project greatly aided the crystali-

zation and clarification of ray thoughts. The other indi­

viduals who deserve recognition for their comments and sug­

gestions are Drs. Michael Les Benedict, Robert H. Bremner,

Bertram Wyatt-Brown, and David D. Lee. Several friends and relatives helped to smooth the rough spots in the bumpy road that researchers must tra v e l. I especially want to thank Jack and Madeleine McKivigan for some research assistance, Pete Maslowski and Leslie Rowland for some bibliographic advice, and my sister Cindy Gimprich for dray/ing the maps in the text.

The bulk of the research for this study was com­ pleted at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the

National Archives, and The Ohio State University Library.

ii The staffs at all three institutions rendered me excellent service despite my occasional tendency to overr/ork them.

A number of other institutions also earned my appreciation during my use of their facilities: the überlin College

Library, the University of Cincinnati Library, the Fisk

University Library, the Howard University Library, the

University of North Carolina Library, the Joint University

L ibraries of Vanderbilt University and George Peabody Col­ lege, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Library, the Presbyterian Historical Society, the wieraphis and Shelby

County Public Library, Knoxville's Lawson McGhee Public

Library, the Ohio Historical Center, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Memphis City Hall Archives, and the

Library of Congress. A special thanks goes to Ohio State's

College of Education whose calculator lab I used in making the mathematical calculations in the text.

Finally, I am particularly and profoundly grateful to my parents for teaching me the meaning of human dignity and much more as well.

I l l VITA

dune 26,19 4 2 ...... Born - iviiddletown, Ohio

1971...... A. B., Thomas More College, Covington, Kentucky

1971-1977 ...... Teaching Assistant, Department of History, The Ohio State U niversity, Columbus, Ohio

1973 ...... ivi. A-, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

PIBLDS OF STUDY i.lajor Field: History

Sectionalism, Civil uar, and Reconstruction. Professor Merton L. Dillon

American Social History. Professor Warren R. Van Tine

Early National and Jacksonian Periods. Professor Harry L. Coles

History of England since 1714. P rofessor Phillip ?. P o irie r

IV TABLE OF CONTENTS

F age ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... i i

VITA...... iv

LIST OF TABLES...... v i

LIST OF FIGURES...... v ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...... v i i i

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Chapter I. ThE INSTITUTION AND THE CONFEDERATES. . . . 4

I I . TRji MASTER AND SLAVE RELATIONSiilF AFTER FEDERAL OCCUR RTIOK...... 31

I I I . FEDERAL OCCUR AT ION ANd THE SLAVE CODE . . . 67

IV. BLiiCA GiiETTOS AiviD CONTRABAND GA.iRS...... 98

V. THE BEGINNING OF ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION. . 128

VI. THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION. . . 158

VII. BLACi. MILITARY SERVICE...... 183

VIII. THE ROLITICS oF EMANCIRATION...... 2?6

I à . the END OF A4 INSTITUTION...... 273

CRITICAL ESSAI ON MAJOR SOURCES...... 3C1

BIBLIOGRAFHÏ ...... 311

APPENDIA: MAP OF TENNESSEE DURING TiiE CIVIL L AR . . 3 3 I

V LIST OF TABLES

Table Page 1. Average Slave Prices (Ages 12-40) behind Confederate Lines in Tennessee ...... 23

2. Available Numerical Data on Tennessee Contrabands ...... 58

3. Contraband Gamp Population Figures ..... 111-112

4. Identifiable Black Political Leaders in Tennessee, 1864-65 ...... 251-252

5. Average tionthly Mages for Adult Freedmen Hired in Tennessee during 1865 ...... 286

VI LIST OF FIGURES

'igure Rage 1. Size of County Slave Populations ...... 6

2. Proportion of Slaves in County Populations . . 6

'3. Tennessee during the Civil viar ...... 331

Vll LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

APIC American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission Testi­ mony, Record Group 94, National Archives.

AMA-Tenn. Tennessee File, American Missionary Association Archives, The Amistad Research Center, Dillard University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

G-.O. General Order

GPB Generals' Papers and Books, Record Group 94, National Archives.

LR Letters Received

LS Letters Sent

OR U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion; A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. (131 vole., Washington, 1880-1901).

NA National Archives

RG National Archives Record Group RG 94: Records of the Office of the Adjutant General RG 105: Records of the Bureau of Refugees, ■'Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands RG 109: Confederate Records RG 393: Records of the United States Army Continental Commands, 1821-1920 8,0. S p ecial Order Tennessee Historical Quarterly

TSLA Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee

U.S.C.T, United States Colored Troops U.S.C.A.: Artillery U.S.C.I.: Infantry

viii INTRODUCTION

l 'se had 'n aff o' ole m ass'r. — iinonymous en listee 14th U.8.C.I.1

In the District of Columbia's .Lincoln lark stands the national monument which commemorates the emancipation of merican slaves during the Civil ,, ar. The memorial depicts an erect TLraham Lincoln freeing a crouching slave who begins to look up. The statue accurately portrays

American folk h isto ry 's perception of emancipation, but i t does not t e l l the whole story. Slavery was unravelled from within as well as from without. ,.hile only the government could legally abolish slavery, many slaves tool: advantage of America's internal conflict to declare their own freedom wherever Federal armies appeared. These slaves' refusal to continue acting as slaves along with their support of the

Union cause placed great pressure on the Federal government to enact emancipation. Although uincoln played a signifi­ cant role in the subsequent legal actions, the slaves should not be stereotyped as helpless and passive recipi- 2 ents of his benevolence.

The disloyal slaves wanted more than just their personal freedom. They sought to gain all the privileges

1 2

that whites enjoyed in order to end their economic exploi­

tation and social subordination. Although they gained

entry to the free labor system during the war, formidable

b arriers remained a fte r the war to prevent most freedmen

from significantly improving the material conditions of

their lives. On that ground emancipation has all too easily been derided as inconsequential. It was not so.

Blacks remained at the bottom of the American so cial system, but their social distance from the white citizenry markedly decreased because of their new familial, educational, reli­ gious, and military privileges. Host significantly, a num­ ber of blacks began to assert a sense of human dignity far greater than slaves would have dared show in the face of the prevailing white racial prejudices, rrcslavery whites tried desperately but for the most part hopelessly to pre­ serve the traditional format of race relations. By trans­ forming the status of an entire class, emancipation consti­ tuted one of the few major changes ever to occur in the

American social structure.

Because of the subject's large size, this study examines the end of slavery in only one state. The author chose Tennessee primarily because of the length and extent of Federal occupation there. A case study, such as this one, admittedly has its limitations. It is like trying to view objects inside a box through a single slit. Extant records relating to Tennessee can not reveal the full range 3 of human behavior during slavery's institutional crisis,

nor were all events in this one state necessarily typical

for the entire South. Yet, a comparison of the data in

this case study with that in works dealing vith other slave

states reveals a great amount of similarity, indicating

th a t emancipation was essentially the same so cial phenome­

non throughout the South.^

fUüTüUTËS

^Henry homeyn, % ith Colored Troops in the Army of the Cumberland (n .p ., l'I’04J7 p. 6. p Similar viewpoints appear in v/.E. Burghardt Du Bois, Black Reconstruction (Dew York, 1935 3; Benjamin '■■iuarles, The Negro in the C ivil t a r (Boston, 1 "53); Bobby L- Lovett, "The Negro’s Civil 'i.ar in Tennessee, 1861-1365," Journal of Negro H istory, a LI (January, 1976), pp. 35-50; C. Peter Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen in Civil War Louisiana (Baton Rouge, La., 1976). 3 ^Especially see Ripley, Slaves and freedmen; tillie Lee Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction: __ The Port Royal Exneriment (Indianapolis, Ind., 1964); Peter Kolchin, first f reedom; 'The Responses of Alabama's Blacks to Emancipation and Reconstruction (feestport, Conn., l)72); Bell Irwin i/iley. Southern Negroes 1861-1865 (New Haven, Conn., 1938); Leon f . Litwack, "free at L ast," in Tamara K. Harevan, ed. , ■-nonymous Anericans: __ Explo ra tio n s i n Nineteenth Century Social History TËnglewood C liffs , .rj'. , T9TÏ7. GriAFTER I

THE INSTITUTION AND THE CONEEDERAEES

A firm commitment to slavery and a grave fear for

its security prompted eleven Southern states, including Tennessee, to pass ordinances of secession during 1860-61.

They took this drastic and dangerous step because of slav­

ery’s centrality in the Southern v/sy of life. The institu­

tion of slavery served as one means of meeting certain basic economic and social needs. In its economic aspect slavery was both a form of property and a system of labor.

In its social aspect slavery defined and maintained the lev est possible status in the stratification system. The institution fulfilled these functions through an interper­ sonal relationship, specifically through a bond of personal allegiance bet-'.^'een the slaves in the role of subservient dependents and their masters in the role of managing care­ takers.

As property, slaves represented a monetary value significant for both their owners and the general economy.

The average value of a taxable Tennessee slave, those between the ages of twelve and fifty, v/as $881.57 in 1860»

Slaves formed a major component of personal property in the State, representing 34Î& of the taxable property in 1359.

Tennessee ranked tenth among the fifteen slave states in

the percentage of slaves in its population (25%). %hen the

distribution of slave property in the state population is

broken down by county, a wide range appears between the

extremes of Scott County (2% slave) on the Cumberland P la­

teau and Fayette County (64% slave) in the rich Mississippi

River plain. Figures 1 and 2 show slavery to be most con­ centrated in Middle and West Tennessee. Slaves were le a s t numerous in both parts of the Tennessee River Valley and

atop the Cumberland Plateau. This pattern generally cor­

responded with so il f e r t i l i t y since b e tte r s o il meant more 2 commercial farming and a greater demand for labor.

4s in the South generally, slaveholders in Tennes­ see constituted a minority of the white population. 1 much larger group of white Tennesseans, than the 4% who owned slaves, held an immediate interest in the Institution eith er by being a member of an owner's family or by h iring slaves. Une study finds that slaves were owned hy 57- of the families who lived in fifteen sample counties in I860.

The distribution of slaveholders on the county level paral­ leled the d istrib u tio n of slaves. Fayette County had the largest percentage of owners in its white population

(12.8%) and Scott County had the sm allest (.5%). Very few

Tennessee slaveholders owned large numbers of slaves. Only

^ of a ll owners possessed over twenty slaves, and none Middle É.ÛL5Ï

Q 10,000-16,953

g 5,000- 9,999

[Ô] 1,000- 4,999

I I 59- 999

Figure 1.— Size of County Slave Populations

Kiddie.

g 50%-64%

g j 25%-49%

[q ] 10%-24%

[ I 2%-9% Figure 2.— Proportion of Slaves in County Populations 7 ovraed over five hundred* ^ost ôvrnérs held fewer than four slaves. Thus, the majority of the slave population was ■3 probably owned in units of ten or fewer.

As a labor system, slavery provided workers who theoretically would completely fulfill their owners' direc­ tives at minimal cost. Slaves ordinarily could not choose their employer or determine the term of service under him.

The system obligated slaves to maintain resp ectfu l demeanor, unquestioning obedience, and constant concern for their owner's interests. They were always on call and could not leave the premises without written permission. Slaves might lighten their work load by deception or inveiglement, but in doing so they always operated from a weak position, failure to fulfill an obligation made a slave liable to physical punishment. In return for their services the mas­ ters owed slaves only the provision of adequate food, shel­ te r, clothing, and medical care. In actual p ractice owners varied from the stingy tyrant to the generous co-worker.^

As a social s ta tu s, slavery was an anomaly in a system which permitted social mobility for most of its mem­ bers. American society placed a ll blacks in one of th at society's only two castes, most as slaves and the rest as free blacks. Only of Tennessee's 283,019 blacks in 1360 were free. Very few slaves could expect to ris e in to the free black status. Since 1854, state lav; had made emigra­ tion to Liberia a mandatory part of manumission. Few 8

slaves granted to move to Liberia, but then fev: slaveholders

willingly gave up their property. Only 174 slaves were

manumitted in 1860. .-m even smaller group of 29 slaves

gained freedom that year by the alternate method of escap­

ing to the North, most slaves remained stuck in an

ascribed status which defined their personal north as prac-

tically nothing in terms of income and social prestige.

The antebellum South was g en erally successful in keeping and controlling slaves within their lowly position.

One major factor in this success was the extent of the w hites' physical power w ithin the so cial system. As map 2 shows, whites composed a m ajority of the population in most parts of Tennessee. Since whites also held exclusive con­ trol of local government, slaves received but few legal rig h ts. The most important one, granted by only four other slave states, was the right to trial by jury. Like all other Southern states, Tennessee allowed slaves the right to a minimum of security in their physical well-being.

Chase C. Mooney, the h isto ria n of antebellum ‘Tennessee slavery, discovered a handful of prosecutions under this lew, but sig n ific a n tly none were fo r the murder of a slave.

Southern governments rarely undertook such prosecutions, kn overseer in Hardeman County, Tennessee, merely suffered the loss of his job for killing a slave in 1361.^ Par­ tially bolstering w hite society's disinclination to punish th is crime, sta te lav; exempted masters from prosecution i f a slave died when resisting the master or when receiving 7 "moderate correction." By restricting the slaves' legal

rights, the white portion of society confirmed its domi­ nance.

The activities forbidden to Tennessee slaves formed

a lengthier list than their rights. Slaves could not pos­

sess weapons without permission of the county court. They

could consume liquor only with their masters' perm ission

and only on his prem ises. A slave needed the master's written permission to leave those premises or to sell goods.

Slaves could not congregate in large groups without white supervision. Aenphis and Nashville supplemented the state slave code with ordinances prohibiting slaves from preach­ ing (unless supervised by whites), receiving an education, or being out after evening curfew. Besides all of these special criminal Ians, slaves were subject to differential treatment in the courts. They could not testify against whites, and, unlike whites, they could be penalized with a public whipping. Also, they faced the possibility of a death sentence for more crimes than whites.®

The s ta te slave code resticted whites as well as slaves, masters could not permit slaves to hire their own time, to live off their owner's premises, to own property, or to act in any manner as i f they were free. No white could engage in trade with a slave without the m aster's permission. Advocating abolition, encouraging or aiding a 10

slave to run away, and inciting or aiding slave insurrec­

tio n were particularly serious offenses for whites.^

Government o ffic ia ls did not normally enforce all

provisions of the slave code vith relentless r ig id ity .

Masters customarily allowed slaves to own at least a small

amount of personal property. Permissive masters ignored

many of the other rules and seem to have suffered nothing

more than popular derision as keepers of "free negroes."*'^

Some localities were more lenient than others. The i.aury

County Circuit Court in 1861 fined two masters a mere C2.50

for permitting a slave to own a horse. Paced with the

court's clear disinterest in such crimes, the crusading

prosecutor dropped a slate of sim ila r cases. A number of

Nashville slaves lived on their own and hired their own time. The partial unenforcement of laws prohibiting these p ra ctices permitted a degree of flexibility within slavery.

In times of real or imagined crises, however, heavy-handed v ig ila n te action could occur. Sectional hostilities aroused by the 1856 election campaign inspired a major insurrection panic in Tennessee. The violent treatment of suspected white and black insurrectionaries dramatically reaffirmed white society's commitment to the subordination of slaves.

Social practices also played a part in d efin in g and controlling the sla v e 's sta tu s. V/hites generally expected slaves to behave deferentially and submissively. Some 11

slaveholders showed no respect for the slave family. One

study in d ic a te s that masters separated around 27/6 of Ten­

nessee's slave couples on the auction b l o c k . Popular

opinion generally prevented the education of slaves even

though the law did not prohibit it in most parts of the

state.Churches seated blacks in separate sections, and

in some cases held services for black members at a differ­

ent time or in a different building. Outside as well as

inside the churches, Southern society constantly reminded

slaves of their low status and insisted that they accept it

as the proper state of life for a supposedly inferior

race.^^ The very personal master and slave relationship,

which was possible within Tennessee's predominant pattern

of small siaveholdings, probably intensified these social

pressures. Consequently some slaves may have internalized

proslavery norms in some degree. Others clearly rejected

those views in their entirety. The institution's inability

to make all slaves conform to proslavery values incorpo- 1*5 rated a measure of instability into the system.

Slavery was sufficiently complex and flexible to

permit a range of behavioral possibilities for both masters

and slaves.Still, the materialistic greed, desire for

social domination, and racial prejudices of the white

majority permeated the institution, circumscribing the lives of all those connected with it. Over time the system had become entrenched in the Southern way of l i f e . 12

Southerners feared that slave insurrection or legislated

emancipation would plunge their entire culture into chaos.

These concerns were precipitated into secession by

an irrational perception of the 1860 presidential election

victory of Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the northern

Republicans. Although the Republicans condemned the slave

labor system and proslavery politics, the party officially

stood for nothing more extreme than the prohibition of

slavery's further extension into western territories.

Years of sectional conflict had heightened the South's sen­

sitivity to criticism, causing many Southerners to believe

that Republicans really intended to subjugate the South,

abolish slavery, and establish racial equality.-^ In the

words of two semi-literate Tennesseans:

The northern Abolitinast hav been steeling from the south and rasing inserectun in the south til the are determind to stand it no longer . . . as we cant have our property securd without it we are now determend to hav a confedracy of our own.18

V. hi le all Tennessee politicians loudly proclaimed

their firm commitment to slavery during this national

crisis, not all of them supported secession. A large num­ ber of Constitutional Unionists led by Yilliam G. Brownlow, editor of the Knoxville Whig, and a splinter group of Demo­

crats headed by Senator Andrew Aohnson fought to the bitter end for the Union's preservation. These politicians attracted a significant amount Of votef support in several areas which had small slave populations, particularly in 13 East Tennessee.

labelled, abolitionist dupes by the secessionists, the unionists responded that secession and civil war would endanger slavery far more than a Republican president. By careful analysis of Republican newspapers and speeches they concluded that Lincoln's election did not represent an abolitionist triumph. The unionists contended that exist­ ing constitutional guarantees reinforced by additional political compromises could secure full security for slav­ ery. But in April the outbreak of civil war between the

Federal government and the Confederation of seceded states ended a ll hope for compromise solutions. The secessio n ists won 7CJi> of the votes cast in a June o, 1861, referendum on separation from the Union. Brownlow, Johnson, and many of their followers subsequently left the state to escape per­ secution.

The secessionists could not tolerate any internal opposition during the critical struggle to win the Confed­ eracy's independence. Secessionist newspapers v/arned Ten­ nesseans to be on guard, not only against unionist subver­ sion, but also against slave insurrection. This concern arose partly from a drive for political conformity among whites and partly from a fear that slaves might want to help the supposedly abolitionist Northerners subjugate their masters. During the long secession crisis newspapers reported a number of alleged murders of masters by slaves. 14 One secessionist editor charged that unionist a g ita tio n

encouraged slave violence by publically dividing v/hite

society. This editor must have found quite galling the

last words of Isaac, a slave sentenced to hang for killing

an overseer. Speaking from the ilemphis gallows platform

Just before the -June referendum, Isaac said that many

Southern soldiers would soon be committing murder just as

he had. Having repented for his sin, he urged the Confed­

erate enlistees to reconsider before they sinned so that PI the Union might be saved. Isaac v/as powerless to do any­

thing; beyond ta lk in g , which in itself was more than most

discontented slaves would dare to do. Still, the slave

minority's wealoness had never prevented some whites from

fantasizing about slave rebellions.

The fear of slave insurrection led the legislature

to authorize the enrollment of county home guards during

the spring of 1361. The legislature empowered these units

to arrest suspicious persons, disarm slaves, break up slave

gatherings, and generally "keep the slave population in 22 proper subjugation." The home guards were essentially

legalized vigilante committees. -According to the diary of

James Washington hatthews, a small slaveholder, the maury

County home guards hanged one slave for "incendiarism." liatthews' own squad of the Maury home gu.ard interrogated some sla v es about the burning of a planter's corn cribs.

The next day they whipped "the negroes supposed to be 15 giiilty." The home guard could easily abuse its powers and liatthews ' description of this incident implies that he 23 doubted the justice of its actions.

Two of the slave insurrection panics which occurred all over the South during the secession crisis took place in Tennessee. The first occurred in Marshall County during late April and early iiay, 1861. According to rumor a Giles

County slave patrol had uncovered a slave reb ellio n plot encompassing Giles, marshall, and Bedford counties. Sup­ posedly this patrol caught the two leaders and sixty of their followers. The Lewisburg Southern messenger consid­ ered the panic serious enough to publish an extra issue warning against rash acts of retribution against sla v es.

This panic probably ended quickly and quietly as the Nash­ ville papers never mentioned i t . The other panic occurred at Jackson on may 27, 1861. During the morning of th at day a report circulated that slaves in a nearby hamlet had revolted under white leadership. Later rumors claimed that state militiamen were coming from :-..emphis to save Jackson.

By the clay's end the townsmen knew that the whole scare had been caused merely by "some fellow shooting off a repeater

4 or 5 times."2" obviously some Tennesseans felt rather edgy, fortunately such anxieties never reached the point of extensive extralegal violence.

Politicians who feared slave insurrection tried to place tougher restrictions in the slave code, but with only 16

uininal success. The municipal government of Chattanooga

instituted an evening curfew for slaves. The f a ll and

winter session of the legislature considered adding three

new provisions to the state slave code. One bill proposed

to add arson to the list of crimes for which a slave could

be punished by death, ^uiother b ill would levy heavy fines upon masters who permitted their slaves to live more than

one mile away from a white supervisor. The third proposal

sought to prohibit manumission clauses in wills. The

legislature rejected the arson bill, and Federal invasion

ended the session before the other two bills could come up for a vote.^^ Because this legislative session met in secret, no record of the debates exists to reveal why the arson bill was defeated. Unless th is vote is misleading, fear of slave insurrection must have declined i;i Tennessee by la te 1861.

Some Tennesseans had never shared their neighbors' worries about slave uprisings. John Houston Bids, who owned about ninety s la v e s, called the organization of the

Hardeman County home guard "a wholly useless business" and 97 grumbled about the extra tax levied to pay for it.“

Another c itiz e n wrote Confederate Governor Isham G. Harris;

'"The negro population were /sic? never more trusty. This illustrates his subordinate relation—he needs someone to pa c lin g to in the hour of peril." A modern reader might fairly wonder if it were not the other way around. A hat 17 peace of raind could exist for secessionists if they feared

all slaves in their neighborhood as potential enenies?

Some proslavery theorists had long argued that the blacks

were happiest as slaves and would refuse freedom i f i t were

offered to them. One secessio n ist ed ito r boasted;

Our slaves will be found loyal to their masters, and if necessary, we will arm such of them as we can spare from our fields, to resist our foes, who will find in these pretended objects of their philanthropy the ugli­ est customers they w ill have to e n c o u n t e r . 30

The Confederate army never enlisted Tennessee's

slaves. It did seek to control and use them during the

struggle to establish a proslavery nation, when the Con­

federate state legislature permanently disbanded in harch,

1362, the army became the major Confederate governing power

in the state. The army most directly helped to maintain

slavery by recapturing runaways. In late 1362 the Confed­

erate Congress passed a law requiring the army to deposit

a ll recaptured slaves in central lo ca tio n s and to publish

the captives' descriptions so that owners might recover

their property. In il arch, 1&63, the army officially estab­

lish e d depots for recaptured slaves at hcivlinnville and

Knoxville. Two months la te r major General Braxton Bragg,

corn, 1 ander of the Army of Tennessee, asked and obtained per­

mission to relocate the McMinnville depot at Chattanooga.

McMinnville was too close to Federal lines, and Bragg

needed the recaptured slaves there to build fortifications 31 at Chattanooga. Ho information is available on these 18 slaves afte r Chattanooga’s f a l l several months la te r . The

Knoxville depot probably never existed except on paper as the records never mention it as actually operating.

The Confederate army made extensive use of slave laborers in noncombat roles to help meet its manpower needs.

When the state m ilitia began to fortify Tennessee, Major

General Gideon J. Pillow called upon planters to volunteer 12 their slaves to build Port Pillow." uohn Houston Bills complained that the request was "a most villanous call, one he has no right to make & is the beginning of a despotism worse than any European Monarchy," but then grudgingly sent four of his slaves to the fort.^^ Pillow received all LI the i slave labor he needed as well as volunteer overseers. 34

Tennessee p lanters would never be so generous again, hard labor, sometimes under harsh conditions, presented, too great a danger to the slaves' health. During the winter­ time construction of Port Henry, Port Donelson, and earth­ works at Clarksville, voluntary methods end even offers of payment failed to produce enough slave laborers. The army then resorted to forcible impressment of the needed s l a v e s . 33 Some owners s t i l l found means of eluding the military. When one slaveholder learned that three of his four slaves were slated for impressment, he turned to trickery:

I was a little too sharp for them. I called in Dr. Wilkerson, gave them some physic, and then gave me a certificate. . . . There are some that begrudged us our 19

negroes and would be glad they were all taken to the fort to die.36

As the war progressed and the Confederate fighting

units in Tennessee became depleted, it became increasingly

important to replace soldiers on noncombat details ’"ith

hired or impressed slaves. The Confederates’ hiring rates

were substantial, during 1862-63 masters usually received

from o20 to 325 a month for unskilled laborers and up to 37 360 a month for s k ille d slaves. Nevertheless, slave­

holders remained uncooperative despite appeals to greed,

patriotism, and the fact that "the war originated, and is

carried on in great part for the defense of the slaveholder

in his property rights and the perpetuation of the institu­

tio n ."36 Such owners could only see their property endan­

gered by military hiring and their rights violated by

impressment.

The unwillingness of many masters to place their

sla v es in the Confederate army’s service had m ilitary

repercussions. VIhen the army began to fortify Nashville

during the winter of 1861-62, it promised compensation to

sJl masters who volunteered their slaves for the work. The

call for laborers netted a mere seven slaves, and the army

then announced th at i t would impress 1,500 slaves. A large number of slaves must have immediately vanished from sig h t, for the army never obtained more than 200 of them. Conse­

quently, the Confederates had to abandon the barely forti­ fied capital without a defense when the fédérais approached 20 the city.^"

Confederate military use of slaves also had a direct impact on slavery itself. The interposition of the army between masters and slaves could either intensify or demolish the latter two parties' bond of personal alle­ giance. Slaves shared their masters’ opposition to impressment and generally secluded themselves when they learned th at one had begun, une midwinter day a slave named Granville failed to hide himself in time and "was carried off very sorely agt. his w ill." The impressing p atro l would not allow Granville to change into warmer

Clothing or get his blanket lest he attempt to escape, iithin sixteen days Granville did escape and return to his master. His health w-as broken by the experience and he died soon afterw ard.A nother impressed slave, who had never experienced combat before, decided to flee back to his master during the federal bombardment of fo rt Pillow.

As he put it, "a large ball of fire, nearly as big as the moon" had whizzed stra ig h t toward hirn.^~ell During the m ili­ tarily crucial year of 1863 General Bragg's army suffered badly from the desertion of slave laborers, while some gratefully fled back to their masters, other took advantage of their proximity to Federal lines to gain f r e e d o m .

Slaves also served in the Confederate army as per­ sonal servants. Unlike impressed laborers, these slaves generally considered their work an honor and a privilege. 2 1

Some body servants ran asray to the fé d é ra is, but most seem /i 3 to have fulfilled their ovners ' expectations of loyalty.""

One Confederate officer annually sent his servant home to

help with the harvest, and the servant never used the

opportunity to run a-ay. Another body servant whom the

fédérais captured escaped and returned to his master.

Still another personal servant suffered rounds in a skir­

mish, indicating that he may have been an active partici­

pant. The adventurous military life developed a degree of

independent-mindedness among some of these slaves. Several

personal servants chose to stay with the army after their

owners had died or been discharged, when they legally

should have returned home.^^ A slave’s experiences in the

army could either reinforce or detract from his personal

sta te of s e r v ilit y .

iihile the Confederate army’s use of slaves some­

times backfired upon its intention of preserving slavery

in the war zone, slave life and labor went on much as usual

in areas well behind the lines. The number of fu g itiv e

slaves probably increased after the federal invasion, but

East Tennessee's two d aily papers only ran an average of five new fugitive slave advertisements a month from Novem­ ber, 1362, to July, 1862. The slave population of areas behind the front actually grew a little because of war 46 refugees who brought th e ir slaves with them. over the v/ar years slavery became much less conspicuous, in the 22

shrinking Confederate portion of the state simply because

the Confederates first lost Middle and .test Tennessee,

which had the largest slave populations, and held on long­

est to East Tennessee, which had the fewest slaves.

A sampling of the available price data indicates

that the property value of slaves in Confederate-occupied

areas held up well, but this appearance was probably super­

ficial. Table 1 was compiled from bills of sale recorded

in the deed books of one-third of Tennessee's Civil War 46 counties. Only bona fide sales of individual able-bodied

sla v es in the peak price range betv een twelve and forty years of age were considered.^7 U nfortunately sta te law did not require the registration of slave sales. Many of

the recorded bills of sale could not be used because they listed a single price for a group of slaves. The usable bills of sale generally did not mention the type of cur­ rency used in the purchase, and so the individual prices can not be accurately adjusted to any standard monetary value. The number of q u alificatio n s upon Table 1 ma!*:e i t far more suggestive than definitive, ./hat the table sug­ gests is that slave prices rose slightly in 1852 and sharply in 1863. During the war Confederate newspapers pridefully noted that slave prices were increasing despite the Federal invasion and Confederate losses. They fa ile d to note that the depreciation of Confederate currencies provided the best explanation for this trend. The gold 23

TABLE 1

AVERAGE SLAVE PRICES (AGrla 12-40) BEHIND CCEEEDERATE LINES I:: TEmiESSEE

Gold Value (Charleston, S.C,, Time Period Sex Recorded Prices ra te s)

1861: Jan., -Mr, i-'i S213.81 (41) E 819.40 (25) A^r. - Je, 1039.12 (17) p 812.70 (10) J ly . -Sep, !,i 924.73 (15) T? 847.70 (10) Oct,-Dec. id 943.41 (14) S787.84 i’ 772.06 (16) 643.31 All 1861 ivl 944.94 (87) P 810.52 (61) 1862: Jan.-Mr. M 1091.94 (31) 909.95 ? 813.25 (10) 677.71 Apr,-Je. LI 1055.00 ( 2) 703.33 r Jly.-Sep. j Oct.-Dec. 1,1 1029.43 (14) 395. 93 E 1000.OC ( 1) 384.62 All 1862 lu 1071.75 (47) F 830.23 (11) 1363: J 3.Ï1. -Mr. Ll 1480.00 ( 5) 451.42 F 952.50 ( 5) 272.14 Apr,-Je, A 1800.00 ( 1) 321.43 E 1400.00 ( 3) 250.00 Jl;,, - Aug. li —— — — ——— —----— — E 2825.00 { 4) 256.82 All 1863- li 1533.33 ( 6) E 1688,54 (12) The f i gures in parentheses shov the number of individual slaves sold. 24 conversion rates for Confederate currency in Tennessee are not available for most of the v/ar years, but a nearly com­ plete set of rates from Charleston, South Carolina, do exist. If the Tennessee and South Carolina rates were sim­ ilar in the long run, and they probably were, then the gold value of slaves sharply declined as the Confederates lost control of Tennessee. Had the Confederates won independ­ ence, sla v e values probably would have rise n back to prewar levels just as this had happened after the American Revolu- 48 tion.

Behind the military front in Tennessee slavery suf- 40 fered no irreparable damage. The secessionists did their best to prevent social change since they were fig h tin g to secure slavery permanently from the supposed menace of

Northern abolitionism. Not until military operations reached a locality did the conditions necessary to enervate the Confederate defense of slavery develop. Civil war, the u ltim ate form of social conflict, would result in the d efeat of the Confederate crusade and the undoing of slavery.

FOOTNOTES ^Tennessee, Senate Journal Appendix, 35th General Assembly (1857-1663), pp. 74-76; Tennessee, Reports from Tublic Officers and Institutions, 1859-1860, pp. 18-23• 2 Kenneth m. Stampp. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South (New York, 195 6), p. 32; U.S. Department of the In te rio r, Census O ffice, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860: Population (Washington, 25

1864J, pp. 466-467; Robert Love Partin, "The Secession Movement in Tennessee" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, George Peabody College, 1935), p. 249.

^Stampp, Peculiar Institution, pp. 30-31; U.S.. Department of the Interior, Census Office, Eighth Census of the united States, 1860; Agriculture (Uashington, 1364), pp. 233-239; Chase C. Mooney, Slavery in Tennessee (nloomington, Ind., 1957), pp. 105, 145.

'^Stampp, Peculiar Institution, pp. 34-36, 74-76; .Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The world the Slaves Made (Nev.' York, 1974), p. 144. 5 U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census: Population, pp. 466-467; Mooney, Slavery in Tennessee, p. 20; U.S. Department of the Interior, Census Office, Eighth Census of the united States, I860: Mortality and Miscellaneous Statistics '(Washington, 1866), pp. 337-338; Gilbert E. Moore, American negro Slavery and Abolition: A Sociologi­ cal Study (New York, 1971), pp. 112-113.

^Tennessee, Code (Meigs and Cooper, 1858), secs. 2632 , 2649; Mooney, Slavery in Tennessee, p. 8; John Houston Bills Diary, March 1, 7, 1861, Southern His­ torical Collection, University of Horth Carolina L ibrary, Chapel H ill, H.G.

^Tennessee, Code (;,ieigs and Cooper, 1358), sec. 2651 .

^I b i d . , secs. 2603-2626, 2308; Mooney, Slavery in Tennessee. pp. 13-14; James Merton England, "The Free ùegro in Lntebellum Tennessee" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 104I), p. 200.

^Tennessee, Code (Meigs and Cooper, 1858), secs. 2571-2580, 2658-2?89. ^^Social Science Institute, Fisk University, Unwritten History of Slavery: Hutobiograohical Accounts of negro Ex-Slaves, p. 1, in vol. 18 of George P. Ra-.vick, e d .. The iimerican Slave: A Composite Aitobiography (19 vols. , (Uestport, Conn., 1972;.

Maury County C ircuit Court Minute Book, 1862 vol., p. 522; Loren Schweninger, "The Free-Slave Phenomenon: James P. Thomas end the Black Community in Lnte-Bellu.a Nashville," Civil Par History, ha II (December, 1976), pp. 302-306; Charles B. Dew, "Black Ironworkers and the Slave Insurrection Panic of 185 6," Journal of Southern His­ tory , XLI (August, 1975), pp. 333-338; Harvey Viish, "The 26

Slave Insurrection Panic of 1356," Journal of Southern Kis- torv. V (way, 19390, pn. 209-213, 222. 1 p John J. B1assingame, The Slave Community: Plan­ tation Life in the Antebellum South TîTir York, 1972), pp. 90, 160. Blassingame collected his s ta tis tic s d ire c tly from wartime and postwar marriage certificates. Robert William Pogél and Stanley L. Engerman in Time oh the Gross (2 vols., Boston, 1974J, vol..I, pp. 48^53 reach a much lower estimate of 13/i for broken marriages by indirect use of the Jew Orleans slave market bills of sale, a much less accurate method than Blassingame *s since the bills of sale do not explicitly note past marital status. 13 Mooney, Slavery in Tennessee, pp. 95-96, argues that slave education was prevalent, however, wartime reformers found few literate slaves and much sentiment anong white Tennesseans against black education. 14 Piles of John Rettleton Johnson (Sullivan County), Amos Branch Jones (Madison County), and Marcus Breckinridge Toney (Davidson County), Civil Vi,ar Confederate Veteran Question aires, TSLA; Arthur Howard Koll, History of the Episcopalian/ Church in the Diocese of Tennessee (new York, 1900), p. 178; Herman /L Norton, Tennessee Christians: A History of the Christian Church (Discinles of Christ ) in Tennessee Thashville, 1971), pp. 128-129; Caleb Perry P atterson, The Negro in Tennessee, 1790-1865 (Dustin, Tex,, 1922), p. 124; T.O. P u lle r, History of Negro B antists in Tennessee (Memphis, 1936), p. 47; Ira Berlin, Slaves Without Masters: The free Negro in the Antebellum South 7New York,19747iTp. 2WT 15 On the integration of values and interests in a social structure see Talcott Persons, The Social System (New York, 1951), p. 38. On the historical controversy over the slave personality see Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in American In stitu tio n a l and Int e lle c tu a l Life THnd ed., Chicago, 1968), chap. 3; Blassingame, Slave Com­ munity , chap. 7; Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, Bock 1.

^^T raditionally h isto rian s have taken nai-rower views of slavery than the one presented in this chapter. U lrich B. P h illip s, American Negro Slavery: __ A Survey of t he Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Deter- by the Plant ation Regime (New York, 1918) describes most masters as benevolently p a te rn a listic and most slaves as thoughtlessly contented. Elkins, Slavery contends that the exploitative nature of slavery enabled the masters to con­ trol the slaves' mind. Stampp, Peculiar Institution and Blassingame, Slave Community hold th at slaves were 27

exploited but still maintained an independent-mindedness disguised by role-playing. Genovese, Ho.il, Jordan, Roll argues that slaves actively participated in the definition of the masters’ and slaves' reciprocal obligations, but that by accepting this paternalistic relationship they had actually succumbed to a devious system of ex ploitation. Rather than following any of these historical interpreta­ tions, this study agrees ^'ith the conclusion of no ore, American Negro Slavery and Anthony Arnold Sio, "ïh© Legal and Social Structures of Slavery in the United States" {Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1258j, two sociological studies, that slavery permitted a multiplicity of relationship types within its framework. T7 'Steven A. Channing, Crisis of Pear: Secession in South Carolina (Lew York, l?70"),"pp. ?65, 283; Partin, "Secession in Tennessee," nassim. The most detailed state­ ment of the Tennessee secessionists position is C.R. Lartean, A Brief Review (Hartsville, Tenn,, 1861),

and Margrette Paisley to Joseph ucLean, hay 7, 1361, in The Historical Records Transcription Unit, division of women’s and Professional P r o jects, Yorks Pro­ gress Administration, "Records of „est Tennessee," vol. IV of "Civil Aar Records" (4 vols., 1939, typescript at TSLA), a:'dendum page. Also see Robert H. Cartmeil Diary, Lay 7, 1651, TSLA; Bills Diary, April 16, 1361; Albert lY. Schroeder, Jr., ed. , "-iritings of a Tennessee Unionist," TH&, IX (September, 1950), pp. 253, 262. 19 Knoxville whig, may 18, 1861; Hashville Union and American, June 25, 1861. PO ""Clarksville Chronicle, :,.ay 10, 1861; (Uashville 7- Republican Banner, December 8, 1860; Knoxville h ig , June 8, 1861; Andrew Johnson to Sam Ailligan, January 13, 1361, in Leroy P. Graf et al., eds.. The Papers of Andrew Johnson (4 vols, to date, Knoxville, 1067-), vol. IV, pp. 160-1^2; Henry Cooper to M.D. Cooper, April 27, 1861, Cooper Psmily Papers, TSLA; Jaines belch Patton, Unionism and Reconstruc- in Tennessee 1860-1869 (Chapel Hill, U.C., 1934), pp. 67-68. ^^Nashville G azette, May 7, September 28, 1862, Fayetteville Observer, March 7, 1861; (Nashville) Republi­ can Banner, March 26, 1861; Memphis Appeal, May 1, June 1, 1861; Genovese, R oll, Jordan, Roll , p. 5 96; Channing, C risis of F ear, p. 35.

^^Tennessee, Acts, 33 General Assembly, 2 Lxtra Sess., p. 25. Similar organizations were formed in a ll Southern states. Jiley, Southern N egroes, p. 11. 28

''George vï ashington Matthews Diary, May 20, ALigust 10, December 16, 1361; January 13-10, 1862, TSLA. Also see B ills Diary, May 27,-1861.

^‘^(Lewisburg) Southern Messenger, May 1, 1861. unfortunately none of the relevant Giles County records exist today. 25 Cartmeil Diary, May 27, 1361. Also see Channing, C risis of f e a r , pp. 265-274.

^4cilbert L. Govan and James 1. Livingood, The Chattanooga Country 1540-1962; from Tomahawk to T7A ■:2nd ed.; Chapel Hill, N.C., 106]), pp. 185-184; Bills Kos. 52, 215, 260, House Manuscript B ills, ;'4 General Assembly, TSLA; Tennessee, House -Journal , 34 General Assembly, 1 Sgss., pp. 199-200 (November 27, 1861 J).

^ ^ills Diary, May 22, 1861.

^^H.S. Bradford to Isham Harris, July 17, 1361, Governor Isham Harris Papers, TSLA. 29 Quarles, Negro in the Civil A ar, p. 49.

^^ilenphis .walanche. April 29, 1861.

^^Patton, Unionism, p. 2 9; OR, ser. 1, vol. HAVIII, p t. 2, pp. 850, 853; OR, ser. 2, vol. V, pp. 344, 95 9.

^^Quarles, Negro in the C ivil war, p. 43; ..emphis Appeal, November 10, 1861; Gideon J. Pillow, S.C. 140, May 26, 1861, Brig. Gen. G.J. Pillow Corresoondence, RG 109, NA.

^^Bills Diary, October ?, 1861.

^'^Williaa G. Stevenson, Thirteen Months in th e Rebel Army (New York, 1862), pp. 5 6-57.

^'Clarksville Chronicle, January 10, 1862; OR, ser. 1, vol. Vil, p. 711. Volunteering of slave laborers declined rapidly all over the Confederacy. See Giley, Southern Negroes, p. 115; James H. Brewer, The Confederate Negro : Virginia's Craftsmen and Military Laborers, 1861- 185f“TDurham, N.C. , 19^9], pp. 7, 135-136. 3 Ô Henry Yarbrough to Chris C. Cocke, December 27, 1361, in Porks Progress Administration, "Records of Middle Tennessee," p. 206, vol. I l l of "Civil Par Records."

^^OR, ser. 4, vol. II, p..421; Rolls 5484, 5487, 29

5490, 5493, 5497, 5502, 55^8-5549, 5559, Slave Payrolls, RG 109, NA. Probably to mollify the disgruntled unionist majority in hast Tennessee, the Confederate authorities there followed a strict policy of not impressing slaves. J.K. Galleher to Surg. Ramsay, July 30, 1863, LS by the Department of East Tennessee, RG 109, RA.

^®Eayetteville Observer, November 20, 1862.

^ "OR, ser. 1, vol. VII, pp. 739, 741, 811; Tennes­ see, House Journal, 34 General ^tese.mbly, 1 Sess.-, p. 431 (march 11, 1862); 0111iam Preston Johnson, The life of Gen­ eral Albert Sidney Johnson (New York, 1878), p. 417.

40%imrod P o rter Diary, January 1, August 4, 1863, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Caro­ lina Library, Chapel Kill, N.C.

Memphis Avalanche, may 1, 1862.

^^aoiis 5516, 5535-5537, Slave Payrolls, RG 109, KA; Dills Diary, February 7, 1865.

Advertisements fo r nine runaway body servants appear in Chattanooga Rebel and Knoxville Register between November, 1862, and June, 1863. Also see Genovese, R oll, Jordan, R o ll, pp. 352-353. ~

^^Piles of Silas Gober, Da?;son I'ugh , ’lade atkins, Presley Smith, and Ned Gregory, Colored Hen's Confederate Pension Applications, TSLA; Orland Kay Armstrong, Old Ivlassa's People: The Old S laves Tell Their Story (Indianapolis, In d ., 1931), p. 197.

^^Bills Diary, June, 1861-January, 1862; P orter Diary, June, 1861-January, 1862; L. Virginia French Diary, January-i'.'lay, 1862, TSLA; Athens P o s t, November 7, 1862; Knoxville Register , November, 1802-Ju ly , 1863; Chattanooga Rebel, November, 1862-July, 1863.

^^The sample counties were Bedford, Bradley, Carroll, Coffee, Davidson, Dyer, Giles, Greene, Hawkins, Henry, Hickman, Jefferson, Knox, Lincoln, Madison, marshall, Maury, McMinn, Monroe, Montgomery, Roane, Rutherford, Smith, Sullivan, V,ayne, Nilliamson, and Wilson. Bradley, Greene, Hawkins, and Wilson cou n ties provided no dàta of use for Table 1.

^"^Tennessee, Code (Meigs and Cooper, 1858), sec. 2030; Fogel and Engerman, Time on the Cross, vol. I , p. 76. 30 4-8 F a y e tte v ille Obse rv e r, January 23, 1862; Athens Post, i.iaroh 7, 1862; (Greeneville) Banner, October 24, 1862; ulley, Southern Je^roes, pp. 37-90; Fogel and Engerman, Time on the Cross, vol. I, pp. 36-39. 49 Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen, pp. 1, lj>, finds to the contrary that slave resistance increased in Confederate Louisiana. CHAPTER II

THE MASTER AND SLAVE RELATIONSHIP AFTER FEDERAL OCCUPATION

Federal forces invaded Tennessee in February of

1862, and by the end of the next year they had occupied practically all of the state. The army operated widely through the state but placed garrisons in relatively few tov/ns. While a comrrdtment to preserve slavery always lim ­ ited Confederate infringements on the institution, a con­ quering enemy need not respect anything but what it chose to respect. Although Fédérais rarely interfered directly with the master and slave relationship during the early stages of the military occupation, some slaves immediately began to subvert the institution, initiating the great social change of the war. The Fédérais' mere presence served as a catalyst for the surfacing and spreading of slave disloyalty.”

Hot all slaves were disloyal to their masters during the war. Flora and Tenah brought th e ir owner a ll the money Fédérais paid them for washing clothes. Elisha stole a Federal saddle for a Confederate cavalryman who was related to his mistress. The same Confederate escaped cap­ ture several times after being alerted by his relatives'

31 32 slaves, All of these slaves voluntarily served their mas- 2 ters loyally when they could have acted differently.

The most fervently loyal slaves felt a strong per­ sonal attachment to their owners. The slaves of hi Hi am G.

Harding, one of the largest slaveholders in Tennessee, seem to have held a genuine affection for their paternalistic master, then the Fédérais imprisoned him, his slaves made unusual efforts to send him expressions of their concern and devotion. About 110 of the approximately 140 Harding slaves stayed faithful throughout the mar despite the plan- ta tio e 's closeness to Hashville, a major magnet fo r runaway slaves. Loyal slaves who belonged to small slaveholders sometimes felt like members of their owners' family. Hem.lett and three fellow slaves always ate and worked with th e ir rutherford County owner. Then Fédérais set fire to tho master's house, Ham.:ett sought revenge by surrepti­ tio u sly s tir rin g up a h o rn e ts' nest above the s o ld ie r s ' heads. In the wake of this incident the master showed more concern for Hammett's safety than for his own. Loyal slaves of Hammett's type viewed th e ir owners not only as 4 masters but also as friends.

The loyalty of some slaves may have derived from in te rn a liz in g proslavery norms to a large degree. Nancy, a slave on John French's barren County farm, cried and seemed ashamed when her son ran av ay. when the boy returned, she rejoiced not only to have him back but also to see her 35 master relieved from caring for the horses as "has' John ain't never been used to the like of that.Susanna, one of Harding's house slaves, wrote her imprisoned master that none of his slaves had yet "disgraced" themselves by running ay'ay. She did not think that any of them would leave unless "lured away with fa ls e hopes of equality and freedom." Susanna affirmed that the slaves' "true happi­ ness consisted in doing their duty and remaining in their former condition."^ Slaves may have mouthed such, proslav­ ery sentiments only because that was what the master wanted to hear. Still, most of Harding's and Hrench's slaves 7 behaved loyally throughout the war.

P r a ctica l considerations could either reinforce a s la v e ’s genuine loyalty to an owner or create a calculated loyalty in the absence of any other motivations. The faithful slave could usually count on receiving an adequate subsistence. Hany masters also permitted and aided th e ir sla v es to acquire at least a little personal property. One of Harding's s la v e s, for example, accumulated 385 through- his- own e ffo rts and his master's benevolence, - Some loyal slaves probably preferred to retain a familiar way of life with ixs known material benefits rather than to hazard the 3 uncertanties of a fugitive's life.

Slaves sometimes chose lo y a lty to th e ir masters over flight to the fédérais because of unpleasant exp eri­ ences w ith the bluecoats. The eagerness with which some 34 Union soldiers tried to separate slaves from their masters r as one source o f offense. Fédérais once enraged French's slaves by ridiculing them for not running away. Some Fed­

eral scouts passing through Fayette County committed an even brasher act. They ordered the young slave H enrietta to prepare herself to join their party upon their return.

The frightened H enrietta consulted her p aren ts, who sent her to their master. Æter the master securely hid her, she felt greatly relieved. The Federal army also engaged in the notorious practice of forcibly impressing slave laborers. To avoid impressment, one Lauderdale slave spent most of the war hiding w ith his master's stock in the Mis- sisippi River bottom lands, uhen tested, some slaves pre­ ferred to trust their familiar masters rather than the

r-t Northern strangers."

The Federal army gained a bad reputation during the war for theft and appropriation of goods from civilians.

Foraging expeditions sometimes took practically all of a plantation's food supply, leaving both masters and slaves to live on restricted diets. The most unscrupulous of thieving soldiers robbed slaves of such small but valued personal possessions as cooking utensils, blankets, and c l o t h e s . S t i l l worse, these Fédérais stole the few goods that slaves treasured. A slave family belonging to John

French suffered the heartsickening lo ss of the husband's

...unday hat and pants, the wife's silk apron, and a 35 daughter's pink tarleton party dress. It is no wonder that when one planter captured a looting soldier the aggrieved slaves severely beat the t h ie f .

Mischievousness or meanness sometimes motivated

Fédérais to abuse slaves in cruel ways. Male slaves on one plantation had to serve turns guarding the female hands from m olestation by Fédérais. A cavalry squad charged slaves working on a karren County farm and drove them from the fie ld s into the woods. In another case so ld iers forced a slave to entertain them by sin gin g a song derogating 1? blades. “ French's slave nancy became so afraid of the

Fédérais that she would work outdoors only when a child came along as a lookout. Many other slaves vould certainly agree -ith her assessment of the Fédérais as "blue 13 devils," In these slaves' minds the Federal army was th e ir enemy as well as their master's enemy.

Federal occupation created opportunities for slaves to choose be tv; een loyalty and disloyalty. Une secessionist mistress later tried to explain the slaves' decisions in terms of their personal virtue: "The best negroes, such as our lonry, to the end loved their Southern masters and had only scorn and contempt for 'dern po' white trash Yaji- kces.'"^4 Yet, Robert H. Cartmeil, a Madison County plan­ te r and Confederate sympathizer, noted in his wartime diary that the slave whom he considered the "best negro in the 1‘5 world" aeserted him. Personal virtue, unless equated )6

with the acceptance of proslavery values, really had

nothing to do with a slave's choice between loyalty and

disloyalty. Both loyal and disloyal slaves opted through

either cool calculation or an act of faith for the course

of actio 1 vhich they thought vould bring them the g reatest

good under the new circumstances. Because of their greater

impact on slavery's ultimate fate, the disloyal slaves will

receive much more attention than the loyal slaves in this

study.

hartime conditions aided slave disloyalty by

devitalizing some of the normal controls on slaves. Inten­

sive Confederate enlistments (7.9^ of all white males who

were six teen years of age or older in 1861] must have

either ended or sharply reduced the whites' numerical

su p erio rity in most ru ral neighborhoods. Local government

gradually lost most of its ability to discipline slaves

during federal occupation. In time the Fédérais' presence

also dissipated the heavy prewar odds against su ccessfu l

slave escapes from masters. Before the war some slaves had developed a strong

sense of self-esteem, had rejected proslavery norms, and then had to conceal their disloyal sentiments in order to

avoid trouble. A number of these sla v es believed that God had foreordained a millenial destruction of slavery in th e ir lifetime. The Civil Lar and the defeats suffered by

the Confederates provided a fitting apocalyptic s e ttin g for the expected Providential deliverance.A s a Federal

troop c a rrie r steamed up the Cumberland Fiver in early 1862,

the passengers saw about fifty slaves dancing on shore.

One slave sang:

Ü, praise and tanks.’ de Lord he come lO set de people free An' mass a tink i t day of doom, An ' we of ju b ile e .18

hhen the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry entered Nashville shortly

after its fall, slaves lined the streets shouting "'Bress

de Lord.' 'Loses am a comin to d elib er Is re l from bondage J ' 1 O Glory Kallelu j ah.'whenever the Fédérais arrived in a

neighborhood, slaves who had already liberated th e ir minds

were likely to attempt freeing their bodies as well by

running aw ay. 20

many slaves, p ossib ly most of them, had not devel­

oped an intense commitment against slavery before 1861.

Lartime experinces would spur the growth of independent-

mindedness among a number of them. The c e n tra lity of slav ­

ery among the w ar's issu e s played an important role in this

development. By chance or by stealth some slaves overheard

th e ir owners repeat the Confederate propaganda charge that

the North was fighting to free the slaves. Thus informed,

slaves often took th is news as literal truth. After the

Federal government did make emancipation a war aim, most

slaves learned sooner or later that they might gain freedom PI from a Northern victory." Slaves sometimes observed that the fédérais' approach frightened masters. Some slaveholders even aban- 2^’ doned their slaves and fled southward. unce the féd érais arrived, slaves saw the soldiers exercise their aresome power. Sarly in the federal occupation of Nashville a slave caught several soldiers pilfering his owner's garden and told one of them "I'se guino tar tell Sarse Charles."

2he federal stunned the slave by replying "Damn your i.iarse

Charles. V, hat do I care?"^^ The soldier knew full well that few civilians would dare to interfere with the armed and uniformed depredators. Before the slaves’ eyes their masters' former omnipotence fizzled into impotence. This spectacle, like knowledge of the war's issues or the exam­ ple of other slaves' flight, could corrode a slave's prior accommnodation to slavery.

Expecting freedom and knowing about th e ir m asters' weakness, disloyal slaves began to demonstrate an hostility toward the in s titu tio n th at bound them. Their resp ectfu l demeanor and servile obedience disappeared. Some of them stole extra food or other goods from th e ir owners. Under the cover of night several Montgomery County slaves stoned 24- their master's house, breaking all the windows. Robert H.

Cartmeil, like many other owners of disloyal slaves, bit­ terly complained about the change in their behavior;

To one born and raised in the South oc accustomed to keeping the Sons of Ham in their proper place, the impudence of these Negroes is hard to endure. They are entirely corrupted,25 39

The disloyal slaves applied peer pressure to the loyal slaves. On Rebeccah Ridley's Rutherford County farm only three of the slaves were "perfectly faithful . . . à yet they are unhappy." une of the 'oyal slaves developed a drinking problem because of his strained relations with the dissidents." One of Robert h. Cartmeil’s slaves,

Raster, continued to serve him faithfully despite the refusal of the other remaining slaves to work, finally after several months of solitary service, "Easter became insulted at something Eary 0 ane /Cartmeil's wife/ said to her th is morning and failed to come over to get d in n e r."

Cartmeil concluded that Easter "intends quitting the busi­ ness." That night a number of blacks met at Easter's cabin

9 7 and celebrated her conversion. ' Disloyalty sometimes developed slov'ly but it spread contagiously to all who lacked the immunity of adamant lo y a lty .

bhen slaves reached an advanced stage of disloyalty, they often ran away. Attempts by masters to d is c ip lin e disloyal slaves became counterproductive, especially if federal troops in the locality admitted fugitive slaves through the lines. After the Fédérais occupied .Williamson

County, an elderly master fo o lish ly decided to whip a teen ­ age slave for poor work. The young man "refuse /sic/ to be corrected by me, jerked me down, I being very weak, and P P then took the ecc and started o ff." Even the th re at of punishment could cause slaves to run away, since d islo y a lty 40

axid an opportunity for escape had sharply reduced their tolerance for slavery's harsher aspects."^

Some slaves ran away only when they feared that they or their loved ones would f a l l back under the Confed­ erates' governance. One woman fled with her children the night after she discovered that their master intended to send the youngsters through Confederate lines for sale in

Georgia. Federal withdrawal from an area frequently touched off a mass exodus of slaves. The fleeing slaves feared that the advancing Confederates would impress them, remove them to the deep South, or even k i l l them. Since the disloyal slaves had rejected sla v ery , they both dreaded SO and detested the forces of the proslavery Confederacy.

Disloyal slaves sometimes talked hesitant associ­ ates into fleeing '-’ith them. Charlie, a teenage slave in

Davidson County, remained loyal during part of the war because he distrusted the Fédérais. Charlie had an older brother J e ff, who had once received a severe whipping for a prewar escape attempt and who had consequently fled to the

Fédérais very early in the war. After about a year’s absence Jeff returned for Charlie. The runav.'ay explained to his brother that the Fédérais neither harmed fu g itiv e slaves nor returned them to th e ir m asters, but instead the army permitted them to obtain paying jobs. Jeff's argu­ ments convinced Charlie to flee with his brother to the bl Fédérais. 41

Slaves left their masters in some cases because of

federal interference with the institution. One day a

Sumner County slaveholder and his slaves were standing

beside a road watching federal troops march past, iui offi­

cer, who wanted a servant, asked a slave to come along with

the soldiers. The slave promply joined the moving column without even a backrward glance, while his master repeatedly

but in effectiv ely ordered him to return. Sometimes fé d é r­

ais forcibly liberated slaves belonging to planters whom

the soldiers considered notorious secessionists. The Féd­

érais could also indirectly cause slaves to leave their

masters by appropriating all of a plantation's food supply.

The slaves in such cases might have to desert their owner in order to find a new source of subsistence.^^ The ruling m ilitary power could easily wreaic havoc upon slavery i f i t chose to use its might in that way.

Hegardless of the immediate reason for the depar­ ture, most runaways evidently felt a fundamental attraction to freedom. This desire superseded friendship for a master, m aterial comforts w ithin slavery, and memories of m istreat- ment at Federal hands. The lure of freedom attracted slaves without regard to age or sex. ühen a Federal advised a very elderly fugitive to return home because the soldier doubted that the black could survive on his own at his age, "the old man replied that if he lived only one 34 day . . . he would liv e th at day a free man.” In another 42 case a mistress discovered that her slave boy Joel had fled to the Federal camp in. Murfreesboro, when she confronted the child, he stubbornly declared: "I intend to stay and go to school ÜC be f r e e ." ilfter the owner fin a lly abandoned her efforts to dissuade Joel, the boy shouted in parting:

"goodbye—don't you ever come back here for me— joy go with you.

Fugitives sometimes sought to secure their success­ ful entry into a free life by ste a lin g their master's prop­ erty. Some of them took horses or mules to speed th e ir flig h t. n few took weapons to defend themselves from pur­ suers. Others showed forethought about future financial difficulties. One advertisement for a fugitive slave noted 37 that the subject left with "plenty of .money," and Fed­ era l officials at Clarksville once returned a valuable 38 string of pearls to a runaway's mistress. Jifter the war a unionist slaveholder commented that:

Negroes thought, as we did not pay them anything, th at had a right tc help themselves. ±nd they are about half right. The only trouble is^that they do not always adjust the account right.39

Attempted escape sometimes involved grave risks. A slave named Richard ran away in midwinter because he could no longer endure his master's cruelty. Richard's feet became so badly frostbitten that they had to be amputated.

The fugitive slave could suffer in,jury from other persons as well as from nature. Several whites captured one female runavray , raped her, end then sold her back into slavery. 43 Some fugitives came to an even worse fate, death at the 40 hands of angry pursuers.

Runaways who successfully escaped their masters did

not always find satisfaction in th e ir new liv e s . Some

experienced so many difficulties in surviving or in dealing with the fédérais that they returned to their owners. A portion of these slaves became very loyal after th e ir unfortunate experiences with freedom. One such slave in

Montgomery County exerted a great influence in keeping his

owners' other slaves faithful. This slave wept when a fed­

eral impressment patrol later took him away from his master.

Other returned runaways remained discontented with slavery.

These slaves refused to behave in a servile fashion, argued w ith th e ir owners, and sometimes ran away again. Unless the returned slave behaved very submissively, that s la v e 's relationship with the master grew even more strained.^-

Slave disloyalty took other forms besides running away from the master, disloyal slaves who stayed w ith secessionist owners sometimes aided their owners' federal enemies. Some helped foraging fédérais find goods their masters had hidden. Several Shelby County slaves once saved a quantity of cotton from being burned by Confederate guerrillas. A slave who belonged to a Confederate d ra ft agent revealed his master's hiding place to a federal arresting party. Although some disloyal sla v es preferred not to risk leaving th e ir masters, they often assisted the 44 i'ederals in secret or under the appearance of being , 42 coerced.

Slaves frequently reported military information to the fédérais. In one scout's opinion, "they seem to know evry /siç 7 thing and are p retty shrewd too.Of course, like any intelligence source, slaves also brought in insig­ nificant and inaccurate data. The slaves' reports never seem to have caused any great Federal blunders or victories, but they did help to keep Federal commanders posted on Con- LA federate troop movements and guerrilla activities.^ Fed­ eral commanders occasionally encouraged slave informants by offering them protection or monetary rewards. Regardless of the inducement, th is form of slave d islo y alty repre­ sented a direct betrayal of the secessionist owner’s cause if not a betrayal of the owner himself. Confederate guer­ rillas executed at least one slave suspected of giving 4P information to the Fédérais.

Another form which slave disloyalty took was the subversion of the work discipline. Disloyal slaves refused to obey overseers or to submit to punishment. They spent th e ir time however and wherever they wished in the neigh­ borhood. Taking full advantage of the situation, some dis­ loyal slaves quit working entirely yet continued to subsist at th e ir owners' expense. Other slaves struck to end the slave labor system, using à refusal to work, threats of running away, or an incriminating knowledge of th e ir 45 ov/ners ' pro-Confederate activities to bargain for nev/ work­

ing conditions.Confrontations with disloyal slaves over

their terms for returning to work caused greater anguish

for the masters than the silent flight of other slaves.

Committed slaveholders, like Robert R. Cartmell, stead­ fastly refused to make any concessions to the slaves. In

Cartmell's case all of his slaves eventually left except

one who capitulated. John Houston B ills began as adamant as Cartmell did but could not persevere, rills turned the first slave who refused to work over to federal o fficers who were impressing slave laborers. A year later when he threatened to take another idle slave to the fédérais, the slave replied that she would jump off his wagon and run back to the plantation.rills sadly realized that "we have not the power to control them.

Bargaining slaves prim arily wanted some form of compensation for their work. Sometimes they also called for more free time or the elimination of overseer sup ervi­ sion . -i labor shortage, which the runaways had caused in rural areas, strengthened the negotiating position of the remaining disloyal slaves. Bills finally yield ed in 1364 to his slaves' pressure by giving them the use of small plots for growing their own food and cotton crops, himrod

P o rter, a unionist p lanter in Maury County, also had. to allot his slaves private patches in 1864. Porter refused to grant their other demand to have Saturdays as a holiday 46 from work. The hands twice protested th is decision by refusing to work on Saturdays, but because of Porter's obstinacy they dropped the issue. The next winter Porter made some further concessions. He paid slaves for proces­ sing his apples and offered them half of the sales proceeds whenever they hauled firewood into Columbia. In other instances slaves forced their masters in to paying them reg-

0 u la r wages or a share of the crop.^' Slaves who exercised the privileges of free laborers were slaves only in name.

The coerced masters bitterly resented their predic­ ament. Ironically, they f e lt exploited by their slaves.

Rebeocah Ridley wrote; "I can not drive them off and yet

Uhey want me to pay them for a ll they do and support them too. Thinking along proslavery lines, Bills concluded that "not one in a dozen rill make a living without the la sh ." '^ At the end of 1864 he felt cheated by the slaves on one of his plantations who had produced only th irteen small bales of cotton for him and six large ones for them­ selves: "iVIatters tru ly discouraging--negro slavery of no 52 value, but much expense.

On the other hand, a few slaveholders underwent a change of heart and voluntarily entered into compensatory agreements with their slaves. In 1864 Joseph 3, hillebrew of Montgomery County began to pay his adult slaves a gener­ ous annual wage (0200 for a man and 096-0120 fo r a woman plus room and board in both cases}. In the sarnie year a 47

Shelby County p lan ter offered his slaves half of the crop.

James P. Lyon had gone even fu rth er in 1863 by dividing his mad is on County p lantation into tenant farms for his slaves.Vthen Killebrew reminisced about the transition to the new labor system, he observed:

I got along with my hands much better than I expected. . . . They soon learned that I did not taice advantage of them, but a long time elapsed before they ceased to aporehend th at they would be cheated out of th e ir w a g e s .54

Jim, one of Killebrew's slaves, frequently asked for small amounts of money. At the end of the year Jim became angry when he received only S75 instead of the f u ll wage of J200. thinking in terms of Killebrew's former paternalism, Jim had viewed the small wage advances as g i f t s . Killebrew prevented the recurrence of th is problem by giving each slave a notebook in which he recorded paid wages. The emancipationist masters and their slaves gen erally found great satisfaction in th e ir new relationship as employers axiC. employees. Although these slaves had not become d is ­ loyal, their masters had been convinced by the d islo y a lty 55 of neighooring slaves that the time had come for change.

The ra re st form of slave d islo y a lty was violence.

Some Tennessee secessionists claimed to fear that slave rebellions would break out after the Federal invasion.

They contended that the Northerners would unscrupulously encourage insurrections in order to win the war. These charges probably amounted to nothing more than 48

conventionalized expressions of hatred for the enemy.

Practically no slave revolts occurred in the South during

the C ivil V.ar. Cne h isto ria n , <;oe Gray Taylor, has called

this fact a major historical problem.^7 hut the presump­ tio n that the slaves should have responded to civil war by rebelling represents a simplistic and narrow view of human behavior. Disloyal slaves could and did assert themselves in a variety of ways. Insurrection was but one alternative and one fraught with formidable danger.

Effective deterrents remained to prevent in su rrec­ tio n by those slaves who might otherwise have chosen th at course of action. The presence of loyal slaves in the slave community and the masters' p ra ctice of regarding informants had alwai's made conspiracy dangerous. Legal restrictions on the slaves' possession of arms placed a major obstacle in the way of would-be insurrectionaries. additionally, their deficiencies in military training and organization would have made them a poor match for an army.

3y all indications both the Confederate and fed era l armies would have mercilessly crushed any slave uprising within th e ir reach. Tennessee blacks were fu lly aware of these difficulties."® liS one told a Federal scout, "Dis dark'y tinks a heap ob his life, he does, lias sa. It'n 'bout a ll hem g o t. . . . No, I hadn't no coward, iiassa; but I loikes C Q _ a chance, Massa, a right smart chance." in the presence of Federal troops slaves generally did not need to use 49 violence to gain freeûon. A handful of slaves did vio­ lently defend themselves while en route to the fédérais.

A few other slaves killed or attempted to kill their mas­ ters in acts of personal revenge. Liost of the slaves who were willing to use violence against slavery did so, not by cesparate or irrational acts, but by enlisting in the fed- 60 era! army.

Because the war created unusual problems for the effective control of slaves, some masters turned to special tactics. Slaveholders particularly tried to poison the slaves' minds against the fédérais. Some owners tried to keep slaves loyal by describing the fédérais as frightening monsters. The twelve-year-old slave Betty learned from her mistress that the fédérais had horns, long canine teeth, and cow-like eyes. Since Betty affectionately served as nurse for her mistress' two babies, the mistress also said that the fédérais would kill the children upon discovering their names. The female secessionist had named her off­ spring Sterling Price and Susie Beeureguard in honor of two

Confederate generals, .hhile the mistress was absent one day, a passer-by asked Betty many questions about the farm and its owners. As his appearance did not fit her precon­ ceived image of a fe d e ra l, Betty answered a ll of his que­ ries including one about the infants’ names. The stranger later returned with a number of blue-clad soldiers to sack the farm. If nothing more, the monster stories hurt the 50 tellers' credibility when the real Fédérais arrived.

ihe propaganda which masters fed slaves sometimes took more plausible forms. Some owners told slaves that the Fédérais intended to k i l l all black and white Southern­ ers as a war measure. Other masters insisted that the Féd­

érais would cru elly overwork captured slaves, a story made more credible when the Fédérais began impressing slave laborers. After one Federal officer on a South Carolina

Sea Island unsuccessfully attempted to send some fugitive slaves to Cuba for sale, slaveholders portrayed this excep­ tional. incident as standard Federal policy, ’while some slaves believed these tales, others did not.^ Izfter the

Fédérais' arrival a few gullible slaves continued to fear the soldiers, but others f e lt as the slave who said: "1 thought you must be downright heathens, but you are real good-looking people and don't seem to do nobody no harm.

Some m asters continued to use religion, just as they had before the war, in th e ir efforts to prevent slave disloyalty. Yhey sometimes held sp e c ia l religious services for the slaves, white preachers would exhort the slaves to serve their masters faithfully and obediently. The minis­ ters also led the slaves in prayers for the North's defeat and slavery's preservation. Late at night, however, some slaves secretly held their own religious meetings during which they prayed for the Fédérais' success. 51 Federal occupation increasingly threatened slavery

as the Federal government moved toward a policy of emanci­

pation, Some ovmers trie d to deal with th is development by

telling their slaves that the Fédérais spoke only deluding

lies. One slave heard the possibility of emancipation 65 denied so many times that he "hardly expected it." Yet,

these denials failed to stop the flow of runaway slaves

through Federal lines. Other owners considered silence to

be a much better strategy. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln

shocked slaveholders with a Preliminary Emancipation Pro­

clamation which promised to free all slaves in rebellious

areas on January 1, 1863. Sarah Kennedy of Clarksville

feared that her slaves might learn about the proclamation:

I feel , . . quite anxious sometimes, at' the events whicii are likely to take place the first of January. I give no evidence to the servants, that I am^looking for any excitement, and they have shown n o n e .^ 6

John Houston Bills also decided to say nothing about the

proclamation in front of his slaves. Believing that this

tactic had succeeded, he boasted on Nev/ fear's Day that

"They do not perceive that they are free by Lincoln's pro­

clamation. Bills v/as mistaken in at least one respect,

for the Final Emancipation Proclamation exempted several

Federally occupied areas including Tennessee.

Some slaves in Tennessee did learn about the pro­

clamations and covertly spread the knowledge. The informed

slaves realized that the Federal government openly opposed

slavery even though it had not freed them.°^ As Robert H. 52 Cartmell complained, "The states excepted are the very

places where it /the proclamation? i s binding, where i t is 6 1 felt. " ' ■ I'he masters' inability to keep all slaves igno­

rant of the fédérais' shift toward emancipation seriously

harmed the in stitu tio n .

Besides th e ir attempts to control the slaves' minds,

slaveholders also resorted to special methods of physical

control during the war. The most successful of a ll ta c tic s

for controlling slaves was their removal to areas far

behind Confederate lines. When the Fédérais' arrival was

imminent, slaves sometimes refused to leave home. The mas­

te r then had to muster a sufficient amount of force or else

abandon the disloyal slaves. Only by keeping the slaves well away from the Federal occupation zone could the mas- 70 ters secure their authority from probable impairment.

After federal occupation began, some masters tried

to prevent the spread of disloyalty among their slaves by- s e llin g she most troublesome individuals, wen though no federal commander ever prohibited slave sales, owners

rarely dared to sell their slaves openly. The deed books

of the sample counties used in compiling Table 1 record 71 very few slave sales after federal occupation. Because of the Northerners' alleged abolitionism, popular opinion in Tennessee held that the féd érais would not to le r a te slave s a le s . One Williamson County owner wanted to s e ll a recalcitrant slave but feared incarceration or even death 53 at the Fédérais' hands if caught. After telling his, neigh­

bors that he was sending the slave to a relative, he

secretly transported her behind Confederate lines for sale 7? instead. Another master who wanted to sell his slaves

held similar anxieties; "I desire this whole matter, for

reasons of a strong character, to be conducted with the

utmost secresy /sic7, until a trad.e is completed. "

Slaveholders who were determined to re ta in p osses­

sion and control of all their slave property often resorted

to force, masters could keep slave children simply by

locking them in the house, but no easy method existed for

preventing the flight of adults. Owners recovered some

runa;,''ays through dogged pursuit or the hired services of

kidnappers. In a few cases, infuriated masters killed

recaptured slaves. Most owners probably gave unsuccessful

fugitives a severe whipping in stead . Some had to confine

their recaptured sla v es in the county jail because of the

slaves' obvious determination to flee again, one devious

master had an obstinate runaway jaile d for eight weeks on a

minimal diet, weakening the slave to the point that he

could never make another escape attempt. Ultimately only

extremely harsh measures could control disloyal sla v e s.

Masters who used force to control their disloyal

sla v es had to talee care not to antagonize the Fédérais.

The sight of brutality could cause military intervention by

activating sectionalistic sentiments, sympathy for the 54 victim, or concern for civil order. In one case, soldiers interfered with a prominent Nashville unionist's attempt to subdue one of his runaway slaves. Hanson M. Brien, the unionist, had seized the slave as she left a hi act church service. He succeeded after much struggling in removing her to his nearby home, but a black crowd composed la rgely of other runaways followed the pair. Hien Brien began to whip the woman, only the timely arrival of a provost guard prevented the hostile crowd from becoming violent. Ihe guard arrested Brien and took him to the acting provost marshal. This of ic e r released Brien with the warning that

"the time has passed when negroes would be whipped in this country." In several other parts of the state fédérais occasionally prevented masters from whipping slaves or 77 recapturing fu g itiv es. Despite the- variety of special tactics that slav e­ holders u tilis e d , nothing could insure that th e ir slaves would re.nain loyal during federal occupation. The appear­ ance and growth of slave disloyalty during the war shocked the m asters. John Houston Bills, a paternalistic ovmer, could not comprehend "the very strange infatuation" which caused some of his sla v es to seek freedom and forsake mate­ rial comfort. It seemed im possible to Henry Craft of

Memphis that a supposedly God-ordained institution could ever end:

I believe too that a very large number of the negroes will not accept their freedom 1 that by one name or 55 another, pretty much'the old relations will be re-established.79

Proslavery theories had poorly prepared masters for trau­ matic wartime experiences with slave disloyalty.

Disloyalty sliced a chasm dov n the middle of what had once been a personal relationship. Upon returning to his ..'emphis home a fte r a long absence, the Episcopalian

Bishop fames K. ütey discovered that his slaves had appro­ priated half of his furniture and clothing, otey first lectured them on "the destructive views into which their 80 new-born lio e rty would lead them." he then announced th at they could leave if they really thought that they could live b etter outside of his care. To the Bishop's surprise all of his slaves decided to depart. Disillu­ sioned m asters, like ütey, felt little sorrow or sympathy when disloyal sla v es left. A few even drove the unfaithful Ü 1 slaves off the premises.

Both sides of a d e te rio ra tin g master and slave relationship felt aggrieved by the other side, .-/hen fédér­ ais liberated the slaves on one layette County plantation, an elderly female slave scolded her master in the so ld ie r s' presence for past abuses of his slaves. Robert In.

Cartmell's disloyal slaves once convinced a federal pur­ suit party that their master was probably responsible for the abduction of a, fugitive slave from the soldiers' op camp. " The innocent Cartmell spoke for many masters of disloyal slaves when he later wrote "That th is war has 56 demonstrated one fact: That the negroes generall.y v;culd betray their masters v/hen an opportunity presented it- self.he tried to insulate himself emotionally and physically from his slaves' disloyalty: "1 never go about them, . . . shall have nothing to do with any of them so 34 long as I can not control them." ühile masters might view their disloyal slaves as traitors and ingrates, the same slaves might look upon their masters as exploiters and abusers. V. hen the bond of personal allegiance broke, the PC institution became unworkable. ^

Federal occupation had created a situation which promoted structural damage to slavery by interfering with the owners' ability to manage and care for their slaves.

In other words, it prevented the slaveholders from ful­ filling their role as masters. Taking advantage of this situation, a number of slaves tried to improve their status eith e r by securing compensation f r o : th e ir owners or by leaving th e ir owners for employment elsewhere. The d is­ loyal slaves' re je c tio n of th e ir role as slaves added a new dimension to the Civil war's social conflicts. Because these slaves actively supported the Fédérais, the occupying army rarely interfered with their disloyalty and sometimes even encouraged it. Thinking in proslavery ab solu tes, most masters responded with moral indignation against the dis­ loyal slaves and the Fédérais, however, the deterioration of master and slave relationships made at least one 57

Confederate sympathizer, henry Craft, to doubt his cause:

If we adopt the theory that God intended the war to free the slaves, a ll the phenomena o.f the war harmo­ nize 'i fall in with it most wonderfully. . . . I once thought that Divine interposition would be for its preservation . . . allowing perhaps much su fferin g dc punishment to the South in retribution for the abuses which have been allowed to attend the institution.86

Because disloyalty was ,a state of mine., its extent among Tennessee slaves can not be precisely quantified.

One external manifestation of disloyalty, running away from the master, is measurable. Federal records detail the num­ ber of blacks living in the army's camps for co itrabands

(the colloquial military designation for fugitive slaves) and in several urban centers at the end of the war. Also,

he army reported the final total of blacks who enlisted in P7 Tennessee during the war. Bach of these figures undoubt- ly contains minorities of free blacks and of fugitive slaves from other states. The August figures for Memphis and hashville may include s few individuals who had liv ed in contraband camps during June. Ml the urban figures would include slaves who were loyal during the war, but contemporary sources indicate that these were few.'^ Sta­ t i s t i c s are not available for the numbers of d islo y a l Ten­ nessee slaves who fle d into other states, lived in contra­ band ghettos in Tennessee’s other towns, travelled with the army, stayed with their masters, or died during the war.

The final total in Table 2 represents about 2CÇs of the slaves in Tennessee, but the qualifications attached to 58 TABLE 2

AVAILABLE NUMERICAL DATA ÜE TEÜHE8S3E CONTRABANDS

Blacks in Contraband Camps (July 1, 1865y 7,1^1

Blacks outside the Contraband Camps Memoh i8 (August 18, 1865 J 15,823 Nashville (rugust 10, 1865; 10,744 Chattanooga (November 6, 1865j 2 ,657 29,229 Black Enlistees (April, 1363-June, 1355; 20,155

Total 56,513

this figure prevent it from serving as an accurate estimate of slave disloyalty.

whatever the actual extent of disloyalty vas,

Table 2 indicates that it affected a significant portion of

Tennessee's slave population, hac the Fédérais garrisoned more localities, slave disloyalty almost certainly v/ould have been more extensive since the army's presence fostered open black assertiveness. As Robert H. Cartmell observed,

Negroes have everything in th e ir hands and they know it . surrounded and protected as they are by Federal so l­ d iers. As many as see proper can walk off & there is no remedy.89

The growth of slave disloyalty undermined and even tu ally helped to kill Southern hopes for a proslavery nation. 59 Püorwoïas ^ûther studies of the master azid slave relationship during the war describe incidents and attitudes very simi­ lar to those discussed in this chapter. See Edmund L. ûrago, "How Sherman's Earch through Georgia Affected the S la v e s, " Georgia Historical Quarterly, LVIl (Eall, 1973 j, pp. 361-365; Du Sois, Black Reconstruction, chap. 4; Eau.l D. Escott, "ihe Content of freedom: Georgia’s Slaves during the Civil war," Georgia Historical Quarterly, LVIII (Spring, 1374), pp. 79-105; Genovese, Roll, Jordan. Roll, pp. 97-113, 149-155; Litwack, "free at Last," passim; Ripley, Slaves and freedmen, chap. 1; Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction, chap. 4; V

^^rench Diary, August 10, 17, 1362.

%usenna to L.G. Harding, August 25, 1862, in i.tiller, ed. , "Dear master," p. 90. 7 Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, pp. 130-133, argues that wartime sla v e loyalty resu lted from slaves' acceotance 60

of mutual obligation ’-ithin a paternalistic relationship. E sc o tt, "Oontext of Freedom," pp. Ü5-90, holds that loyalty sprang neither from thé internalization of proslavery norms nor from personal attachments but instead from a pragmatic assessment of the alternatives. Rose, Rehearsal fo r Recon­ struction. pp. 129-136, contends that expressions of lo y ­ a lty arose from personal attachments and the internaliza­ tion of servile behavior patterns (rather than proslavery norms}.

^Elizabeth larding to ,/.G. Harding, June 29, 1362, xiarding-Jacks on Papers; V iley, Southern Regroes, p. 83. g French Diary, Jugust 31, 1362; "Arkansas .larra- tiv e s," pt. 4, pp. 196, 273, in vol. 9 of Hawick, e d ., American Slave; B ills Diary, October 20, 1862.

^^Sarah Ridley Trimble, e d ., "Behind the Lines in iiddle Tennessee, 1863-1865: The Journal of Betty Ridley Dlackmore," IhG, aII (march, 1953), p. 52; Li.G. Owen to Laura Owen, March 17, 1363, in Enock L. mitchell, ed., "Letters of a Confederate Surgeon in the Army of Tennessee to His h'ife, " THG, V (march, 1946), p. 81; Bills Diary, October 2, 1362; The Federal w riters Project of the Dorks Progress Administration, "Oklahoma n arra tiv es," p. 74, in vol. 7 of Hawick, ed., American Slave.

"^French Diary, April 25, 1863; Porter Diary, Larch 25, November 12, 1864.

^-^Bills Diary, October 2, 1362; Hawick, ed. , Aaeri- can SIave, vol. 7, n. 361; French Diary, August 31, 1362)

French Diary , August 17, 1862.

"‘^Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Recollections of 92 Years 1824-1916 (Rashville, 1958), p. 64."

^"Cartmell Diary, December 13, 1362.

^^G ivil V. ar Centennial Commission of Tennessee, Tennesseans in the Civil ^»ar (2 vols., Rashville, 1964), vol. I, p. 1; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census: __ Popula­ tion, on. 592-593. See Chapter III for the military occu­ pation's effect on local government and the slave code. 17 Hawick, e d ., American S lave, vol. IS, p. 259; Henry H. y,right, A History of the Sixth Iowa Infantry (Iowa City, la., 1923), p. 169.

^®T.J. .rright, History of the Eighth Regiment Ren- tucky Volunteer Infantry (St. Joseph, i.io., 1830), p. 42. 61 19 T.i'. Liornblaser, Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylva­ n ia Dragoons in the 1 ar of 1861-65 ^Philadelphia, 1234;, p. 53. -^Cartmell Jiary, August 14, 1362; Bills Diary, July 50, 1362; P orter Diary, August 10, 1062; Chap. John iaton to Lt. Col. John A. Rawlins, .'upril 29, 1863 (here­ a fte r cited as Eaton 1863 Report), AJiC, f ile VI, p. 14. p-| “ Raviok, ed., American Slave, vol. IB, pp. 4, 5 9, 113, 219; Wiley, Southern Negroes, p. 16 (see the informa­ tio n from the Bishop Isaac Lane interview ); Louis Hughes, I'hirty Years a Slave: Prom Bondage to freed om (iviilwaiikee, h is ., 1897)', p. 114. 22i'he fed era l v/riters Project of the Dorks Progress Administration, "Tennessee N arratives," pp. 33., 63, in vol. 16 of Hawick, e d ., American Slave; nughes. Thirty Y ears, p. 193.

"^1/Iay Winston Caldwell, A Chanter from the Life of a Little Girl of the Confederacy' (Nashville, n.d.), p. 10. Also see french Diary, June 15, 1862.

-^ B ills Diary, J%ly 30, 1362; Joseph E. Washington to Jane Washington, February 9, 1865 , Washington family Papers, TSLA; Sgrah Kennedy to her husband, August 10, 1363, Sarali Ann (Bailey) Kennedy Papers, TSLA; Trimble, ed., " .cehind the Lines," pp. 62-63; John hick Barker Diary, Jan­ uary 27, August 21-22, 1864, Clarksville Public Library, C1 arks v i l l e , Tenn .

-^Cartmell Diary, November 13, 1862.

“°Trimble, e d ., "nehincl the Lines," pp. 62-63, 79. -ilso see the Police Recorder Court Report in Nashville Diso a tc h , June 17, 1364.

“^Cartmell Diary, December 13, 1862, Mai’ch 23, 1363.

“®Jesse Cox Diary, April 17, 1362, TSLA»

^^Laton 1863 Report, APYC, f i l e VI, p. 12; u illiam „. Simeons, Men of mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising (Cleveland, 1887), p. 362.

^'^Indieaia Yearly Meeting's Executive Committee for the Relief of Colored Preedmen, Report (Richmond, I n d ., 1664), p. 58; Cartmell Diary, June 7, 1363; B ills Diary, September 2, 1862, June 1-9, 1863; Waddell Diary, Decem­ ber 16, 1862; Porter Diary, August 13, 1863, December 16, 1364; Eaton 1863 Report, ABIC, f i l e VI, p. 12. 62 31 Social Science institute, i'lsk University, God Struck Me Dead: Religions Gonversion Experiences end Aiito- bio^ranhies of Negro Ex-Slaves Tk'ashville, 124: j, pp. 104, 109-llt, in vol. 10 of Hav/ick, ed., Anarican Slave. id.so see baton 1863 Report, A?1G, file vl, p. 12.

^^Silber F. Rinnan, Ihe Story of the Shornan 3ri- aade (Alliance, Ch., 1897J, p. 260; Bills Diary, October 20, 25 , 1362; h alter I. Carpenter Diary, January I'p 1064, Ohio H isto rical Center, Columbus, Ohio.

33Eaton 1363 Report, JblC, file VI, p;o. 12-13; hrs. De Moville testimony , n .d ., BRIG, f il e VII, p. 56; Rav/ick, ed., Icier i c an SI ave, vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 133.

^^hdward I. Gilliams to ?, January 13, 1363, in Edv; ard 1. v. i 11 iams , Extracts from L etters to GB3T (Rev: York , 19033, p. 46.

Trimble, ed., "Behind the Lines," pp. 70-71.

^^Eaton 1363 Report, jJlC, f i l e VI, p. 15; B ills Diary, Ini gust 2-3, 1862; P orter Diary, Ici. gust 20, 1863; B elle Edmondson Diary, February 15, 1364, Southern H isto r i­ cal Collection, University of Rorth Carolina Library, Chapel Rill, B.C.,

^^Chattanooga Rebel, June 23, 1363.

^®Lyman Abbott, Reminiscences (New York, 1923), 249. ^\bid. 4^S.E. Griffith to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. F isk, September 18, 1865, Registered LR by the Assistant Commis­ sion er for Kentucky and Tennessee, RC- 105, NA; "Arkansas N a rratives," p t. 5, p. 297, in vol. 10 of Rawick, e d ., American Slave; Levi C offin, Reminiscences (3rd ed., Cincinnati, 1898j, p. 630.

Killebrev;, "Recollections of My Life: An Autobiography," (2 vols., 1896-97, typscript at TSLA), vol. I, no. 184-185; Bills Diary, October 23, 1862, Sentem- ber 22, 24, 186;.

^^Rinman, Sherman Brigade, pp. 403-404; John Fitch, Annals of the Army of the Cumberland (Lhi 1 ad e 1 phi a, 1863), p. 617; Col. J.Vi. Bissell to Col. Hillyn, January 5 , 1363, LR by the Department of the Tennessee, RG 393, RA; James Larson, Sergeant Larson (San Antonio, Tex., 1935), p. 170. 6] ‘^^Iheoclore Upson, V. ith Sherman to th e Sea, ed. by Oscar Osburn winter (naton Rouge, La., 194?J*, p. 73.

^^Ibid.; Elvira J. r'owers, Hospital Rencilings: Leinr a Diary (Boston, 1866), pp. 116-118"{October 14, 1864); Edward C. Downs, The Great American Scout and S'oy, "General Bunker" (3rd ed., New York, 1370), pp. 1^-62, 109- 111, 126; George H. Thomas Journal, i.iay 1, Eugust 31, 1363, Gx'L; U.S. Grant to Henry Halleck, April 27, 1862, in John Y. Simon et al,, eds., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant vols, to date, Carbondale, 111., 1067-J, vol. V, p. 86; Quarles, Negro in the Civil U ar, pp. 78-91.

Grant to John Ù McClernand, April 27, 1362, in S imen et al., eds.. Papers of Grant, vol. Ÿ, p. 87; OR, ser. 1, vol. 171, pt. 2, p% 269; OR, ser. 2, vol. IV, p. 291; Cartmell Diary, February 21, 1365.

'^°Bills Diary, August 21, September 23, October 17, 1863; Trimble, e d ., "Behind the Lines," pp. 62-63, 77-73; ••/iley. Southern Negroes, p. 76; ibin Eentress to Andrew Johnson, November 5, 1864, Andrew Johnson Papers, Library of Congress; Simmons, Sen of Lark, p. 241.

George L. Stearns testimony, n.d., AEIC, file VII, p. 57; Cartmell Diary, July 14, 1863, February 21, 1864; B ills D iary, August 15, 1862, September 24, 1863.

4^Bill8 Diary, October 7, 1863. ^^Trimble, ed., "Behind the Lines," pp. 77-79; Cartmell Diary, Liarch 12, June 16, 1863; Bills Diary, Sep­ tember 22, October 14, 1964; Porter Diary, iiay 7, 28, June 25, December 39, 1864, January 13, 1865; W. Bosson to nrig. Gen. Lorenzo Thomas, January 27, 1864, LR by M ju tan t General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, HA.

^^Trimble, ed., "Behind the Lines," p. 79.

^^Bills Diary, nugust 30, 1864.

^^ Ib id ., January 28, 1365.

^^Killebrew, "Recollections," vol. I, pp. 184, 187, 190; Memphis B u lle tin , May 11, 1865; Cartmell Diary, March 12, 1863.

^‘^Killebrew, "Recollections," vol. I, p. 190.

^^Ibid., pp. 187, 190; Memphis Bulletin, May 11, 1865; Aadrew Johnson sneech in Nashville Press, January 11. 1364. 64

Cartmell Jia ry , December 9, 1362; Cincinnati G azette, march 3> 1862; Chattanooga Rebel , October 3, 1362; June 3, August 30, 1363* 57 Joe Gray Taylor, "Slavery in Louisiana during the Civil War," Louisiana History, 7111 (Winter, 1967), p. 33.

^^Rawick. ed., American Slave, vol. IS, _o. 397; U.S. Census Bure au, Eighth Census; Population, p. 467; Q uarles, Negro in the C ivil War, p. 53; Charles L. C'ansler, Three Gener ations: The Story of a Colored Fami l y of East Tennessee In .p ., 1939), pp. 666-667.

^^Edmund Kirke /pseudonym for James Robert Gilmore/^ down in Tennessee and Back by Lay of Richmond (hew York, 1865), pp. 170-171.

6 0- Edmondson Diary, February 5? 1864; memphis Ava­ l anche , June 11, 1362; N ashville P re ss , February 6, 1365: Andrew Jonnson to Ulysses S. Grant, January 13, 1364, Johnson Papers; Samuel Henderson Diary, march 31, 1863, TSLA.

^Armstrong, Massa*s P eo p le, pp. 301-392; Toners, rencilings, pp. 116-113 (October 14, 1864); Rarick, ed. , Tmierican Slave, vol. 18, p. 16.

^%owers. Penciling^, p. 71 (may 3, 1864), 116 (October 4, 1864); Coffin, Reminiscences, p. 634; Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction, p. 20; Auarles, Negro in the C ivil % ar, p. 46.

°^Cincinnati G azette, Larch 24, 1862.

^^Rawick, ed. , American S lav e, vol. 7, p. 28; Ibid., vol. IS, p. 76; Isaac Lane, Autobiography (Nashville, 1916). P. 51; ftiiey, Southern Negroes, p. 103. 65 Rawick, e d ., American S lave, vol. 13, p. 591.

°°Saraii Lennedy to her husband, December 22, 1362, [.ennedy Tapers.

°^Bills Diary, January 1, 1863.

^^Benjamin P. LcGee, History of the 72d Indiana Volunteer Infantry, ed. by William R. Jewell (La P a y e tte , Ind., 1382), p. 1 2 5 ; T iley. Southern Negroes, p. 13; W.D. Bickham, Rosecrans' Campaign with the Fourteenth Army Corps (Cincinnati, 1863), pp. 115-116. 6 9 Cartmell Diary, February 17, 1863. ^ "Tennessee narratives," pp, 9, 25, in vol. 16 of ed ., Anerican Slave; Powers, PencilinKS, p. 71 (Liay 3, 1864'! /Pennsylvania freedrien's heliei Association^ deport of the rroceedinys of a ivleetiny Held at Concert Hall, Phil adel phi a Tlinil an elohi a, 1S63), p. 7. 71 The average prices for individuals in the twelve to forty age range were #621.25 fo r eight males and 6615.00 for ten females. The counties which provided the useful data were Carroll, Davidson, Henry, Jefferson, Knox, Madison, and Montgomery.

. G. Owen to Laura Owen, March 17, loop, in i.iitchell, ed., "Confederate Surgeon," pp. 80-81. 73 James Ï. S h ield s to an uncle, November 2, 1863, Shields Papers, McClung Collection, Laason McGee Public Library , Knoxville, Tenn.

74ti.|;eiinessee Narratives," p. 1, in vol. 16 of Hawick, ed ,, American Slave; ibid. , vol. 18, p. 133; ,.'illia:n Truesdail to Andrew uohnson, February 16, 1863, Joiinso:: Papers; b.S. navy Department, O fficial Hecords of the Union and Confederate Navies in the »var of the Rebel­ lio n (31 v o ls., h ashing ton, 1894-1927)", ser. 1, vol. XXIII,

75 Cincinnati Gazette, November 13, 1862; (P hiladel­ phia) Christian Recorder, December 27, 1862; C offin, Hemi- niscences, p. 630; Maury County Court Minute Hook, vol. 14, p") 234 (May 4, 1863); Rawick, ed. , Meric an Slave, vol. 18, p. 31.

ashv ille J iso a tc h , July 28, 1363. 77 Cartmell Diary, May 23, 18bp; P orter Diary, ;..ay 16, 1864; A.P. Smith to Andrew Johnson, June 2 /, 1362, Johnson Papers; Fanny %ood D iary, February 25, 1864, South­ ern Historical Collection, university of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill, ïi.C. 78 n ills Diary, September 25, 1363. Also see Rawick, ed., Merican SI ave, vol. 18, p. 40; Mrs. De Moville t e s t i ­ mony, n .d ., AFIC, f i l e 71I, p. 5 6.

^^Henry Graft Diary, February 3, 1364, Southern Historical Collection, University of north C arolina Library, Chapel H ill, N.C.

GOjames H. Otey Diary, October 4, 1862, as quoted in Willia.a Mercer Green, Memoir of Right Reverend James Hervey Otey (New York, 1885), p. 102. 66

^^Ibid. ; Craft Diary, December 7, 1863; Barker D iary, February 5 , 1364; B ills Diary, November 3, 1362; Col. A. A. Smith to Cart. B.ri. Polk, JuDril 20, 1364, L3 by U.S. Forces at Clarksville, vol. 170/203 DMÏ, p. 26, RG 39], N1. 82 Coffin, Reminiscences, pp. 633-634; Cartmell Diary, Dugust 19, 1052.

^^Cartmell Diary, June 12, 1863.

^^Ib id . , April 19, 1863.

^^For further examples see Trimble, ed., "mehind the Lines," p. 65; Jour dan Anderson to P.h. Anderson, August 7, 1365 , in L. :,.aria Child, e d ., The Freedmen’s Book (Boston, 1865 9, pp. 265-267; (PhiladelphiaJ Christian Recorder, December 27, 1362.

^^Craft Diary, February 29, 1864. Also see Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, p. 70.

c^Brig. Gen. Clinton B. i'isk to Baj. Gen. O liver 0. nov.'ard, September 2, 1365, LS to Commissioner Hov.'ard by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Brig. Gen. Davis T illson to Capt. w.T, Clarke, August 18, 1865, and Capt. ,v.T. Clarke to Brig. Gen. C linton B. Fisk, in gust 10, 1865 , Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for ky. and Tenn., RG 195, KA; Col. '.'«illiajn 3. Gan to wiaj. G.R. Bascom, November 6, 1365 , LR by the District of Bast Tennessee, RG 393, FA; OR, ser. 3, vol. V, pp. 13, 662. 88 Even i f a ll prewar slaves had remained loyal, the great majority of urban blacks in 1365 were contrabands. The 1860 census had counted only 3,882 blacks in Aemnhis, 3,945 in Nashville, and 457 in Chattanooga. Alrutheus Ambush Taylor, The Negro in Tennessee, 1865-1880 ('Washing­ ton, 1941), p. 27.

^"Cartmell Diary, August 20, 1862. CHAPTER I I I

FEDERAL OCCUPATION AND THE SLAVE CODE

On March 13, 1862, Andrew Johnson returned to

Tennessee as a brigadier general and the state's military governor. Soon after his arrival in Nashville he issued an

"itopeal to the People of Tennessee" which accused the Con­ federates of destroying the State's civil government and rule by la^'. Johnson pledged himself to restore both and to uphold all the legal rights of Tennesseans during his transitional military government. By implication this promise included the maintenance of slaveholders’ property r ig h ts . ^

However, the new military governor did not yet com­ prehend the difficulties of preserving legal rights in the midst of civil warfare. The constant pressure exerted by disloyal slaves running away and offering to serve the Féd­

érais would make it extremely difficult for the army to uphold the property rights of a master class, most of which supported the Confederacy. As the slave Susanna perceived,

"La?: and order are at an end and the law of might is now 2 the rule by which all govern themselves."

67 6 8

Power in the Pederal occupation zone lay predomi­

nantly in the hands of the Union army. At the very

"beginning of the war both President Lincoln and Congress

had disavowed any in te n tio n of using the war to in te r fe r e

w ith slavery. But as early as the war’s second month sev ­

eral slaves challenged the government’s position by seeking

refuge behind Federal lines in Virginia. The v. ar Depart­

ment subsequently ruled that commanding o ffic e r s could

accept fugitive slaves if they deemed this militarily

necessary. The runaway's status as property would remain

unchanged, but the legal problem of their disposition would

■ be postponed until after the war. The War Department pro­

hibited soldiers from interfering with slaves, who remained

at home and from detaining fugitives who wished to return

home. Thus, the army recognized the existence of slave

disloyalty but remained reluctant to tamper with the in sti­

tu tio n . Strangely enough the runaway sla v es soon gained

the legally inaccurate nickname of contrabands, short for

contraband of war.

By the time Johnson issued his "Appeal," Congress

had modified its stand on the slavery issue with two impor­

tant lajrrs. Under the First Confiscation Act the army could

confiscate slaves whom the Confederates used as military

laborers, but the lay; did not explicitly free the confis­

cated slaves. The other law, a new article of war, prohib­

ited Federal troops from returning fugitive slaves lest the 69 secessionists profit from such a service.^ As these two

lars indicated, military expediency was beginning to pry

the Federal government away from its original policy of preserving slavery inviolate.

Congress and the War Department only set the gen­

eral parameters of fugitive slave policy. In the absence of detailed Instructions from Washington, the Federal field commanders had to determine the s p e c if ic p o lic ie s and le g a l interpretations which the troops would implement. The first military units to invade Tennessee followed remark­ ably similar policies toward fugitive slaves. Major Gen­ eral henry Halleck had for some time excluded fugitive slaves from his lines in Missouri. When Halleck sent Major

General Ulysses S. Grant into Tennessee to attack Forts henry and Donelson, he directed Grant to continue this pol­ icy. Major General Don Carlos Buell, who led a separate command into Nashville, also excluded runaway slaves. In addition Buell and Johnson allowed owners to search through

Federal camps for fugitives who had succeeded in pene­ tr a tin g Federal lin e s . The commanders of the Navy’s r iv e r - boat fleet concurred in the basic exclusion policy prac- tised by these armies. Thus, the military occupation of Tennessee began with a unanimous effort on the part of the Federal command­ ers to leave slavery alone. They viewed interference with the institution as militarily and politically unwise. One 70

s t a f f o ffic e r wrote th at "If runaway negroes are encouraged

we w ill be overwhelmed with them. They would soon eat us

out, encumber our march & g iv e ground fo r the a ssertio n

th at we came South to s te a l negroes."^ The commanders par­

ticularly wanted to dispel Southern fears that the Federal

government intended to abolish slavery. They believed that

the accomplishment of this goal would help bring the war to

a quick end.^ Some officers, like Brigadier General

Isaac F. Quimby, also linked their personal distaste for

social change to the predominant concern for military

expediency:

The evil arising from the ill-judged and spurious phi­ lanthropy, that would set all negroes free at once, demands the serio u s a tten tio n of a ll who are h e a r tily engaged in the great work of reestablishing the integ­ rity of our Union; and unless checked, will lead to embarrassments and complications that must greatly retard a settlement of our national difficulties.°

After Congress passed the new article of war in

March of 1862, the army could not take any direct actions

to uphold slavery. The exclusion policy could only indi­

rectly aid Tennessee slaveholders by blocking the path

talcen most frequently by fugitive slaves. Through the sum­ mer o f 1862 runayrays could find but few Federal camps th at disobeyed the exclusion orders. Outside of the Federal

camps they encountered great difficulties in finding secure hiding places. The unionists ran fugitive slave advertise­ ments in their newspapers, and nrui^cipal police arrested large numbers of runaways. S till, disloyal slaves 71 persisted in abandoning slavery.^

Slaves first gained legitimate entry to the Federal camps through the First Confiscation Act. When Fort Donel­ son fell, Grant had to determine how the law applied to the captured slaves. He ruled that personal servants did not f a l l under the act and permitted them to accompany th e ir masters to military prison. However, the slave laborers who had constructed the fo r t became the con fiscated prop­ erty of the Federal government under his interpretation of the law. Grant ordered his command to use these slaves in military support capacities.^®

Further breaches soon appeared in the exclusion policy. In J^ril, 1862, both Buell and Halleck permitted slaves who reported military information to remain within

Federal lines. Grant interpreted this order loosely and even accepted slaves who related useless information. Some officers began reading the new article of war as a prohibi­ tio n against the exclu sion of runav;ays who su c c e ssfu lly penetrated Federal lines.The army's need for laborers led to the impressment of many slaves and contrabands, sometimes for long periods of time. During the earliest impressments disloyal slaves came to the Federal camps and implored officers to impress them. Federal military needs and the contrabands' willingness to serve were slowly 12 undermining the exclusion policy. 72

The portion of the Federal troops rho held anti­

slavery convictions had chafed under the exclusion policy

from the beginning. Colonel John Beatty of the Third Ohio

Volunteer Infantry detested slavery and had readily per­

mitted fugitives to remain in his camp. In his opinion.

If a dog came up wagging his tail at sight of us, we could not help liking him better than the master, who not only looks sullen and cross at our approach but in his heart desires our destruction.13

Under instructions from General Buell, Beatty's brigade

commander ordered a ll contrabands marched out of camp. The brigade commander also notified fugitive slave hunters of the time and place of this event. Colonel Beatty fore­ warned the contrabands, and they disappeared before the time appointed for their exclusion.

Some Fédérais came South with strong proslavery feelings and then gradually changed their attitudes. While walking through the woods near the Federal camp at P itts­ burg Landing, Private Elisha Stockwell encountered a white man holding a black at gunpoint. The white claimed that the black had run a?;ay from a neighbor. Knowing h is orders,

Stockwell told the black man that the Fédérais could neither admit slaves into their camp nor interfere with the institution. A troubled Stockwell watched the slave hunter bind and take may the captive. The sight of slavery’s uglier incidents, such as fugitive slave hunts, near-white mulatto slaves, whipping, and auctions, shocked some North­ ern soldiers like Stockwell out of their prior proslavery 73 b e l i e f s . 15

Other fédérais never modified their racial preju­

dices but still came to detest the exclusion policy because

of their contempt for the secessionists. Once while slave

hunters were searching the camp of the 7th Pennsylvania

Cavalry near Nashville, a contraband ran out of a tent

towards a woods. The slave hunters carelessly opened fire

as they pursued him through the camp. The danger to the

soldiers' lives ended only when a number of armed cavalry­

men halted and arrested the slave hunters. When the regi­

ment later learned that the hunters were actually Confeder­

ate soldiers, it stopped enforcing the exclusion policy.

The hatred that many fédérais felt for their enemy intensi­

fied as the hopes for a short war disappeared.One s o l­ dier who considered blacks inferior and suitable only for slavery could still write; "I have no trouble in believing that all these rebels should loose every slave they possess;

and I experience some pleasure in taking them, when ordered t o , "17

The exclu sion p o licy crumbled most rapidly in West

Tennessee. The most flagrant violation of Halleck's orders there occurred in June of 1862. The men of the 7th Kansas

Cavalry secluded some slaves in their camp and threatened the owner's life when he requested their return. Despite orders to expel the fugitives or face a court martial.

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Anthony directed his men never to 74 surrender fugitive slaves. Anthony was then relieved of command. Brigadier General Grenville Dodge recovered some of the slaves for their master through a surprise search of the regiment's baggage train during a march. The 7th

Kansas remained obstinate. Dodge's search party had to arrest one resisting officer. Another of the regiment's officers was removed from duty as the post provost marshal in Humboldt when he forbad the capturing or returning of runay/ay slaves.By the end o f the summer many of the troops in West Tennessee would disregard the exclusion pol­ icy as completely as the Kansans.

Two events played a special role in the final aban­ donment of the exclusion policy in West Tennessee; the passage of a Second C on fiscation Act and H alleck 's promo­ tion to General-in-Chief. Enacted in July of 1852, the

Second Confiscation Act confiscated and freed slaves who came within Federal lines, provided that their masters aided or comforted rebellion. However, the law neither explicitly banned exclusion policies nor designated the authorities who would rule on the masters' disloyalty»

Also in July, Halleck's promotion moved him to Washington.

Grant assumed command of Federal troops in West Tennessee which soon became the core of a new Department of the Ten­ nessee. Grant had come to believe that the Confederate war effort would suffer from the loss of the slaves’ labor but that the Fédérais would benefit from gaining it. 75 Consequently he made no effort to enforce the exclusion

policy.Yet, during the summer of 1862 Grant timidly

refrained from withdrawing Halleck's old orders. Because

neither Grant nor the War Department issued any directives

on fugitive slave matters, some of Grant's subordinates

persisted in excluding the runaways. Other subordinates

abandoned the exclusion policy in the belief that it vio­

lated the spirit of the Second Confiscation Act. In Novem­

ber Grant finally requested and obtained Halleck's permis­

sion to revoke the exclusion policy and to use contrabands 20 as military laborers.

The Navy's upper Mississippi River fleet had

already dropped the exclusion policy during September. In

Middle Tennessee Major General William S. Rosecrans

replaced Buell as chief of the command which was now desig­

nated the Department of the Cumberland. Sorely needing

military support laborers, Rosecrans ordered his subordi­

nates in January, 1863, to accept and employ all adult male

contrabands. The Army of the Ohio, which operated in East

Tennessee during 1863-64, never excluded fugitive slaves.

A ll the top Federal commanders in Tennessee had gradually

concluded that Confederate sympathisers were intractable

and that the v;ar would be a long one. Consequently they decided that military expediency required them to encourage 21 Slave d is lo y a lty as a means of damaging the Confederacy. 76

Rosecrans, though, still prohibited women, children,

and unemployable men from entering his lines. His subordi­

nates tr ie d to fo llo w orders, but as one s o ld ie r remembered:

They could not be kept out, fo r they came in s p ite of orders. . . . When they came our officers could no more find it in their hearts to drive the poor things away than mother or father could drive children forth from their home into a driving storm.22

The contrabands were forcing the issue, and many Middle

Tennessee post commanders q u ie tly stopped tryin g to sepa­

rate contraband laborers from their families. When the

commander of Eort Donelson decided to quit enforcing the

partial exclusion policy, he bluntly reported his total

frustration with the rules to Department headquarters.

Rosecrans replied by issuing an order that reaffirmed the necessity of partial exclusion "to prevent vagrancy, demor­

alization, immoralities, and expense to the Government." let, because of pressure from the War Department, the same

order permitted exceptions in "cases where humanity demands i t . "24

In the fall of 1363 Major General George H. Thomas replaced Rosecrans. Thomas, a nationalistic Virginian, ov/ned one slave and held strong biases against blacks. He ignored the War Department's preferences and ordered the continued exclusion of slave women and children without 25 mentioning any exceptions. By this point in the war many

Federal officers had fully accepted the Lincoln Administra­ tion's emancipationist position. General Dodge, for 77

example, had stopped excluding contrabands from the Pulaski

post during the previous summer on the grounds that "every

o ffic e r and Loyal man should do h is best to put an end to

the evil that has caused this war and that keeps you and me

a thousand miles from our homes." Such officers would not have easily accepted the restoration of the partial

exclu sion p o lic y . They never had to do so because Briga­ d ier General Lorenzo Thomas, the M jutant General o f the

Federal army, intervened.

The Mjutant General had once owned slaves but during the war he evolved into a staunch emancipationist.

In a wartime speech on slavery he said "I know what all the prejudices are upon that subject but I have overcome 27 them." Lorenzo Thomas played a central role in Missis­ sippi Valley contrabands' affairs because the Secretary of

War assigned him to supervise contraband recruiting and labor programs in the West. Although he viev'ed contrabands primarily as a resource to be exploited, he was not without a humanitarian concern for their welfare. The day after

General George E. Thomas revived the partial exclusion pol­ icy, the Adjutant General nullified it by establishing a refugee camp system for contrabands of all ages and sexes pO within the Department of the Cumberland. This action eliminated the last official vestige of the exclusion pol­ icy in Tennessee. 78

Although the army now encouraged and aided fugitive

slaves, it remained reluctant to pass judgement on their

legal status. In 1863 the War Department ruled that

rebels' slaves became free upon entering federal lines and

recommended that commanders issue freedom papers. Despite

the ruling. Federal officers in Tennessee rarely issued freedom papers. A few registered the names of contrabands

and their owners, but most did not keep any reco rd s.A s

a general rule. Federal officers in the state refrained from assuming the authority to determine the legal status of individual contrabands under the Second Confiscation Act.

Consequently most Tennessee contrabands existed in a legal limbo between slavery and freedom.

While most commanders treated contrabands in a tol­ erant but legally ambivalent fashion, some proslavery Féd­

érais used their military might to maintain slavery, par­ ticularly in rural areas where such actions usually would not attract the attention of superiors. A post commander at Gallatin ordered all the slaves on the Walton plantation to stay at home and get back to work. The order singled out Stokly, apparently the most disloyal slave, and directed him "to treat Mrs. Walton respectfully and to be ob ed ien t.F ed eral pickets outside of Edgefield whipped a fugitive slave and ordered him to return to his master.

A La Vergne post commander not only violated the new arti­ cle of war by returning some runaways, but he also 79

instructed their owners to punish them. These incidents

illustrated the intensity of some Fédérais' opposition to ■51 social change.

The proslavery Fédérais' activities did not always

pass unnoticed and unchallenged. A major controversy arose

over the fugitive slave policies of Major General Lovell H.

Rousseau, a Kentuckian and the commander of the D istrict of

Middle T enn essee.Shortly after Adjutant General Thomas

ended the exclusion policy in the Department of the Cumber­

land , Rousseau tried to exclude juvenile and elderly con­

trabands from his lines. Rousseau's order was soon forgot­

ten, but the attempt won him the undying enmity of Colonel

Reuben Delavan Massey, ah.-âbolitioniât Ohioan who directed

black recruitment in Middle Tennessee. Mussey vindictively

campaigned for Rousseau'à remoi^al from command during 1864.

The colonel ferreted out a written order by which Rousseau

had required the Clarksville post commander to restore sev­

eral contrabands to a Kentucky slaveholder. Mussey also

collected a group of witnesses who claimed to know of simi­ lar orders issued by Rousseau. All of this evidence went into the hands of two special investigators appointed by the War Departm ent.Rousseau refused to cooperate with the investigators. During the course of their investiga­ tion he nonchalantly disbanded a court martial which had been trying Colonel Henry R. Meizener, the Columbia post commander, for returning contrabands to their owners. 80 S till, the investigation failed to secure Rousseau’s 34 removal probably because of his good combat record.

More often than not. Federal contraband policies

after 1863 frustrated proslavery white. Tennesseans.

Frightened by the concentration of large numbers of run­

away slaves in the towns and cities, many whites complained that Federal interference with local laws had created great social disorder. A sem i-literate Chattanooga woman wrote her husband:

The town is so crowded with them we have but a slim showing. I want to go sum wheir wheir ther is no negrows . . . it is so diffrant from what it used to b e .35

The contrabands’ assertiveness offended prejudiced whites:

e know of no persons who are so disgustingly presuming on their imaginary 'human and Divine rights and privileges’ than the sable individuals."^^ While secessionists lost most of their legal rights during Federal occupation, dis­ loyal slaves would gain new privileges. Sometimes Fédérais tried to make Confederate sympathizers feel lower in status than the contrabands. When Federal soldiers liberated the slaves of one notorious La Grange secessionist, they delib­ erately had some of the slaves ride away in the owner’s fine carriage, a dignity never before accorded to these blacks. Proslavery whites deeply resented the changes in thé blacks' status which seemed to come at the whites' ex p en se. 37 81

Racial tensions often, led to racial conflict. The

Police Recorder Courts frequently heard cases of verbal

abuse or violent assult involving civilian members of the

two races. White federal soldiers, particularly the Ten­

nesseans, committed the same type of offense but usually "58 escaped punishment. One military investigator’s view of

the Tennessee fédérais' misbehavior might have applied to

proslavery civilians as well: "they seem to regard him

/the black7 as the cause of all their present troubles, to

be opposed to his freedom or to treating him as a human

being.Minor incidents of name-calling and fighting

released personal frustrations which accompanied the dete­

rioration of slavery, but this conflict could not stop the

social change.

In an attempt to preserve the old lav^s and social

order some whites resorted to vigilante action, the tradi­ tional method of handling slavery's crises. Sometime dur­ ing the war clandestine civilian bands or Confederate guer­ rillas attempted to maintain slavery in at least Coffee,

Hickman, Maury, Montgomery, Shelby, and Warren counties.

These organizations patrolled rural neighborhoods just as the home guards had done under the Confederate state gov­ ernm ent. As long as federal troops did not challenge them, the vigilante patrols impeded slave escap es.V igilan tes also utilized terrorist methods to frighten slaves. They burned the buildings in which McMinnville contrabands lived. 82

Guerrillas operating near Winchester severely whipped a

contraband who had enlisted in the Federal army. Vigi­

lantes in Hickman County killed several slaves for attempt­

ing to leave their owners. The proslavery white community,

like individual masters, could control slave disloyalty

only by extreme means during Federal occupation.

Local government, which usually fell under unionist

control during Federal occupation, rapidly lost its ability

to enforce both the fugitive slave laws and the other

restrictive provisions of the slave code. Late in the sum­

mer of 1862 M ilitary Governor Johnson forbad the use of the

Nashville workhouse for detaining disloyal slaves because

he suspected that some of the supposed owners were actually

slave kidnappers. By the fall of 1862 the Nashville city

government could no longer cope with the flood of fugitive

slaves and it asked Rosecrans to either remove them from

town or place them under martial law. The general refused

both requests on the ground that the enforcement of munic­

ipal law was not his responsibility.^^ When the army began

accepting and employing comtrabands, the Nashville and Mem­

phis police no longer dared to arrest fugitive slaves.

Until exposed in February, 1863, some Nashville policemen unofficially recaptured runaways for a fee. Memphis union­

ist leaders secured the appointment of a Federal fugitive slave commissioner by appealing to the United States Cir­

cuit Court. But shortly after the commissioner assumed 83 office, the post commander suspended all laws affecting

slaves. % early 1863 Federal occupation had rendered

municipal governments totally ineffective in stopping the

flight of disloyal slaves.

The contrabands uncertain legal status also created

problems for local civil government. The municipalities of

Nashville and Memphis in itially treated the contrabands as

slaves. The Police Recorder Courts fined or whipped con­

trabands for such slave code violations as assembling, pos­

sessing weapons, hiring their own time, and selling mer­

chandise. The same courts fined whites and free blacks for

harboring or selling liquor to fugitive s l a v e s . ^4 ^ th e

contraband population rapidly m ultiplied, a massive break­ down of traditional laws and social order confronted the city governments. The contrabands had to hire their own time, sell merchandise, or steal to survive. Having rejected the bonds of slavery, the contrabands did not intend to respect the other laws restricting their race.

At the same time whites found it difficult to coexist with large numbers of fugitive slaves without violating the slave code themselves. Once the army began accepting and employing contrabands, continued enforcement of the slave code could only cause friction.

The first serious confrontation between the army and a local government over the slave code took place in

Memphis. On October 25, 1862, Major General William T. 84

Sherman, the post commander, assumed m ilitary control of

lay; enforcement. On the ground that all Memphis slaves

were potentially subject to confiscation and emancipation

under the Second Confiscation A ct, he ordered the military

and civil police to treat all slaves as freedmen until Fed­

eral courts ruled otherwise. In effect, Sherman's order

completely suspended the slave code in Memphis. The Fed­

eral garrison would allow slavery only by consent and not by force. ^5

Sherman probably did not act from abolitionist

impulses since he held strong racial prejudices. Senator

John Sherman, his brother and an antislavery Republican,

had urged the general during the summer to consider all

slaves freed by the Second Confiscation Act. General

Sherman rejected the whole idea at that time because of his

racial biases and his doubt that he had the authority to

confiscate slaves. The factors which eventually modified

this position were the general’s intensely nationalistic

contempt for Confederates, his commitment to military obe­ dience, and the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.^^

In a much more public fashion than other Federal generals

Sherman followed the proclamation's instructions for m ili­

tary commanders to "observe, obey, and enforce" the Second

C o n fisc a tio n Act."^*^

Sherman's unusual order soon encountered a legal

challenge from Judge John T. Swayne of the Shelby County 85 Criminal Court. In a charge to the grand jury, which

opened with a ringing reaffirmation of the positive-good

proslavery theory, Swayne demanded the continued indictment

of slave code violators. The judge granted that the Fed­

eral government had power to confiscate slaves but denied

that it could destroy slave property through emancipation

or the voiding of local slave codes. Swayne privately

hoped that test cases initiated in his court would lead to

a Federal Supreme Court ruling on the Second Confiscation

Act's constitutionality. In response to Swayne, Sherman

took the position that:

No law of Tennessee /is7 in conflict with the Law of the United States for the latter is the Law and if any Lawyer or Judge thinks different, the quicker he gets out of the United States the Safer his neck w ill b e .49

Sherman immediately notified Swayne that the army would not

permit any convictions for violations of the suspended

slave code. Sherman's provost marshal reinforced his supe­

rior's notice by threatening 8?.'ayne with summary punishment if the Judge even attempted to try such cases. Under these pressures Swayne retreated. His next charge to the grand

jury asserted that the slave code remained fully valid, but that the courts must accept their current inability to pro­ secute those laws against the army's w i l l . 50

After Sherman le ft the Memphis post command for field service, the local civil government continued to treat all blacks as free except in one important respect.

The Police Recorder Court quickly resumed the occasional 8 6

use of whipping sentences for convicted contrabands. In

ivlay, 1863, the unionist city government restrained the

recorder by prohibiting public whippings from drawing blood.

The recorder then replaced whipping sentences with fines, a

decision which proved beneficial for the city treasury.^^

One year later the mernphis Bulletin accused the municipal

government of secretly reenacting the city's entire slave

code. This emancipationist paper called for the code's

repeal. The journal of city government meetings belies the

Bulletin's charge which probably arose from the editor's political opposition to the mayor. Several city fathers did attempt to secure the old Code's repeal, but a military municipal government replaced the civil regime before the matter reached a final vote. Although the slave code remained unenforced in Memphis, it also stayed on the law books until emancipation.

N a s h v ille 's m u nicip al governm ent and th e army came into conflict over the slave code one month after Rosecrans began admitting male contrabands through his lines. Judge

Llanson M. Brien of the Davidson County Criminal Court did not desire a confrontation with the army but also wanted to preserve the slave code. Be chose to avoid trouble by instructing the grand jury to present indictments only in cases which did not involve the array's interests. Police

Recorder William Shane, though, lacked Brian's tact. Shane sentenced two slaves to thirty-nine lashes each for holding 87

a ball for blacks with permission papers obtained from the

post commander rather than from city officials. Shane also

fined a Federal official for aiding slaves to live off

their owners * premises because he had rented rooms to con­

traband m ilitary laborers. When the Police Recorder Court

indicted a second Federal official on the same charge, the

army ordered the court to stop prosecuting certain slave (53 code violations.

The exact terms of the order are unrecorded but the

court never again prosecuted cases involving the renting of

rooms to contrabands, contraband assemblies, and contra­

bands hiring their own time. The court also stopped trying

blacks for selling merchandise provided that they purchased

licenses. The one article that the city still prohibited

blacks from selling was liquor. The recorder also con­

tinued to convict whites for selling liquor to either

slaves or contrabands. The court did not stop sentencing

some convicted contrabands to public whipping. The army's

restrictions on the municipal government’s authority dis­ gruntled the city fathers. Judge Brien convinced the Board

of Aldermen to pass resolutions requesting the army either to place all contrabands under martial la?,- or to permit full enforcement of the slave code, excepting the return of fugitive slaves to pro-Gonfederate owners. The army

C A refused to respond to the Brien resolutions.^ 8 8

Other developments during 1863 further undercut the

slave code in Nashville. Because of the Lincoln Mminis­

tration's adoption of an emancipationist stand, Johnson and

several other Tennessee unionist leaders publicly began to

advocate abolition. The army started ènlisting contrabands

into armed military service. The black community began to

hold mass meetings to discuss race-related issues. These

major violations of the slave code made the enforcement of

its remaining provisions awkvard. After October, 1863,

Shane quit issuing whipping sentences to contrabands.^^

Brian's charge to the December term of the grand jury

instructed the panelists not to return any indictments for

slave code violations. He argued that in the midst of

insurrection and military occupation "it is not practicable

or expedient to enforce it. To enforce this code as rebels would have us do, would cause great distress and inhuman­

ity. For all practical purposes the slave code had

become inoperable in Nashville by the end of 1863.

Increasingly civil authorities could not attempt to counteract slave disloyalty without arousing the army's wrath. In ip ril, 1864, a magistrate in Columbia sentenced

a contraband to twenty-five lashes for educating slaves.

Evidently the town hadi an ordinance of its own prohibiting slave education since state law contained no such provision.

After the fadical Nashville Times and True Union exposed the incident, the army arrested the magistrate, the mayor. 89 and the town constable on charges of assult and battery. A military commission convicted the three officials and sen­ tenced them to prison terms ranging between one and four months plus fines running from $70 to $200. General

Rousseau disapproved the proceedings on a technicality (the commission never permitted the defendants to enter guilty or not guilty pleasJ and released the prisoners.

Shortly after Rousseau’s decision in the Columbia case, Johnson acted to eliminate the problems caused by the slave code’s existence. On September 7, 1864, he suspended all slave codes within Tennessee and ordered the courts to treat all slaves as free blacks. This proclamation’s legality was immediately tested in the state courts in

McClav V . Driver. The case occurred because Henry Driver’s slave ran a?-ay and obtained a job at one R. McClay’s sar- m ill. When Driver demanded that McClay pay him his slave's wages, McClay refused. Driver won the case in a county court, but McClay then cited Johnson’s proclamation in appealing the verdict before a state circuit court at Nash­ ville. Johnson had recently appointed his political ally,

Manson M. Brien, to preside in the court. Although Brien charged the jury to uphold the proclamation, the jury decided in Driver’s favor. Brien sternly rebuked the jury, dismissed it from further service, and overruled its ver­ d ict." ® 90 The gradual negation and final suspension of the

slave code still left the contrabands liable to the dis­

criminatory laws governing free blacks. However, the army

overrode municipal ordinances against black education by

granting military protection to the new schools for blacks.

When Nashville black leaders began applying for liquor licenses, Johnson ended the city's prosecutions of black liquor dealers by issuing them permits on his own author- 59 ity. in a few military trials the army accepted black testimony against whites. The only black law not abridged or left unenforced during the war was the ban on miscegena­ tion .^0 By the end of 1864 Tennessee blacks had virtually gained a near state of légal equality with whites in Feder­ ally garrisoned areas.

Because of the Confederates' military defeats in

Tennessee, white civilians lost both the rule of law and control of their government. Open conflict between dis­ loyal slaves and proslavery whites resulted with both sides turning to the Federal conquerers for help. Because most disloyal slaves actively supported the invaders and most whites did not, the array gradually chose to suspend the legal barriers constricting the slaves' status. Federal occupation fostered more slave disloyalty throughout the state than white vigilantes could supress in isolated localities. Without the physical support of the ruling power and without control over the slaves' minds, the 91

institution could not last very long. One frustrated

slaveholder accurately described the situation;

lo say that I may take my negroes home if they wish to go or may control them if they /ire7 willing I should, is to say that slavery ceases to exist except at the w ill of the s la v e .61

FOOTNOTES ^OR, ser. 1, vol. IX, p. 396; Andrew Johnson, "Appeal to the People of Tennessee," March 18, 1862, Johnson Papers. 2 Susanna to W.G, Harding, August 25, 1862, in M iller, ed., "Dear Master," p. 91.

^U.S. Congress, The Statutes at Large. Treaties and Proclamations of the United States of Anerica, vol. XII, p. 1258; Congressional Globe, 37 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 223 (July 22,"l86l), '257, 265 (July 25, I 8 6 I}; Ifiiiley, Southern Negroes, p. 175; OR, ser. 2, vol. I, pp. 761-762.

^U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. XII, pp. 319, 354.

^Quarles, Negro in the Civil War, p. 65; OR, ser. 1, vol. VII, p. 668; OR, ser. 1, vol. X, pt. 2, pp. 15, 31; OR, ser. 2, vol. I, p. 778; Henry Halleck, G.Ü. 46, February 22, 1862, Department of the Missouri, vol. 50/77 DMo, p. 161, RG 3 9 3 , NA; William P. Sipes, The Seventh Pennsylvania Vet­ eran Volunteer Cavalry (Pottsville, Pa. , 1905), p. 15; Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote, "Proclamation to the Inhabitants of Clarksville, Tennessee," February 20, 1862, LR by the Department of the M issouri, RG 393, NA; U.S. Navy Depart­ ment, O fficial Records of the Navies, ser. 1, Vol. XXIII, p. 1 4 9 . During the early part of the war the army also followed the exclusion policy in Louisiana and Virginia but not along the southeastern seacoast. See Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen. chap. 2; Louis S. G erteis, From Contraband to Freedman; Federal Policy toward Southern Blacks, 1861-18^5 (Westport, Conn., 1973), pp. 12-15, 30, 50-58. ^J.H. Hammond to Col. Worthington, July 11, 1862, William T. Sherman Letterbook, vol. &, p. 107, GPB.

^Cincinnati Gazette. March 3, 10, 1862.

^I.F. Quimby, G.Ü. 37, August 22, 1862, D istrict of M ississippi, vol. 101/248A DKy, p. 117, RG 393, NA 92

Cincinnati Gazette, March 15, 1862; (ShelhyvilleJ News, June 21, 1862; Memphis Bulletin, July Aagust 15, Ï8é2; Memphis Avalanche. June 11, 13, 1862; Nashville Union. April 20, August 3, 1862. 10 OR, ser. 1, vol. YIi, p. 668; Bruce Oatton, Grant Moves 8outE(Boston. 19603, p. 177.

^C r , ser. 1, vol. XVI, pt. 2, p. 269; Henry Halleck, Special Field Order 21, üpril 22, 1862, Department of the M ississippi, vol. 89/? 16AC, p. 7, RG 393, NA; John A. McClernand to Ulysses S. Grant, March 29, 1862, in Simon et al., eds., Papers of Grant, vol. IV, p. 438; U.S. Grant to John A. McClernand, April 27, 1862, ih id ., vol. V, p. 87; Hans Heg to Gunild Heg, April 11, 1862, in Theodore C. Blegen, ed». The Civil War Letters of Colonel Hans Christian Heg (Northfield, Minn., 193&), p. 79.

^Catton, Grant, p. 294; B ills Diary, Augiast 27, 1862; M. Southall to W.G. Harding, August 14, 15, 1862, Harding-Jackson Papers.

^Cohn Beatty, The Citizen Soldier (Cincinnati, 18793, p. 124 (# ril 4, 18623.

^Cbid. . p. 117 (March 16, 1862).

^Cyron R. Abe me thy, ed., Private Elisha Stockwell, Jr. Sees the Civil War (Norman, Okla., 19583, pp. 25-26, 39; Dornblaser, Sabre Strokes, pp. 120-121; Bell Irv/in Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union Army (Indianapolis. Ind. , 1 9 5 1 ). p p . 1 1 5 -1 1 ^

^%ipes. Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, pp. 14-15; Gatton, Grant, p. 295.

^Charles %. W ills to ?, May 29, 1863, in Charles W. W ills, The Life of an Illin ois Soldier (Washington, 19063, p. 177. For his proslavery views see Charles Xi. W ills to ?, March 31, 1863, ib id ,, pp. 166-167.

~ 18 Stephen Z. Starr, Jennison's Jayhawkers; A Civil War C avalry Regim ent and I t s Commander (Baton Rouge, L a ., 1973% pp. 173-178.

^%.S. Statutes at Large, vol. XII, p. 5 91; Gatton, Grant, pp. 287, 294-297; U.S. Grant to a sister, August 18, 1862, in Simon et a l., eds., Papers of Grant, vol. V, p. 311. 20 Grenville Dodge to Col. George E. Bryant, Septem­ ber 3, 1862, LS by General Dodge, vol. 32 16AC, p. 81, 93 RG 393, NA; I.E. Quimby, G.O. 37, August 22, 1862, D istrict of M ississippi, vol. 101/248A DKy, p. 117, RG 393, NA; Col. V»,¥. Lowe, G.O. 3, September 5, 1862, Fort Donelson, vol. 172/217 DMT, RG 393, NA; Col. M.K. Lawler, 8.0. 76, November 14, 1862, Post of Jackson, vol. 88 16AC, p. 313» RG 393, NA; OR, ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 1, pp. 470-471; OR, ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 2, pp. 60, 158-159.

^^OR. ser. 1, vol. XXIII, pt. 2, pp. 17-18; U.S. Na^'/y Department, O fficial Records of the Navies, ser. 1, vol. XXIII, pp. 345, 449.

^^McGee, 72d In d ia n a I n fa n tr y , p. 226.

^^Col. V/illiam ?. Lyon to Col. C. Goddard, July 13, 1863, LS by Fort Donelson, vol. 172/214 DMT, p. 88, RG 393, NA.

^^OR, ser. 3, vol. Ill, p. 559; Brig. Gen. Lorenzo Thomas to Y.7s. Rosecrans, June 15, 1863, LR by the Depart­ ment of the Cumberland, RG 393, NA. 28 Francis F. McKinney, Education in Violence: The Life of George H. Thomas yid the History of the Army of the Cumberland (Detroit, 19^l), pp. 82-83, 272; (Æ, ser. 3, vol. IV, p. 771; Brig. Gen. % illiam D. V hippie to Maj. Gen. L.H. Rousseau, February 3, 1864, LR by the D istrict of Mid­ dle Tennessee, RG 393, NA.

Grenville Dodge to Col. H.R. Meizener, January 23, 1864, LS by General Dodge^ vol. 32 l6iC, p. 349, RG 393, NA. ^^John Eaton to S.S. Jocelyn, May 18, 1863, AMA-Tenn.

^®0R, s e r . 3 , v o l. I l l , p. 100; S en ate E x ecu tiv e Documents. 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, pp. 1-2.

^^OR, ser. 2, vol. V, p. 673; OR, ser. 2, vol. VI, p. 210; ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 2, p. 60; Grenville Dodge to Col. George E. Bryant, September 3, 1862, LS by General Dodge, vol. 32 16AC, p. 81, RG 393, NA; Brig. Gen, J. A. Garfield to Col. Lyon, June 17, 1863, and Lt. Joseph L. Murray to Col. A. A. Smith, November 11, 1863, LR by the Post of Nashville, RG 393, NA. Examples of freedom papers appear in LS by the Provost Marshal of the D istrict of East Tennessee, vol. 12 DET, p. 348, RG 393, NA; LS by the Pro­ vost Marshal of the Department of the Cumberland, vol. 118 DC, pp. 243-244, 246, 309, RG 393, NA.

^*^Capt. P h elp s P ain e to Mr. S h o e c r o ft, Septem ber 22, 1863, Walton Papers, Joint University Library, Nashville, 94 Term.

3^2. Copeland to Maj. George L. Stearns, March 5, 1864, LR by the Colored Troops Division, RG 94, Trimble, ed., "Behind the Lines," p. 63- Also see Bills,Diary, Au. gust 27, 1862; Capt. Mil Ion Curran, order, September 12, 1864, David Campbell Papers, Duke University Library, Durham, N.C. 12 % 1863 the Federal occupation of Tennessee vras organized into three major district commands, one for each region of the state (East, Middle, and V/estj.

Nashville Press. February 20, 1864; R.D. Mussey to A»B. M orse, J u ly 8 , 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, p. 204, RG 393, NA; R.D. Mussey to Lorenzo Thomas, February 28, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, pp. 11, 1 6 - 1 8 . The authenticity of the controver­ sial Clarksville order (L.H. Rousseau to Col. A. A. Smith, March 6 , 18649 is confirmed by its appearance in LS by the D istrict of Middle Tennessee, vol. 2 DMT, p. 110, RG 393, NA.

^^'Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 S ess., No. 28, pp. 17-18. For proof of Meizener's guilt see Porter Diary, September 6 , 1863; Simmons, Men of Mark, p . 2 4 1 . For a controversy of the same type in Knoxville see Nev/ York Tribune. April 12, 1864

^^E.P. Tiner to J.S. Tiner, August 1., 1854, Johnson P ap ers.

^^ashville Press, February 8, 1864.

^^Coffin, Reminiscences, pp. 633-634; Nashville Press. February 8, July 7, August 15, I 8 6 4 . ^%ample cases were reported in Nashville Press. J u ly 2 2 , 2 3 , 2 5 , 1864; Memphis B ulletin, May 16, Decem­ ber 11, 12, 1863; Nashville Dispatch, December 24, I 8 6 3 . ^^Capt. T.Û. Ellsworth to Lorenzo Thomas, July 7, 1864, LR by the Adjutant General’s O ffice, RG 94, NA.

^^Porter Diary, August 17, 1863; OR, ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 2, p. 201; William T. Sherman to Capt. Louis 3. Parsons, August 30, 1864, ShePman Letterbook, vol. C, p. 7 0 , GPB; Col. A.A Smith, G.O. 3, November 29, 1863, U.S. Forces at Clarksville, vol. 171/208 DMT, p. 2, 95 RG 593» NA; A.B. Morse to R.D. Mussey, May 3» 1864, Regis­ ter of LR by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 223/431 DC, p.65; M.Nj Puckett to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Pisk, January 15, 1866, Reports of Outrages, Riots, and Murders Received by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and T erm ., RG 105 , NA.

^^Porter Diary, May 26, 1864; French Diary, Decem­ ber 14, 1864; Memphis Bulletin. March 4, 1865; Nashville Times and True U n io n , February 2 0 , 1865; M.N. P u c k e tt to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, January 15, 1866, Reports of Outrages, Riots, and Murders Received by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Term., RG 105, NA.

^% all, Johnson, pp. 43, 87; Andrew Johnson testi­ mony, November 23, 1863, AFIC, file VII, p. 51; John Q. Dodd to Andrev/ Johnson, August 1 2 , 1 8 6 2 , Johnson P apers; Nashville Dispatch, December 11, 1862.

^^Memphis B u l l e t i n , A igu st 1 5 , 1862; Col. Vi illia m Truesdail to Andrew Johnson, February 16, 1863, union C iti­ zens o f Memphis P e t i t i o n , n . d . , and B.W. Sharp to Andrew Johnson, October 11, 1862, Johnson Papers; OR, ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 2, p. 295.

^^Memphis Argus, July 17, October 15, 1862; Nash­ v ille Dispatch, July 27, August 15, September 4, November 8, December lE, 1862, February 14, 1863. The newspapers do not mention any prosecutions for slave curfew violations during Federal occupation. Presumably the army set and enforced its own curfews for the entire population of the c i t i e s .

^^OR, ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 2, pp. 295, 863-864; William T. Shenaan to Capt. Lewis B. Parsons, August 30, 1362, Sherman Letterbook, vol. C, pp. 70-71, GPB.

^^John Sherman to V illiam T. Sherman, August 24, 1862, William T. Sherman to John Sherman, September 3, October 1, 1862, William T. Sherman Papers, Library of Con­ gress; William T. Sherman to J. J. Gant, September 23, 1862, Sherman Letterbook, vol. C, p. 144, GPB*

'^\i.S. Statutes at Large, vol. XII, p. 1267.

^®Memphis B u l l e t i n , November 1 2 , 1862; J .T . Swayne to William Ï. Sherman, November 14, 1862, Sherman Papers.

'^%illiam T. Sherman to B.V:. Sharp, November 14, 1362, Sherman Letterbook, vol. M, p. 61, p. 61, GPB.

^®0R, ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 2, p. 865; Memphis 96

Bulletin, November 13, 1362, February 11, 1863; J.T. Srayne to IRilliam T. Sherman, November 14, 1862, Sherman Papers.

^^Memphis B ulletin, October 24, December 3, 1862; January 31, March 4, May 7, 1863; Memphis Board of Mayor and Aldermen Journal, vol. for August, 1862-June, 1866, p. 168 (May 5, 1863), Memphis City Hall, Memphis, Term.

^^Memphis B ulletin, May 15, 18, 1864; Memphis Board of Mayor and Aldermen Journal, vol. for August, 1862-June, 1866, pp. 262-269 (October 6, 1863). Hall, Johnson, pp. 137-138, mistakenly accepts the Bulletin~^s charges as tru e .

^^Nashville Union, February 17, 1863; Nashville Dispatch, February 13, 14, 22, 1863. 54 Nashville Dispatch, February 22, March 3, April 30, June 24, 25, July 10, 186;. Ibid., October 20, 1863. Oddly enough, Shane had been one of the first Tennessee unionists to endorse eman­ cipation. Nashville Union. April 23, 1863. 56 Nashville Union, December 9, 1863.

^^Nashville Times and True Union. April 18, May 3, 1864; R.D. Mussey to w.D. Whipple, ^ r il 25, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, p. 78, RG 393, NA; L.H. Rousseau, G.O. 36, August 6, 1864, D istrict of Middle Tennessee, vol. 9 DMT, pp. 65-66, RG 393, NA.

Nashville Times and True Union, September 12, October 7, 1864; Nashville Dispatch, October 6, 1854. If a Tennessee jury ignored a judge's charge, the judge had the power to set the verdict aside. Other case studies say little about Federal policies regarding slave code laws other than the fugitive slave law. A military governor enforced the North Carolina code until his resignation in January, 1863. Civil authorities in New Orleans tried to enforce the code there at least through ^ ril, 1863. The army suspended the Louisiana slave code in January, 1864. See Gerteis, Contraband, p. 31; John W. Blassingame, Black New Orleans 1860-1880 /Chicago, 1973), pp. 31-33» ^%.S. Army, Department of the Tennessee, Extracts from Documents in the Office of the General Superintendent of Refugees and Freedmen. ed. by Joseph Warren (Memphis, 1865), p. 11; Daniel Chapman to ed. of American Missionary. December 9, 1863, AMA-Tenn.; Indiana Freedmen‘s Aid Com­ mission, Report of the Board of Managers to the First 97

Annual Meeting (Indianapolis, Ind., 1864), p. 28; R.L. Nichol to Andrew Johnson, October 21, 1864, Johnson Papers; (Nashville) Republican Banner, November 18, 1865.

^% ashville Press, March 8, 1865; Memphis Argus, June 18, 1864; Nashville Dispatch, June 25, 1865, August 18, 1864. Pederal military courts in Louisiana made a common practice of hearing black testimony. See Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen. p. 101.

^^Thomas B. Johnson to Andrew Johnson, August 8 , 1865, Johnson Papers. CHÆTER IV

BLÆK GHETTOS # D CONTRjiBMD CMPS

Disloyal slaves ran as>;ay from their masters in a quest for personal freedom, but the promising beacon of freedom all too often led them to the torments of poverty.

Slaves owned little or no property and in leaving their owners they forsook a guaranteed subsistence. Unless they had stolen some of their masters* property, fugitive slaves had no significant resources beyond their ability to work.

Some contrabands compromised by entering new dependency relationships, but most resolutely tried to live as inde­ pendently as possible.

One type of contraband, slaves who had not run away but had been abandoned by their masters, had an excellent opportunity to achieve a comfortable self-sufficiency.

These slaves acquired virtual possession of their owners’ homesteads and all property remaining there. After one

Lauderdale County farmer fled south, a slave named William successfully farmed the land for his own profit and even hired two white field hands for a time. Little military action occurred in William’s neighborhood, but not all abandoned slaves had his luck. Abandoned slaves who lived

98 99 in combat zones found farming next to impossible. They

lost essential farm animals and provisions to both armies.

They suffered additional harm from Confederate guerrillas.

Such circumstances forced many abandoned slaves off the

plantations and into the towns.^

Federally garrisoned tov/ns offered contrabands the

best chance to find safety, work, and personal freedom.

The urban black populations rose dramatically as footloose

slaves moved into outbuildings, abandoned homes, and dearly 2 rented rooms. when the supply of pre-existing, accommoda­

tions ran out, shantytowns sprang up on empty lots and at

the edges of towns. Some of the wooden shacks were stoutly

built and .comfortable, while others were flim sy, windowless,

and full of cracks. Wood was so scarce in Chattanooga that the contrabands there had to live in dirty sod huts. San­ itation and water arrangements were poor. Nashville con­ trabands improvised above ground privies on a vacant lot,

and Memphis contrabands drew impure bayou water for per­ sonal use. Overcrowded housing with as many as six fami­ lies to a room further augmented the dangers to health in 3 this environment.

Since urban free blacks had never before concen­ trated in neighborhoods of their own, the shantytowns became Tennessee’s first black ghettos. The contrabands' virtual freedom eliminated the distinction between the two black castes. Although a few free blacks tried to maintain 100

differences, the two groups generally mingled as one in the

new black ghettos, sharing that special sense of comradery

which belongs to ethnic communities. In the ghettos con­

trabands en cou n tered many new p e o p le , id e a s , and a c t i v i t i e s .

For the first time in many cases blacks could openly have

their own schools, churches, businesses, and recreation

centers. Unfortunately urban life could also breed vice in

its numerous gambling dens, saloons, and brothels. Police

recorder court reports show that drunkenness, brasF/lfng, ahd

adultery were serious problems in the shantytovms.^ Thus,

the black ghettos offered unusual opportunities for either

personal development or decadence.

As the urban contraband population m ultiplied, new arrivals had an increasingly difficult time securing steady

employment.. Simultaneously the war inflated the prices of food, rent, clothes, and firewood. Some contrabands turned to begging or to crime in order to survive. The Memphis

Bulletin reported that during the month of August, 1854, blacks were responsible for one-half of the city's prosti­ tution convictions and three-fourths of its larceny convic­ tions. Desparate contrabands sometimes went to the length of stealing vegetables at gunpoint. Others starved rather than steal, like the woman in Nashville that a Northern philanthropist discovered one winter's day lying with her children on the floor of their room in a stupor. They had burned their bedstead and eaten their last food the 101

previous day. The perils of poverty always stood ready to 5 engulf the contraband's dream of personal independence.

As an alternative means of survival a minority of

Tennessee contrabands {see Table 2 on p. 58j chose to enter

into a dependency relationship with the Federal army. Many

disloyal slaves fled directly to the army but did not

always feel welcome enough to stay with it. One Federal

officer observed that "often they met prejudices against

their color more bitter than that they had left behind.

Furthermore, a campaigning army could not always provide

sufficient protection and food for a large train of contra­

bands. Except for the military laborers, contrabands were 7 out of place when they accompanied an army in the field.

Since General Grant was the first Federal commander

in Tennessee to stop excluding contrabands, he also was the

the first to confront the problem of subsisting large num­ bers of them. For à time he shipped the surplus contra­

bands north, but the War Department quickly halted this

practice. Throughout the war Washington's sensitivity to

racial prejudices in the North prevented the relocation of many contrabands there.^ Grant next moved to establish a

separate contrabands' camp at Grand Junction and appointed

Chaplain John Eaton (27th Ohio Volunteer Infantry) as its

supervisor. Both pragmatism and humanitarianism motivated

Grant's action. The general wanted Eaton to make the con­ trabands useful by having them harvest abandoned cotton 102

fields for the ïederal governaient's profit. In return for

their labor, the army would provide all camp members with

food and medical care. Grant easily won the Y/ar Depart­ ment's approval for this program since the army had already

opened similar camps in the occupied portions of the south­

eastern coastline.^ Wherever the Federal government estab­

lished contraband camps, it undertook a significant new responsibility for the welfare of its contraband allies.

The superintendent of Grant’s first contraband camp was a young Presbyterian minister. Before his appointment

Eaton and several other concerned Fédérais had fu tilely tried to help the Grand Junction contrabands through pri­ vate charity. The chaplain had not been an abolitionist before the war, but the more he say/ of slavery, the more it disgusted him. Eaton came to support emancipation prima­ rily for humanitarian reasons and secondarily for its m ili­ tary expediency. He always viewed himself as being highly practical and distrusted the longtime abolitionists as being too visionary.

E a to n 's assignm ent made him unpopular w ith most y/hites at Grand Junction since "to undertake any form of work for the contrabands at that time, was to be forsaken by one's friends and to pass under a cloud.Most s o l ­ diers resented being assigned to assist Eaton. John N.

W addell, the local Presbyterian minister, flatly rejected

Eaton's overtures to assist in the charitable work: "I 103 don't conceive that any Southern man is under the least

moral obligation to help the negro stealers to plan how

they shall take care of them." Confederate guerrillas

held still greater antipathies against the contraband camp

officials. Although they botched an attempt on Eaton's

life, they did kill one of his assistants. Eaton's per­

sistence and dedication impressed Grant and won the chap­ lain a new position in December, 1862, as General Superin­ tendent of Contrabands throughout the Department of the 13 T en n essee.

The Grand J u n ctio n contraband camp came to an

abrupt end in January, 1863. A Confederate army flanked

Grant's advance units in M ississippi and menaced his fear in IVest Tennessee. Eaton had to send his charges to the safer refuge of Memphis. The evacuation by rail proceeded with great disorder: "Their terror of being left behind made them swarm over th e p a ssen g er and f r e ig h t c a r s , clinging to every available space and even crouching on the roofs.T h e contrabands' tribulations continued after they reached Memphis. Under Eaton's orders Chaplain Asa S.

Eiske had earlier begun to construct a new contraband camp on a river bluff south of the city, but the work was not yet finished when the Grand Junction refugees arrived. The contrabands suffered greatly from exposure to the winter weather as a consequence. After its completion and the arrival of blacks evacuated from a contraband camp at Holly 104

S p r in g s, M is s is s ip p i, th e new camp became known as Gamp

Holly Springs. In early 1865 Eaton expanded his facilities

at Memphis by opening another camp on President's Island

and by assuming supervision over a contraband village named

S h ilo h .

For a short time in 1863 a network of contraband

camps extended across West Tennessee. New camps appeared

at Grand Junction, La Grange, Bolivar, Jackson, and Island

No. 10.^^ Later in the year the Federal army evacuated its

garrisons at the first four places and shipped the contra­

bands in those camps to Memphis. Eaton moved the Island

No. 10 contrabands to Helena, Arkansas, in June of 1864

because of the greater availability of jobs there. Jis the

West Tennessee contraband camp system dwindled back to the

Memphis camps, Eaton's total jurisdiction expanded to

include portions of Arkansas, M ississippi, and Louisiana.

Adjutant General Thomas promoted him to the rank of colonel

and renamed his operation the Freedmen's Department.

The Freedmen's Department officials for West Ten­ nessee wanted to concentrate all of their charges on Presi­ dent’s Island because of its isolated location in the Mis­ sissippi River a mile and a half below Memphis. If the

Confederates ever attacked Fort Pickering, Camps Shiloh and

Holly Springs would lie in the line of fire. President’s

Island had no military significance and so offered the con­ trabands a much safer home. It would also physically 105 separate the contrabands from all of what the Freedmen*s

Department viewed as the evil influences of Memphis and the

Federal camps. However, the relocation of so many contra­ bands was a task beset with many difficulties and it did not finally occur until November, 1864. Spring floods and the war's end prevented the enlarged island camp from becoming the grand success that Department officials had

* f O envisioned.

The slow death of the exclusion policy in Middle

Tennessee delayed the official inauguration of a contraband camp system there. Even after M ilitary Governor Johnson endorsed emancipation, he wanted slaves to stay with their masters, preferably on a wage basis. As a Democrat and a self-made man, he firmly believed in governmental laissez- faire and personal self-reliance. Johnson opposed the con­ fiscation of land for contraband camps because of his con­ cern for the white landowners' interests and his fear of heightening racial tensions. He suspected that contraband camp paternalism would attract "only the dross" and pre- 19 serve their "squalid debased condition." On the ground that any charity would only encourage more resourceless slaves to run away, Johnson even refused to issue tents to ?0 shelterless contrabands during the winter of late I 8 6 5 .

A few Federal officials in Middle Tennessee pitied the suffering contrabands. Post commanders established unauthorized contraband camps at Fort Donelson, Gallatin, 106

M urfreesb oro, and Pulaski.The o f f i c e r s who r e c r u ite d blacks in Nashville housed and fed some of the enlistees* fam ilies in an abandoned chapel. Johnson himself permitted a few contrabands to room and board temporarily with white war refugees in the state capitol. S till, most contrabands in Middle Tennessee had to live a very precarious existence 22 on their own during 1862-63.

On January 26, 1364, the post commander at Steven­ son, Alabama, shipped all contrabands in that town to Nash­ ville without sending any advance notification of his intentions. Reuben Delavan Massey, the director of black recruitment in Nashville, discovered them standing outside the city's railroad depot in the cold. Mussey immediately com plained to G eneral G rant, who now commanded most P ed era l troops in the West as the head of a newly created Military

Division of M ississippi. Grant ordered the post commander to provide for these contrabands, and during a subsequent v isit Adjutant General Thomas established a contraband camp at Nashville.

Thomas intended for the Nasv ille contraband camp to serve as a central depot for all unemployed blacks in the

Department of the Cumberland. As the new camp's superin­ tendent Thomas appointed Captain Ralph Hunt, a Kentuckian who was already acting as supervisor of the contrabands from Stevenson, Alabama. Hunt’s orders im plicitly gave him charge over all contrabands in the Department of the 107 Cumberland. He soon abandoned the central camp concept to open another contraband camp at Clarksville in compliance w ith a req u est from th e post commander th e re . I i t h i n a few months Hunt assumed supervision over the Gallatin and Pulaski post contraband camps. A new camp at Henderson­ ville along with several others in Kentucky and northern Alabama completed the system under Hunt's jurisdiction. Unlike Pederal policy in Viest Tennessee, the army main­ tained a wide network of garrisons in Middle Tennessee throughout the war. Consequently Middle Tennessee had a la r g e r system o f contraband camps, and more sla v e s had an opportunity to run away to the Pederals.^^ Hunt showed little sympathy for his charges and used his position for personal gain. He embezzled bricks, rations, horses, and harness from the Nashville contraband camp. He even ordered camp members to a s s is t him in haul­ in g away the s to le n b r ic k s. When Hunt l e f t th e army at the end of his enlistment term in June o f 1864, the provost marshal witheld the pay due to him because of the unsettled state of his accounts at the contraband camp. Shortly after his discharge an investigation uncovered his corrup- t i o n . 25

Colonel Robert Vi, Barnard of the 101st U.S.C.T., a former businessman from the D istrict of Columbia, succeeded Hunt. Unlike his predecessor, Barnard was honest and firmly committed to emancipation. Barnard assumed the 108 title Superintendent of freedmen for the Department of the Cumberland but only slightly increased his office’s respon­ sib ilities. He brought the contraband camp at fort Donel­ son under his jurisdiction but left the one at Murfreesboro under that post's commander. While most directors of fed­ eral contraband camp systems in the South publicized their work, Barnard devoted himself solely to keeping his camps 26 o p e r a tin g .

Barnard faced but did not adequately surmount a major crisis during the winter of 1864-65» During th e p re­ ceding fa ll Confederate Major General John B. Hood invaded

Middle Tennessee. The contrabands in the Pulaski camp had to abandon valuable supplies and flee to Nashville. Dread­ ing the Confederates* return, many other slaves joined them on the roads to the capital. Those who succeeded in evading capture by the Confederates flooded the Nashville 27 contraband camp. They stayed until early January by which tim e General George H. Thomas had driven Hood from the state. Life was miserable in the overcrowded Nashville contraband camp during this time. The v/eather was bitterly cold at first, and the camp site lacked a close supply of firewood. When the temperatures later rose, the camp sank into six inches of mud. Those who had been housed in tents particularly suffered from this development. One contra­ band went around the camp's buildings begging for planks so his children would not have to sleen in the mud. 109 i^proxim ately o n e - f if t h o f the camp's members died in the three weeks after Hood's defeat at Nashville. Probably because of this debacle, Mjutant General Thomas immediately appointed Colonel Mussey to serve,as the supervisor of contrabands in Middle and East Tennessee. Mussey had always shown great interest in contrabands' affairs. Distrusting Barnard's ability to handle the con­ trabands' problems and perhaps coveting Barnard's position, he had urged the War Department to create this position for him. After gaining the position, Mussey sent his adjutant to inspect the contraband camps in northern Alabama, which pQ lay solely within Barnard's jurisdiction. In one letter Mussey revealingly styled himself the "Chief Superintendent 30 of Contrabands, East and Middle Tennessee." A strange command relationship existed between Mussey and Barnard. Mussey supervised a district within Barnard's Ereedmen's Department, yet he was actually Barnard's superior. As the director of black recruiting in Middle and East Tennessee, Mussey held command over all black regiments in those areas including Barnard's. This bureaucratic tangle ended almost as soon as it began. When Andrew Johnson became president, Mussey left Tennessee to become one of the presidential secretaries. Barnard then regained full control over his freedmen's Department for the last few months of its exist- ence.-^31 110 East Tejmessee, which contained relatively few slaves, never had a contraband camp system. The director of black recruiting in Knoxville began to construct a camp but never opened it. Re was forced to cancel the project when Sherman prohibited ration issues to East Tennessee contrabands,during the general's 1864 campaign against Atlanta, Georgia. The Knoxville and Chattanooga contra­ bands lived on their own in shantytowns throughout the war.^^ The tvfo Ereedmen's Departments which operated in Tennessee tackled a difficult task in trying to support numerous contraband charges. The contraband camp superin­ tendents could never plan ahead because the camp popula­ tions fluctuated unpredictably. Enlistment, employment, dissatisfaction, and death reduced the number of camp mem­ bers. S till, as Table 3 illustrates, gains generally exceeded losses.Desparate need brought contrabands into the camps, but their very entry often made it harder for the camp superintendents to meet those needs adequately.

In caring for the contrabands, the two Ereedmen's Departments relied not only on cooperation from the m ili­ tary authorities but also on the benevolence of freedmen's aid societies. A number of these philanthropic organiza­ tions appeared in the North during the war. The secular freedmen's aid societies most active in Tennessee were the Pennsylvania Ereedmen's Relief Association (Philadelphia), TABLE 3 CONTRABAND CAMP POPULATION FIGURES

Tf- vj3 ■X) X) X m KD s'-' 4 3 w • v Camps d' O Pm O

Grand Junction 1708

LaGrange 750

B o liv a r 1131 Jackson Boo Island No. 10 968

Camp S h ilo h 600 * ]

President's Island 1540 1038 799 3000 * 1568

Asterisks denote estimated figures. TABLE 3“^C o n tin u e d

'4- VO VO 'd" ■

N a sh v ille 560 677 1000* 1500* 481

Clarksville 1400* 1122 2000* 1365

Fort Donelson 300 *

P u lask i 920 1712 1500* 325 391 G a lla tin 273 337 356 Murfreesboro 2000*

Hendersonville # 8

Asterisks denote estimated figures.

t\3 113 the V> estern Freedman's Aid Commission (Cincinnati^, the Contraband R elief Commission (Cincinnati^, the Indiana Freedman's Aid Commission (Indianapolis), and the North­ western Freedmen's Aid Commission (Chicago). All of these organizations banded together after the war as the American Freedman's Union Commission. Several religious organiza­ tions likewise engaged in charitable work among the Tennes­ see contrabands; the nondenominational American Missionary Association, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the United Presbyterian Church's missionary board, the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends' Executive Committee for the Relief of Colored Freedmen, and the Association of Friends for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen (Philadelphia). In addition to the Northern organizations Nashville and Memphis blacks had their own charitable societies which made smaller contributions to the cause.All o f th ese organizations performed commendable services in lessening the sufferings of many needy contrabands. The Freedmen'8 Aid Societies helped the army to meet the contrabands' subsistence needs primarily by donating supplies of clothing. Many fugitive slaves entered Federal lines wearing tattered clothes. Lacking legal authority to purchase clothing for contrabands, the army could only issue them uniforms rejected by the quar­ termaster or taken from deceased Fédérais.Since only men wore these uniforms, women and children had the 114

greatest need for clothing. Every winter the need became especially acute. The freedmen's aid societies sent large quantities of garments into Tennessee but could not always meet the increasing demand. After spending a long win­ ter's day distributing clothing to contraband children, the United Presbyterians’ agent in Nashville noted that "a • 5 7 crowd of crying disappointed ones had to go unsupplied." The directors of the two Ereedmen’s Departments in Tennessee always sought to make the contraband camps as self-sufficient as possible, an aim to which the camp resi­ dents readily responded. Late in the war the directors instituted programs by which contrabands could produce their own clothing. Black women in three new industrial schools at Memphis made garments from cloth sent by freed­ men 's aid societies. Both clothes and shoes were made in the Clarksville contraband camp. The Pulaski camp had even acquired some textile machinery and manufactured its ov/n c lo th . A serious housing shortage resulted from the con­ centration of contrabands in urban centers. Ereedmen's aid society agents sometimes helped them to locate rentable rooms, but only the army's contraband camps offered free housing. Camp superintendents faced a major difficulty in their inability to forecast future housing needs. The La Grange camp once became so overcrowded that the new­ comers only received a blanket and the advice to build 115 themselves a hush arhor shelter. War' Department inspectors

c r i t i c i z e d th e N a s h v ille camp su p e r in te n d e n t in th e summer

of 1864 for failing to provide sufficient housing. The

inspectors did not kno"w that the superintendent had huilt

buildings as fast as possible during the spring but that

the camp’s growing population had always outpaced his 3 9 efforts. Housing problems in contraband camps could also

arise from military events. One unique case was the burn­

ing of all cabins in the Pulaski contraband camp by Confed­

erate raiders. The worst housing shortages of all occurred when Confederate invasions forced the midwinter evacuations

of contrabands from rural posts into Memphis in January, 40 1863, and into Nashville in December, 1864.

The quality of contraband camp housing varied v/idely. Most camps began with tents or vacant buildings.

Often the tents were so worn that they provided little 41 actual shelter from the elements. In time the camps

acquired log or plank buildings usually erected by the con­ trabands themselves. Visitors gave very poor ratings to the log cabins at President's Island and Island No. 10 which apparently had poor ventilation, insufficient light­ ing, and little room. The buildings at Pulaski and Clarks­ ville gained praise from visitors for their solid construc­ tion and comfortableness. The differences in housing qual­ ity arose largely from variations in the contrabands' b u ild in g s k i l l s and in th e camp s u p e r in te n d e n ts ' a b i l i t i e s 116 to supervise construction.

In the feeding as well as the housing of destitute contrabands, the army took the primary responsibility.

Ration issues constituted the army's greatest charitable contribution to the contraband camps. The army issued a generous ration to soldiers, but only the military laborers among the contrabands received an equvalent amount of food in the rations issued to them. When Eaton opened the first contraband camp in Tennessee, he found it necessary to negotiate with Grant's commissary department over the con­ tents of the contrabands’ rations. Eaton believed that the result, a slightly reduced version of the soldier's ration, approximated the amount of food that slaves received.On

January 25, 1864, Secretary of War Edwin M, Stanton set a uniform ration for contraband camp residents in all Federal occupation zones. Probably as a retrenchment measure,

Stanton's contraband ration contained significantly less 44 food than the soldier's ration. Contraband camps could not always rely upon the military commissaries for their food supply. Red tape tan­ gles occasionally choked the flow of rations to the camps. Armies in the field always held first priority. During his

1864 Atlanta campaign General Sherman cut off all rations 45 for contrabands in the area below Nashville. The contra­ band camps had several alternative sources of food. When the Pulaski camp was founded, it depended upon the food 117 stores left behind on abandoned plantations. The Fort Donelson contrabands at times subsisted mainly upon mustard greens which the women picked from the surrounding country­ side. Most camp residents grew some portion of their own food. The freedmen's aid societies furnished the necessary farming equipment and seeds. Given this variety of resources, the contraband camps generally suffered little from food shortages.

Serious health problems resulted from the concen­ tration of large numbers of destitute contrabands in the shantytowns and contraband camps. Contemporaries estimated that the death toll during the winter of 1862-65 alone ran as high as 1,200 in Memphis and 1,400 in Nashville.The freedmen's aid societies sent some medical supplies south but nothing approaching the extent of their clothing con­ tributions. Contrabands received more medical care from the Federal army. Hospitals existed in the contraband camps at Grand Ju n ction , La Grange, B o liv a r, Memphis, Nash­ v ille, and Murfreesboro. The other camps, except the Gallatin camp which had no professional medical care at all, probably drew upon the services of regimental surgeons in nearby Federal garrisons. The contraband hospitals treated large numbers of blacks from both within and without the contraband camps.

D uring th e summer o f 1864 th e f i s c a l a p p ro p ria tio n for the contrabands' medical care ran out, and Congress l i a failed to renew this item in the military “budget. The Sur­ geon General then had to prohibit any further purchases of medicine or medical services for contrabands. Eaton's med­ ical director used a freedman's fund, which was raised by taxing employed contrabands' wages, to purchase some of the needed supplies. He also began charging slaveholders when they sent sick slaves to the Memphis contraband hospitals.

S till, these stopgap measures were insufficient to defray the hospitals' operating costs.T he extant records do not reveal how the other contraband hospitals tried to cope with the appropriation loss. The hospitals' problems soon aroused id jutant General Thomas to attempt their rescue.

After negotiations with the Surgeon General and the Secre­ tary of the Treasury, Thomas effected a compromise solution in January, 1865» The Surgeon General agreed to supply contraband hospitals with medicines from government labora­ tories at cost. The Treasury Department consented to treat the hospitals' bills as éxpenses incidental to the Depart­ ment's administration of abandoned Southern farms (lessees of those farms generally hired contraband laborers). How­ ever, Stanton disliked Thomas' scheme and revoked it in

March of 1865. The contraband hospitals did not regain 50 their War Department funding until the fall.

freedmen's Department officials had to improvise means to operate the contraband hospitals throughout their existence. The Memphis freedmen's Hospital consisted of 119 several dirt floored buildings and some large tents which became so worn at one time that the patients suffered from 51 exposure to the weather. One inspector described the buildings used by the same hospital as "scarcely fit to be 52 occupied by animals." Contraband hospitals did not always have sufficient staffs or equipment to care ade­ quately for the ill. The contrabands who served as nurses lacked training and sometimes administered the wrong medi­ cines. The hospital wards were often uncomfortable or unsanitary. In spite of their serious limitations the hos­ pitals still played an important role in helping the con- 53 traband community to survive. One of the contrabands’ basic problems was their poverty. Freedom sometimes cost them all material comfort. Two Northern philanthropists commented that "it does seem a pity that they should have to live in such a miserable 54. Style, when they were anticipating so much." Yet, most contrabands preferred to endure their deprivations rather than return to slavery. Some survived amidst destitution through their own independent efforts and luck. Others sustained themselves with help from the Federal army's Freedmen's Departments and from the freedmen's aid socie­ ties. Even when living in contraband camps, they still worked toward a degree of self-sufficiency. M aterialistic masters might not understand the disloyal slaves' abandon­

ment of a guaranteed subsistence for an abstract good, 120 freedom, but the contrabands knew that in personal inde­ pendence lay the key to their future.

FOOTNOTES

^Statements by William Lea (November 17, 1865), William H. Lea (October.19, 1865), and Albert Lea (Decem­ ber 16, 1865), iffadavits and Statements filed with the Memphis Provost Marshal of Freedmen, RG 105, NA; E.P. Burton, "Diary," (typescript by the Historical Records Sur­ vey of the Works Progress Administration, Des Moines, la ., 1959), p. 6 (^ ril 4, 1864); /Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association/, Report of a Meeting, p. 7; Nashville Union, February 9, 18^4; Carpenter Diary, January 19, 1864. 2 OR, ser. 1, vol. XXIV, pt. 3, p. 149; Carpenter Diary, January 10, 1864; Nashville Press, August 26, 1864; Friends Association of Philadelphia and Its Vicinity for the Relief of Colored Freedmen, Statistics of the Operation of the Executive Board (Philadelphia, 1864), p. 11; U.S. Army, Department of the Tennessee, Joseph V> arren, ed ., Extracts from Reports of Superintendents of Freedmen (Vicksburg, M iss., 18^%), ser. 2, p. 23.

%arah Kennedy to her husband, February 20, 1864, Kennedy Papers; Lyman W. Ayer to M.E. Strieby, February 18, 1865, A/IA-Tenn.; Pennsylvania Freedmen's B ulletin. I (Feb­ ruary, 1865), pp. 14-15; W.B. Dortch to Maj. B.H. Polk, June 13, 1865, LR by the D istrict of Middle Tennessee, RG 393, NA; undated Men^his Bulletin clipping enclosed with William Wallace to Andrew Johnson, September 2, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn,, RG 105, NA; Cincinnati Colored C itizen, November 7, 1863.

“^Berlin, Slaves Without Masters, pp. 253-257, 381- 390; U.S. Army, Department of the Tennessee, Joseph W.arren, ed., Reports Relating to Colored Schools in M ississippi, Arkansas, and Western Tennessee (Memphis. 1 8 6 5 ), p. 24; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 40; Nashville Dispatch, A ^ril 9 , 1862; Nashville Press, May 1 9 , 1863; Memphis Bul­ letin , December 2 2 , 1863.

^OR. ser. 1, vol. XXIV, pt. 3, p. 149; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, p. 31; Memphis B ulletin. October 25, 1862, May 17, September 1, 1864; Edward H. East to the provost marshal, August 19, 1864, Register of LR by the D istrict of Middle Tennessee Provost Marshal, vol. 174/224 DMT, p. 107, RG 393, NA; undated excerpts from the J.G. McKee Diary in R.W. McGranahan, ed., H istorical Sketch of the Freedmen's Missions of the United 121

Presbyterian Church, 1862-1904 (Knoxville, 1904J, pp. 15-16.

^U.S. Array, Department of the Tennessee, John Eaton, Report of the General Superintendent of Freedmen, Department of the Tennessee and State of Arkansas for 1864 (Memphis, 1865), p. 4* 7 John M, Palmer, Personal Recollections; The Story of an Earnest Life (Cincinnati, 1901J, p. 118; John Eaton, Grant. Xincoln and the Freedmen: Reminiscences of the Civil War (New York, 1907}. p. 3.

®ÜR, ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 1, p. 481; OR, ser. 1, vol. Eli, pt. 1, p. 525; OR, ser. 5» vol. II, pp. 569, 665.

%R, ser. 1, vol. Eli, pt. 1, pp. 501-502; OR, ser. 1, vol. XVII, pt. 1, pp. 470-471; Eaton, Grant. Eincoln and the Freedmen. p. 15; Gerteis, Contraband, pp. 15, 20, 50, 51-52.

^%thel Osgood Mason, "John Eaton; A Biographical Sketch," in Eaton, Grant. Lincoln and the Freedmen. pp. x- xvi; ibid .. p. 5; Eaton 1865 Report, AFIC, file VI, pp. 21, 45; Eaton, Report for 1864. p. 92; John Eaton to C.B. Boynton, September 11, 1865, ES by the General Superintend­ ent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, RG 105, NA.

aton, Grant. Lincoln and the Freedmen. p. 22.

addell Diary, November 25, 1862. 13 Eaton, Grant. Eincoln and the Freedmen, pp. 25- 27; Eaton 1865 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 55. 14 Eaton, Grant. Eincoln and the freedmen, p. 50.

^^Ibid., pp. 51-52; Cincinnati Gazette, February 5, 1865; James E. Yeatman, A Report on the Condition of the Freedmen of the M ississippi (St. Eouis, Mo.. 1864j, p. 1; Eaton 1865 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 40; Coffin, Reminis­ cences. p. 629. ^^aton to ?, March 15, 1865, AiaiA-Tenn. ; E.R. Wiley Jr. to Capt. Channing Richard, April 4, 1865, ES by the Post of Jackson, vol. 89/? 16AC, p. 44, RG 595, NA; OR, ser. 5, vol. V, p. 118.

^^Cartmell Diary, Ju»e 7, 1865; B ills Diary, June 1-9, September 12, 1865; John Phillips, Consolidated Report, February 1, 1864, ER by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA; Warren, ed ., 122

Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 46; Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen, pp. 107-111.

John Eaton to Col. Smith, May 22, 1863, LS by the General Superintendent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, p. 54, RG 105» NA; Capt. T.A. Vialker to Capt. Alf. G. luther, October 26, 1864, IR by the District of Memphis, RG 393, NA; Capt. T.A. Walker to Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson, July 8, 1865, Unregistered LR by the Memphis Sub­ assistant Commissioner, RG 105, NA; Capt. T.A, Walker to Col. I.G. Kappner, November 12, 1864, LR by Fort Pickering, RG 393, NA; Capt. T.A. Walker to Capt. B.R. Roberts, Febru­ ary 10, 1865, LR_by the D istrict of West Tennessee, RG 393, NA; U.S. Army, Department of the Tennessee, Joseph Warren, ed., Final Renort of the Freedmen Schools in the Department Lately under the Supervision of Colonel John Eaton, Jr., 1864-65 (’Vicksburg. M iss.. 1865). n. 5. In his old age Baton incorrectly claimed that the President's I-sland con­ traband camp had been highly successful. See Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen. p. 163.

Andrew Johnson te stim o n y , November 2 3 , 1 8 6 3 , AFIC, file VII, pp. 45, 47-49.

^4jndated McKee Diary excerpts in McGranahan, ed ., Freedmen's Missions, p. 14.

^^OR, ser. I, vol. XXXI, pt. 3, P* 198; Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, p. 10; Brig. Gen. Horatio P. Van Cleve, S.O. 31, December 26, 1863, U.S. Forces at Murfreesboro, vol. 63/87 DMT, p. 184, RG 393, NA; Col. William P. Lyon to Col. C. Goddard, July 13, 1863, LS by Fort Donelson, vol. 172/214 DMT, p. 88, RG 3 9 3 , NA. pp OR, ser. 3, vol. IV, p. 770; Andrew Johnson tes­ timony, November 23, 1863, AFIC, file VII, p. 45; RaJf'ick, ed., American Slave, vol. 19, p. 206.

^^OR, ser. 3, vol. IV, p. 771. ^^Carpenter Diary, February 8, 1864; Senate Execu­ tive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, p. 2; Col. A.A. Smith to Col. B.H. Polk, February 18, 1864, LS by the U.S. Forces at Clarksville, vol. 170/205 DMT, p. 14, RG 393, NA; R.D. Mussey to Lt. George Mason, April 4, 1864, LR by Adju­ tant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA; Col.. R.W. Barnard to Maj. Gen. Oliver 0. Howard, May 30, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA. Patton, Unionism, p. 147, is incorrect in its account of the camp system's beginning. 123

^^Carpenter Diary, February 26, 1364; Senate Execu­ tive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, pp. 3-5; Com­ piled Service Record of Ralph Hunt, NA. Of. iippointment Commission Personnel Branch file of Robert William Barnard, Ni^ R.W. Barnard to Maj. Gen. Oliver 0. Howard, May 30, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission, Second Annual Report (Cincinnati, 1865), p. 28.

^Tpreedmen’s Bulletin, I (March, 1865), pp. 77-78; Nashville Press. December 2, 1854; Porter Diary, December 6, 1864. 2 8 Freedmen’s Friend, I (February, 1865), pp. 26-27; National Freedman, I (May, 1865), p. 127; Indiana Yearly Meeting Committee, Report, p. 53*

^^R.D. Mussey to Lt. C.P. Brown, January 23, 1865, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA^ OR, ser. 3, vol. IV, p. 771; R.D. Mussey to Maj. John H. Cochrane, February 8, 1865, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.G.T., vol. 221 DC, pp. 453-454, RG 393, NA. ^^R.D. Mussey to Andrew Johnson, February 20, 1865, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of Ü.S.C.T., vol. 221 DC, p. 498, RG 393, NA.

ser. 3, vol. IV, p. 771; Peter Maslowski, ’’’Treason Must Be Made Odious’: M ilitary Occupation and W artime Reconstruction in Nashville, Tennessee, 1862-1865" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1972), p. 222.

^^Cincinnati Gazette, February 17, 1864; R.D. Mussey to Col. T.J. Morgan, April 26, 1864, LS by the Com­ missioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, p. 81, RG 393, NA,

^^The sources for Table 3 listed by column were: (1 ) John Eaton to ?, March 13, 1863, AIvIA-Tenn.; (2) Yeatman, Report on Freedmen, pp. 2-4; (3) Lt. Col. John Phillips, Consolidated Report, February 1, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, N^ (4) Warren, ed., Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 3) (5) Memphis Bulletin, July 4. 1864; (6) Capt. T.A. Walker to Capt. Alf. G. Tuther, October 26, 1864, LR by the D istrict of Memphis, RG 393, NA; (7) U.S. Army, Superintendents of Freedmen for the State of Arkansas and the D istrict of West Tennessee, Reports 124

(Memphis, 1865), P* 13; (8) Carpenter Diary, January 11, February 26, 1864; (9) R.D. Mussey to Lt. George Mason, March 28, 1864, LR by Mjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report « p. 18; (10) Indiana Yearly Meeting Committee, Report, p. 57; Brig. Gen. John C. Starkweather to Maj. B.H. folk. May 25, 1864, LS by U.S. Forces at Pulaski, vol. 166/191 DMT (unpagi- natedj, RG 393, NA; (11) Senate Executive Documents. 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, pp. 9 , 11; (12) Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, pp. 28, 30; (13) Freedmen's Friend, I (February, 1865), p. 27; (14) Lyman Abbott, Reminiscences. p. 250; (15) Capt. Richard J. Hinton to Capt. V/.T. Clarke, July 31, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; National Freedman, I (May, 1865), p. 127; (16) R.Y(. Barnard, Consolidated Report for June, 1865, Reg­ istered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA.

^^Background information on some of these societies appears in Minutes of the Convention of Freedmen's Commis­ sions Held at Indianapolis. Indiana (Cincinnati. 1864), passim; Henry Lee Swint, ihe Northern Teacher in the South 1862-1870 (Nashville, I94l), pp. 11-18; A.L. Chetlain at a l., "To the Benevolent and Philanthropic Friends of Freed­ men," n»d., 1865, AMA-Tenn. ; Cincinnati Colored C itizen, November 7, 1863; Nashville Times and True Union, Decem­ ber 30, 1864. Eaton also sent his own agents into the North to solicit contributions for his contraband camps. See John Eaton to Robert W. Carroll, June 27, 1863, LS by the General Superintendent of Contrabands, M ississiippi Book No. 74, pp. 63-64, RG 105, NA.

^%aton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, pp. 4, 30; Western Freedmen's Aid Commission, Appeal in Behalf of the National Freedmen (Cincinnati, 18647, p. 5; Lorenzo Thomas, S.O. 28, May 20, 1863, L. Thomas Orders and Letters Book, vol. for April-November, 1863, p. 62 GPB; Lorenzo Thomas, Order 15, March 28, 1864, L. Thomas Special Orders of Appointment Book, p. 105, GPB.

36indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, pp. 18, 28, 31; /Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association/, Meet­ ing at Concert H all, p. 7; Western Freedmen's Aid Commis­ sion, Second Annual Report, p. 29; Association of Friends for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen, Report of the Board of Managers (Philadelpia, 1865), pp. 18, 22; Penn­ sylvania Freedmen's Bulletin. I (February, 1865), p. 15. •57 Undated McKee Diary excerpt in McGranahan, ed., Freedmen's M issions, p. 15. 125 ■^®Eaton, Report fo r 1 8 6 4 . p. 87; Freedmen*s B u lle ­ tin , I {March, 18^5), p. 78; Indiana Freedmen's Md Commis­ s io n , R ep o rt. p. 30; j& b o tt, R em in isc e n c e s, p. 298; R.W. Barnard to Maj. Gen. Oliver o7 Howard, May 30, 1865, Regis­ tered LR by the ^ st. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA.

James McNeal, "Biographical Sketch of Reverend Joseph G, McKee, the Pioneer Missionary to the Freedmen in Nashville, Tennessee," in McGranahan, ed., Freedmen's Mis­ sions , pp. 10-11; Coffin, Reminiscences, p. 631; Senate Executive Documents. 38 Cong. 2 Sess., No. 28, p. 5; P.H. Clemens to R.D. Mussey, May 31» 1864, Register of LR by the Commissioner for the Organization of Ü.S.C.T., vol. 223/431 DC, p. 106, RG 393, NA.

^^Alderoon, ed., "Johnson Reminiscences," p. 52; Burton, "Diary," p. 8 (April 1^, 1864); Cincinnati Gazette, February 3» 1863; Freedmen's Friend, I (February, 1865), p. 27.

^^Cincinnati Gazette, January 29 1863; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 5; Coffin, Reminiscences, p. 629; Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, p. 11; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, pp. 53, 57; Carpenter Diary, January 11, 1864.

Abbott, Reminiscences, pp. 248-25 0; Indiana rreedmen's Aid Commission, Report. p. 18; Yeatman, Report on the Freedmen, pp. 1, 3-4, 15; R.W. Barnard to Maj. Gen. Oliver 0. Howard, May 30, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Burton, "Diary," p. 8 (i^ril 15, 1864); Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, p. 10; Indiana Yearly Meeting Committee, Report, p. 52.

^^Wiley, Billy Yank, p. 224; Fitch, Annals, pp. 269-270; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 30; John Eaton to Capt. Dockson, n.d., 1863, LS by the General Superintendent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, p. 35, RG 105, NA; U.S. Grant, G.O. 7, November 17, 1862, Department of the Tennessee, vol. 13/21 DT, p. 15, RG 393, NA.

^'^QR, ser. 3, vol. IV, pp. 44-45. Shortly after Stanton's action Adjutant General Thomas unsuccessfully attempted to establish a contraband ration equivalent to the soldier's ration in the Military Division of the Mis­ sissippi. See Lorenzo Thomas, Order 4, February 8, 1864, L. Thomas Special Orders of Appointment Book, pp. 38-39, GPB; Lorenzo Thomas to Edwin M. Stanton, February 21, 1864, L. Thomas Orders and Letters Book, vol. for November, 1863- July, 1864, p. 37, RG 94, NA. 126

Eaton 1863 Report, âPIG, file VI, p. 5; Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, p.~§l Viilliam T. Sherman, G.O. 8, ^ r il 19, 1864, Military Divi­ sion of the M ississippi, vol. 14/20 îfflM, p. 25, RG 393, NA.

*^^0R, ser. 1, vol. XXXI, pt. 3, p. 198; Indiana freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, pp. 19, 28; Coffin, Rem­ iniscences . pp. 629, 631; Burton, "Diary," p. 8; Convention of freedmen's Commissions, p. 16; R.V,'. Barnard to Maj. Gen. Oliver 0. Howard, May 30, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA.

/Pennsylvania freedmen's Relief Association?, Meeting: at Concert Hall, p. 7; Cincinnati Colored C itizen, November 7. 1863.

Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 7; Coffin, fleminisoemces, p. 631; Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, pp. 9,"*îl; Indiana freedmen's Aid Commis­ sion, Report, p. 23; OR, ser. 3, vol. IV, p. 772; Warren, ed., Extracts from Reports. ser. 2, pp. 23, 40. 49 U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. XII, p. 645; ibid. . vol. XIII, pp. 23, 120-130; Eaton, Report for 1864, p. 96; Asst. Sug. Gen. Charles C. Lee to Surg. D.O. McCord, Decem­ ber 3, 1864, LR by the Medical Director, M ississippi Records, RG 105, N-^ Surg. D.O. McCord, Order 1, January 17, 1865, Orders and Circulars Issued and Received by the Gen­ eral Superintendent of freedmen, M ississippi Records, RG 1 0 5 , NA. 50 Lorenzo Thomas, Order 1, « J a n u a r y 1 , 1 8 6 5 , L. Thomas Special Orders of Appointment Book, p. 320, GPB; Lorenzo Thomas to Col. E.D. Townsend, March 27, 1865, L. Thomas Letterbook, vol. for July, 1864-June, 1865, GPB; Surg. J.A. Grove to Capt. W.T. Clarke, September 21, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA. 51 . Yeatman, Report on the freedmen, p. 4; Warren, ed., Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 44. 5? Surg. cl. A. Grove to Capt. W.T. Clarke, Septem­ ber 21, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA.

arren, ed., Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 44; William E. Strong to Maj. Gen. Oliver 0. Howard, July 5, 1865, Unregistered LR by the Memphis Subassistant Commis­ sioner, RG 105, NA; R.D. Mussey to Lorenzo Thomas , febru- ary 24, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA. 127 54 Indiana Yearly Meeting Committee, Report. p. 58. CHAPTER V

THE BEGINNING OF ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION

iis Slavery Began to unravel amidst civil war, the contrabands exploited the disrupted social situation to press for new privileges. They wanted not the restricted rights which free blacks had but an equality with whites instead. Contrabands sought to end their economic exploi­ tation and social subordination by gaining the prerogatives of wage laborers, entrepreneurial opportunities, fam ilial security, education, religious independence, the right to bear arms, and the franchise. In making these efforts to reconstruct their lives, blacks both asserted a sense of eq u al human d ig n ity a g a in st w h ite racism and attem pted to force whites to reevaluate the black race's status.

But as a weak minority, contrabands needed the tol­ eration and sometimes the active support of the ruling Fed­ eral authorities. Except for matters involving military expediency, most Federal commanders paid little attention to the contrabands. Concern for the contrabands' future was concentrated mostly within the Freedmen's Departments and the freedmen's aid societies. These Northern reformers wanted to achieve most of the same changes that the

128 129

contrabands were demanding, but not always to the same

extent or as quickly as the contrabands desired.

Northern reformers in Tennessee fell into two ideo­

logical groups. One group included George i. Steams and

Reuben Delavan #ussey, the directors of black recrcuitment

in Middle Tennessee; üsa 3. Fiqke, a freedmen’s Department

official in West Tennessee; and William F. M itchell, the

chief Tennessee agent of the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief

Association. Except for a commitment to racial equality,

this group's ideological position stemmed from the old

Jeffersonian laissez-faire philosophy. They held that

reconstruction for racial equality necessitated only the liberation, education, and gainful employment of the

slaves. These reformers granted that the freedmen would need some guidance and charitable support, but they wanted

all help kept limited and temporary for fear that it would demoralize the freedmen.^ Mussey wrote "No man is a swim­ mer until Cork Jackets are off him—as well as mana­ cles. . . .Do let him exercise his selfhood and Manhood, 2 working out his own destiny."

Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas, General Superin­ tendent John Eaton.of the Freedmen’s Department for the

Department of the Tennessee, and most contraband camp superintendents subscribed to a different reform philosophy.

Although they did not want the freedmen to become perma­ nently dependent on any patrons, they did call for major 130

programs of paternalistic care, control, and guidance dur­

ing a transition period. These reformers advocated pater­

nalism because of their belief that slavery had degraded

slaves into the depths of irresponsibility, ignorance, and 3 immorality» "It is not like a husbandman who takes a

field in the Spring to cultivate, before the weeds start,"

the superintendent of the Fort Donelson contraband camp wrote, "but like taking the field with the corn choked with weeds until it is almost ruined.The paternalistic

reformers assumed that the contrabands could not improve

themselves without help. Eaton suspected that some African

tribes were biologically inferior, and in any case he con­

sidered it "inadmissable to throw them, many of them as it were, in a state of childhood, upon their own undirected 5 resources." White reformers could accomplish this neces­

sary feat of social engineering, in his opinion, because

slaves were "accustomed and taught to depend upon the white man.Although most paternalistic reformers would deny having racial biases, a prejudicial condescention ran throughout their programs.

In actual practice the positions of the paternalis­ tic and laissez-faire reform schools overlapped. They dif­ fered primarily over how much should be done for contra­ bands and for how long, matters only of degree. Both groups shared the same goal of securing a meaningful free­ dom for the slaves. Therefore, the two groups in Tennessee 131 were generally able to cooperate during the war. However, paternalistic policies dominated in Wartime federal recon­ struction programs for several reasons. The amount of social and economic disorder behind Federal lines demanded a large measure of control. The paternalistic reformers' activist ideology particularly attracted them to working with contrabands. Of especial importance in the M issis- ippi Valley case, the most powerful military official con­ cerned with contrabands affairs happened to be the pater­ n alistic Mjutant General Thomas.

While a paternalistic ideology circumscribed much of wartime Federal reconstruction, weakness hindered the contrabands' efforts to gain equality. S till, the concur­ rent wartime activities of contrabands and reformers would lay the foundations of new roles for blacks in Southern racé relations. The remainder of this chapter w ill discuss the economic aspect of thiô prodess, and succeeding chap­ ters will deal with its other aspects.

From the beginning of Federal occupation disloyal slaves attempted to reconstruct the Southern economy entirely upon a free labor basis. Some successfully coerced their owners into compensatory arrangements, while others ran away hoping to find economic opportunities. The fligh t of numerous urban domestic slaves and the boom tov/n conditions which followed Federal occupation created job openings for many though not all contrabands. Contraband 132 employees tended to be very sensitive about their self- declared status as free laborers. They readily shifted jobs whenever they felt an employer infringed upon their privileges or dignity. Une black laborer arraigned his employer in the Nashville police recorder court for throw­ ing a bucket of water on him. Some contrabands valued their independence so highly that they chose to survive through odd jobs rather than regular employment. Day laborers could earn as much as one dollar a day when they could find work. But contrabands had no assurance of entry into the free labor system. They might not find jobs, or the Fédérais might impress them into labor gangs without compensation. Even when contrabands were employed, they could not always collect wages. Since slaves had no legal right to wages or to testify against whites in court, an employer could withold a contraband's pay without running 7 any legal risk. A metamorphosis from the slave labor sys­ tem had begun, but its completion was not at all certain.

The F ed era l army had th e power to r e s o lv e th e ec o ­ nomic problems confronting contrabands, and the Freedmen's

Department which Eaton organized in 1862 pioneered several economic reconstruction programs for Tennessee blacks.

Eaton and his subordinates held that the American free labor system rested upon a set of values which historians call the Puritan Ethic.® The Puritan Ethic required self- reliance, hard work, sobriety, and thrift from the moral 133 man. Èn important corollary to this concept was the wide­

spread American belief in a moral obligation to improve

one's economic condition. In Eaton's opinion, slavery had

prevented slaves from internalizing all of these values:

Beyond receiving punishment when their task was unper­ formed or leisure if accomplished before its time, th ey saw little relation between their industry and their comfort; not their labor but their master clothed and fe d th em .9

Because Eaton incorrectly thought that slaves could

not own any property, he reasoned that they had not devel­

oped "the innate love of possession, on which is based the

acquisition of wealth.Assuming that the slaves' only

incentive to work had been the lash, several of the camp

superintendents contended that liberty meant idleness to

the contrabands, while these officials concluded that the

contrabands needed instruction in their moral duties, Asa S-

Eisk considered this viewpoint "a sla n d er.A s a

laissez-faire reformer, Eiske argued that the contrabands wanted to earn a living and only needed opportunities to do

so. Despite this difference all Eaton's camp superintend­

ents concurred in expecting their charges to live up to the

Puritan Ethic. According to Eaton, the Federal government

could not afford to allow contrabands "to idle, to beget disease & vice à crimes, Pestilence, death üc bring a dis- 12 grace upon the President & his policy." Expediency com­ bined with theories about morality and slavery to make work programs imperative. 134

Contrabands who could not find employment often

entered the contraband camps in order to survive. Eaton

saw these blacks as his wards and himself as their guardian.

Through intensive supervision he sought to end his charges'

dependence upon the army and to transform them into model

free laborers. Superintendent Eaton initiated a variety of projects designed to make the camps more self-sufficient.^^

He advised one Northern philanthropist: "%hat is better for them than self-help? Should not all gifts to them 14 prompt them to efforts of their ov/n?" Eaton even used the distribution of donated clothing as a means of encour­ aging self-reliance, hard work, and sobriety:

w'e endeavour not only to have them reach the most needy but to connect with their bestowal the idea of reward for labour . . . by showing a preference for those most ready to do for themselves. 15^

Hy requiring contrabands to contribute to their own sub­ sistence, Eaton hoped both to develop their character and to lessen the army's expenditures.

bespite the apprehensions of many military offi­ cials the contraband camp residents showed no reluctance to engage in hard work. The members of newly opened camps often harvested cotton from nearby abandoned farms. Con­ trabands in most camps raised foodstuffs in surrounding field s, using farming materials donated by freedmen's aid societies and livestock brought in by runaway slaves. The

Clarksville, La Grange, and Pulaski camps also cultivated cash crops, tobacco in the first case and cotton in the 135

l a t t e r two.A few camp residents engaged in nonagricul-

tural pursuits. At Camp Holly Springs, President's Island,

and Clarksville some contrabands cut wood for steamboats.

Freedmen’s Department officials obtained a steam sawmill

for President’s Island but could not use it during most of

the war because of a dispute over its title. The Camp

Holly Springs blacks started to operate a brick kiln, but

Federal trade restrictions in the Memphis area ruined the 1 7 business. The camps at Clarksville and Pulaski both had blacksmith shops run by the contrabands. The Clarksville

camp also had a contraband cobbler who operated a shop and

taught others his trade for a tuition. Despite the assort­

ment of activities in the contraband camps some superin­ tendents could not find enough work to keep all of their

charges busy.^®

Contrabands usually could not earn money while living in a camp. The President’s Island superintendent experimented with a wage system in 1865, and the army always gave the contraband woodchoppers small incentive payments. With these exceptions contrabands in Tennessee never received compensation for work assigned them by a camp superintendent.^^ The two Freedmen’s Departments nat­ urally held that the contrabands owed some service in return for their subsistence. In addition Federal offi­ cials distrusted the ability of dependent contrabands to be thrifty. As Eaton put it, "the accumulation of monies in 1 3 6 the hands of these persons is manifestly undesireable until on they are prepared for its proper use." iuost contraband camp superintendents placed all profits from camp economic endeavors in special Freedmen's Funds. The superintendents spent this money a s they saw fit for the entire camp's b e n e f it .

For both paternalistic and practical reasons the contraband camp work programs stressed communal rather than individual self-reliance. Most contrabands in the camps must have considered a temporary state of supervised dependency to be either satisfactory or tolerable, but some of them did yearn for personal independence. As an example of the latter case, the superintendent of the Fort Donelson contraband camp discovered to his surprise after recovering from an illness during spring planting that each contraband 2? familiy had planted and fenced in a separate garden.

While contraband camps provided work for relatively few blacks, the Federal army used many of them in a variety of labors. Some contrabands worked as camp servants usu­ ally in return for rations and clothes. Many more contra­ bands along with slaves and free blacks were impressed into the army's large labor crews without compensation during the early war years. For a time in 1862 and 1863 Federal forces in Nashville became so desparate for black hands that the impressment patrols raided private kitchens, bar­ ber shops, and black churches. A Columbia post commander 137

even went so far as to impress black spectators at a union- 21 ist Fourth of July celebration.

Although the army did not whip black laborers, it

all too often exploited and abused them as if they were

slaves. Federal soldiers gloated that "V«e drill one hour

in the evening and lay in the shade the rest of the day

while the negroes are doing all the work."^^ Contraband

laborers complained that their work "was harder in the war 25 than in slavery." Impressed blacks in Nashville often

had to sleep in the open without blankets, shelter, or fire.

The army fed them bread which its commissary had rejected.

Mostly because of this mistreatment, 800 of the 3,000

blacks impressed in Nashville during 1862 and 1863 died.

Other blacks' ar/areness of these cruelties made it very

hard for the army to find additional black laborers when

n eeded.J J 2 6

During the summer of 1862 Congress had passed

legislation permitting the army to hire the slaves of dis­

loyal masters at a monthly rate of 810. By implication unionist slaveholders retained a right to their slaves' pay under the law. Although the major Federal commanders in

Tennessee kept careful work records during 1862, they did not pay contraband laborers that year. The problem was the

general refusal of commanders to rule on whether individual

masters were loyal to the Federal government or not.^? 1 3 8

The few Federal officials who sympathized with the

contrabands strove to secure fair treatment and vrages fo r

the black military laborers in the belief that such incen­

tives would facilitate their transformation into responsi­

ble free laborers. Changes came more quickly in west Ten­

nessee than in Middle Tennessee (existing records provide

no information at all on the situation in East Tennessee^.

Eaton convinced Grant sometime during 1863 to begin paying

black military laborers in the western end of the state

regardless of their owner's allegiance. In Middle Tennes­

see a desperate need for faithful military laborers, rather

than reformist influences, motivated Rosecrans to take a

first step toward wage payments. On January 271 1863, he ordered his subordinates to pay all laborers except those belonging to proven unionists. However, many of the hiring

officers refused to accept responsibility for paying con­ trabands in the absence of explicit guidlines from the War

Department. The Engineering Department, which probably used the largest numbers of black laborers, was particu­ larly notorious for continuing to rely upon impressed la b o r .

In September of 1863 Major George L. Stearns, a militant abolitionist, arrived in Nashville as the first director of black recruiting there. iç)palled by the brutal treatment and nonpayment of impressed contrabands, he sent indignant protests to both the Vjar Department and Andrew 139

Johnson. Stearns then developed an alternative for

impressment. He convinced 228 contrabands to work volun­

tarily during October for a ^10 wage, rations, and an p q exemption from future impressment. The engineer super­

vising the volunteers authorized their payment after

admitting that they worked twice as hard as impressed

laborers. Stearns also persuaded Johnson to pay blacks who

were then being impressed to build the Northwestern Rail­

road, but he could neither secure v/ages for any other

impressed blacks nor stop the impressments. General

George H. Thomas actually prevented some of Stearns* volun­

teer laborers from receiving their wages by having their

owners paid instead. In December, 1863, a quartermaster's impressment carried off some of Stearns' volunteers in com­

plete disregard of their exemptions.

By impressing some slaves who s till remained loyal

to their masters, the Quartermaster Department aroused the

proslavery General Lovell H. Rousseau to prohibit any fur­

ther impressment of faithful slaves. The difficulty of distinguishing between slaves of this type and contrabands

explains why no more impressments occurred in Nashville until the emergency created by Hood's invasion. After

Rousseau's order the Engineer and Quartermaster Departments had no choice but to pay contraband laborers in order to retain their services. Very few of the contrabands ever received back pay for work performed under impressment*^^ 140

Unlike most contraband camp work, m ilitary employ­ ment did eventually offer contrabands a means to obtain an

income. The army’s white employees unfairly received higher wages, but contrabands s till found m ilitary work steady and rem unerative.Y et, most military support jobs could not outlast the war. If any long-term solutions for the contrabands’ economic problems were to be achieved,

Federal officials would have to start programs encouraging and supervising the private employment of blacks.

Eaton decided early in 1863 that the army should supplement its contraband camp program with a supervised employment program for the contrabands who lived outside the camps. Eaton and his associates particularly wanted to gain control over contrabands who made their living by odd 33 jobs or crime. üne Freedmen's Department official sneer- ingly described these contrabands as "lazy, indigent negroes who live in holes and corners.To meet the twin goals of social control and economic reconstruction, Eaton proposed a pass system for contrabands. This plan would have required employed blacks to register with the Freed­ men’s Department which in turn would supervise the fu lfill­ ment of their labor contracts. Just as antebellum slave patrols had arrested slaves travelling without passes. Fed­ eral patrols would seize blacks without employment regis­ tration papers and place them in contraband camps. On

July 17, 1863, tbe Memphis post commander issued an order 141 enacting most of Eaton’s proposal. Being concerned only about contraband vagrancy, the post commander did not give the Ereedmen's Department supervisory powers over contra- 35 bands’ contracts.

Contrabands suspected that the order represented a plot to reenslave them because it required them to have a white employer. They were too committed to their freedom not to fiercely resist the pass system. After unsuccess­ fully trying to register as independent day laborers, many contrabands circumvented the rules by hiring unscrupulous whites to pose as their employers. The post provost mar­ shal grew tired of the farce by October and revoked all registrations. To end fears of reenslavement, he allowed re-registration under either black or white employers. In an attempt to eliminate fake employers, he announced that the army would hold employers responsible for contraband employees’ good conduct. S till, these modifications in the pass system could not stop contrabands from entering false registrations, working at odd jobs, or engaging in crime.

The military and civil courts in Memphis sent some con­ victed contrabands to the President's Island contraband camp during 1864, but even that isolated spot could hold unwilling inmates. The army's efforts to intern all but the regularly employed contrabands fared no better in Nash­ v i l l e .^ ^ 142

Brigadier General Eleazar A. Paine, a post com­ mander at Gallatin, established the first supervised con­ tract program for contrabands in Tennessee. In the spring of 1863 runaway slaves swamped Paine's post. He urged them to return home and try to arrange compensatory agreements with their owners. Paine also cut off rations from any contraband who turned down a job offer. Some owners refused to pay slaves and then begged the General to make the insubordinate slaves work. Paine promised to order slaves to work if and only if the masters first signed wage contracts with them at the post provost marshal's office.

The contract forms which he prepared required the employer to provide the employee with everything that a slave had received (food, clothes, shelter, and medical care) p lu s a wage, the amount of which he left entirely up to the con­ tr a c tin g parties.In January, 1864, the proslavery Gen­ eral Rousseau reported what he called Paine's "flagrant 39 usurpation" to his superior. General George H. Thomas.

The Department of the Cumberland's commander revoked all the wage contracts approved by Paine, but with uncanny timing id jutant General Lorenzo Thomas suddenly appeared on the scene to order the contracts' reinstatement.^^

D uring th e p r e v io u s y ea r A djutant G eneral Thomas had experimented with his own contract labor program in the federally occupied territory around Vicksburg, M ississippi.

One of the special tasks assigned the Adjutant General by 143 the Secretary of War v:as the direction of contraband labor programs in the M ississippi Valley. Believing that the

complete destruction of slavery depended upon how w ell the

contrabands a d ju sted to f r e e la b o r , Thomas in ten d ed to insure a successful transition through coercive supervision.

He had as many of the Vicksburg area contraband camp resi­ dents as possible contracted out to loyal Southerners or to

Northerners who leased abandoned land from the Federal gov­ ernment. Monthly wages of adult contrabands were fixed at the expediently low rates of $7 f o r men and S5 fo r women p lu s room and board in both c a s e s . Thomas p r o h ib ite d employers from whipping black laborers. After the army had fully satisfied its own manpower needs from the supply of contrabands, the Mjutant General intended for most of the remaining contrabands to be placed in private employment.

The contraband camp then would only function as a temporary c h a r ita b le refu g e f o r new runaways and as a poorhouse fo r 4-1 unemployable contrabands.

Eaton had originally planned a slow and gradual introduction to wages for most contrabands, but he accepted an acceleration of the process at Thomas* urging. On

November 5, 1863, the Mjutant General extended the con­ tract labor system throughout the territory in Eaton’s

Department and charged Eaton with supervising the pro­ g r a m . ^2 Thomas also instructed Eaton to collect a ICgb tax from contrabands whose monthly wages exceeded $6 and to 144

deposit the receipts in the Freedmen's Fund. This tax,

which Fiake.had proposed and Eaton had heartily endorsed,

supposedly would teach the contrabands their obligations to

society. Eaton enthusiastically accepted his new responsi­

bilities.^^ On February 4, 1864, Thomas extended the con­

tract labor system but not the wage tax to Middle Tennessee

under Captain Hunt's supervision. Later that same month he

successfully beat off a Treasury Department attempt to

sequester control of the entire p r o g r a m .

On March 11, 1864, Thomas issued a new set of con­

tract rules for contrabands throughout the M ilitary Divi­

sion of the M ississippi. Because the Treasury Department had tried to institute sharply higher v/age rates during its

attempt to take control of the program, Thomas now set min­ imum m onthly wages o f SIO fo r men and $7 fo r women (p lu s food, housing, clothing, and medical care in both cases

The employer could make deductions from wages for sick time,

"indolence, insolence, disobedience of orders, and c r i m e . "46 ihe Mjutant General encouraged employers to withold at least half of a laborer's pay until the year's end. For most of the year the contract laborers would be alm ost as much a dependent as a s la v e or a contraband camp resident because Thomas distrusted their ability to be self-reliant, hard-working, and thrifty.

Thomas also attempted to enforce the Puritan Ethic through some repressive behavioral rules for the contract 145 laborers. He copied these strictureé from rules which Fed­

eral officials had adopted in Louisiana to keep that

state's near-majority of blacks under control. Contract

laborers could not leave their employers' premises, sell

merchandise, purchase liquor, or possess guns unless they

received permission from an officer called the provost mar­

shal of freedmen. These provisions were distinctly remi­

niscent of the slave code. The crucial difference was that

the army alone, not the employer, had the power to in flict

physical punishment on recalcitrant em ployees.Thom as

quoted the Louisiana rules verbatim in justifying the

army's assumption of this function: "labor is a public duty and idleness and vagrancy a c r i m e . "^8 Given his paternalistic distrust of the contrabands' capability to guide themselves, Thomas believed that they still needed some of the traditional controls of slavery during their transition to free labor. Since he also felt that employ­ ers needed some supervision during the transition, he pro­ vided that special provost marshals of freedmen should enforce the fulfillm ent of contract obligations by both s id e s .

Contraband camp officials enthusiastically approved

Thomas' plan. The Reverend Abner D. Olds, superintendent of Camp Holly Springs, called the contract labor system "a blessing." Since the program would provide paid employment for many contrabands. Olds hoped that it would end the 146

demoralizing idleness, poverty, and suffering of contraband

camp life.The contract labor system started on a large

scale during early I 864 in both West and Middle Tennessee.

In Memphis Eaton ordered all blacks to undergo another

registration. Unless they could convince Freedmen's

Department officials that they were currently sustaining themselves by honest work, blacks had to enter the contract 51 labor system. Table 3 in Chapter IV indicates that at l e a s t 1 ,5 0 0 blacks were hired from Memphis contraband camps alone during the spring of 1864. In Nashville Federal patrols sent out by General George H. Thomas sim ilarly forced unemployed contrabands into the contract labor sys­ tem. However, hiring became so brisk at the Nashville con­ traband camp that wages rose well above the minimum levels recommended by the Mjutant General. Superintendents of the Clarksville, Gallatin, and Pulaski contraband camps 52 contracted out smaller numbers of blacks.

Greed and proslavery convictions led some employers to deprive contract laborers of their pay through overly frequent wage penalties or outright fraud. Captain

Thomas A. Walker, who in late 1864 became both the superin­ tendent and the provost marshal of freedmen in West Tennes­ see, encountered more complaints from contract laborers than he could handle. The commander of Federal occupation in V. est Tennessee had to appoint a special commissioner to assist Walker in processing wage nonpayment c a s e s . 147 Adjutant General Thomas assigned the adjudication of con­

tract disputes in Middle Tennessee to Rousseau before that

general's proslavery bias had become apparent. None of the

extant records indicate that Rousseau ever attempted to

enforce a contract. Colonel Barnard, Superintendent of

freedmen for the Department of the Cumberland, did arrest

at least one miscreant employer. The post commanders at

Gallatin and Pulaski on their own initiative appointed

officers to supervise contract settlements in the fall of 54 1 86 4 .

The historian Lewis S. Gerteis contends that the

establishment of contract labor systems was the crucial

turning point in reconstruction throughout the M ississippi

Valley because these programs insured the perpetuation of

the blacks* past economic dependence, whereas a continued

stress on the contraband camp systems might have led to

independent communities of black landholders, Gerteis also

argues that Eaton and his subordinates chose to allow m ili­

tary expediency to supercede paternalistic reform when they

endorsed the contract labor program,^^ This insightful

analysis needs to be qualified. The refusal of many, if not most, contrabands to surrender their new-found inde­

pendence by entering contraband camps played a far more

significant role than the contract labor system in elimi- nating the possibility that the camps might have become

large federal reservations for contrabands. Acceptance of 148

the contract labor system represented a shift of emphasis

for Eaton's Department rather than a sharp change of policy.

Although paternalistic benevolence declined, paternalistic

control and guidance—the other key elements of Eaton’s

policies—remained.

The Mjutant General's contract labor system pre­

sumed that most Southern blacks would not undergo rapid

economic advancement. % efforts to inculcate contrabands with the Puritan Ethic and to secure wages for them. Fed­

eral officials sought to enable the most energetic blacks

to r a is e t h e ir econom ic s t a t u s . The minimum m onthly wage

for black males under Thomas’ program approximated the

average wage of 311.94 plus board which free farm hands in

Tennessee had received in 1860.^^ While economic mobility would be difficult on those terms alone, the. prejudicial distrust of blacks which permeated the contract labor sys­ tem insured the maintenance of their exploitation and subordination.

While the contract labor system placed some lim ita­ tions upon exploitation and subordination, it still treated the black laborer with mush disrespect. Moses Battle, a

Nashville contraband, deeply resented the assumption com­ monly held by both proslavery Tennesseans and paternalistic reformers that Southern blacks would not work unless forced.

He chided one Northern philanthropist;

Dunno what for, sah, anybody tink dat. De culled folks what been a keeping up the country. Vten da had to work 149

all day for de masters, da work o'nights and Sundays to make a leetle something for da selves. Now wen its all day to da selves dunno whàt fer da lie down and s t a r v e .57

Other contrabands feared for a time that the purpose of the

contract labor program was not to expand the free labor

system but to restore slavery. A female contraband

observed that some things did not change after a former

owner hired her family. Although their old master now paid

them, he worked them as hard as before and s till required % them to address his family as "masters" and "mistresses."

Federal coercion combined with black poverty to trap many

contrabands into long-term dependence upon white employers who in many cases remained committed to restricting the

blacks' advancement.

Some contrabands had hopes and ambitions which none

of the Federal work programs could fu lfill. They wanted to

improve their economic position without ever being subor­

dinated to whites again. Abandoned slaves in rural areas

ran their owners' farms for their own profit, and enter­ prising urban contrabands founded a variety of small busi­ nesses. Skilled contraband craftsmen produced such goods

as c h a ir s , b a r r e ls , s h o e s, and wagons. Runaway s la v e s who took or acquired a wagon and team operated hack transporta­

tion services. Other contrabands ran ferries, fruit stands, 59 groceries, hotels, and brothels.

A few contrabands began rags-to-riches business

careers during or just after the war. Like successful 1 5 0 members of other low income groups during the Nineteenth

Century, these individuals often rose to wealth by selling groceries and liquor to members of their own minority group.

Robert R. Church, for example, had learned the basics of merchandising while serving as the steward on his white father's steamboat.. He ran away during the naval battle preceding the Federal occupation of Memphis, and afterwards he started a grocery with his scant resources. As h is b u s­ iness prospered. Church grew wealthy and p olitically impor­ tant after the war. Examples of economic mobility like

Church appeared rarely in the wartime contraband communi­ ties. In Ai gust of 1865 a Federal army census showed that o n ly 525 individuals or 2jp of Memphis blacks were worth

$100 or more.^^

The most independent-minded contrabands envisioned a more extensive economic reconstruction of the South than the army ever attempted to accomplish. Talent, initiative, perseverance, and luck enabled a few exceptional contra­ bands to gain economic independence, but because of their position as an impoverished minority the group as a whole lacked the power to escape economic dependence. Although the army ironically tried to bring them into the free labor system through coercion, it at least did attempt to secure them the privileges of free laborers. The Tennessee con­ trabands' new economic privileges rested tenuously upon the Federal army's powerful support and the. abnormal 151 wartime situation. Slavery’s legacy of economic exploita­

tion, black poverty, and white racial prejudices remained a serious constraint upon the extent of economic change.

FOOTNOTES ^George L. Stearns testimony, n.d., iFIC, file VII, pp. 59, 62, 67; T’rank Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George buther Stearns (Philadelphia, 19079, pp. 311-312; R.D. Mussey to T.D. E lliot, July 17, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of Ü.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, p. 188, RG 393, NA; /Pennsylvania Freed­ men's Relief ^sociation/, Meeting at Concert Hall, pp. 8-9; william F. Mitchell to J. Miller McKim, February 25, 1865, in Pennsylvania Freedmen's Bulletin, I (April, 18659, unpaginated. Andrew Johnson, though not really a reformer, held the same views as this group. See Nashville Times and True Union. November 14, 1864. 2 R.D. Mussey to Joseph Parrish, March 27, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, p. 36, RG 393, NA, 3 Lorenzo Thomas to Edwin M. Stanton, November 16, 1863, L. Thomas Letters and Orders Book, vol for ^ r il- November, 1863, p. 206, GPB; Eaton 1863 Report, AFÎC, file VI, pp. 42-46; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, p. 29; Eaton, Report for 1864, p. 4. The position of Robert W. Barnard, Superintendent of Freedmen for the Department of the Cumberland, is not clear. He probably belonged to the paternalistic group. See R.%. Barnard to Maj. Gen. Oliver 0. Howard, May 30, 1865, and R.W. Barnard to Maj. John H. Cochrane, July 4, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA.

'^Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, p. 19.

^Eaton 1863 Report, APIC, file VI, p. 46. Also see ib id ., pp. 25, 38, 42; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, p. 25.

^Eaton 1863 Report, APIC, file VI, p. 38. The ideological conflict between paternalistic and laissez- faire schools of reformist thought affected the entire movement to aid the contrabands. See James M. McPherson, The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Princeton, N .J., 1969). pp. 167-169. 152 Y Sarah Kennedy to her hushand, September 13, 1863, February 20, 1865, Kennedy Papers; Craft Diary, June 29, July 17, Aigust 31, 1863; Nashville Press, August 6, 1864; G erteis, Contraband, p. 167; % arren,""ed., Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, pp. 23, 25; George 1. Stearns testimony, APIC, f i l e V II, p . 67.

^Eaton 1863 Report, APIC, file VI, pp. 14, 16.

^Ibid., p. 36.

^°Ibid.« p. 35.

l^l b i d . , p . 14.

^^Ibid.. pp. 14-16.

^^John Eaton to Henry %ilson, n.d., LS by the Gen­ eral Superintendent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, pp. 17-18, RG 105, NA.

^^Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, p. 17.

^^John Eaton to Robert W. Carroll, February 9, 1863, LS by the General Superintendent of Contrabands, M issis- ippi Book No. 74, pp. 14-15, RG 105, NA. ^^Carpenter Diary, February 26, 1864; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, pp. 2, 6, 52; Abbott, Reminiscences, p. 248; John Eaton to Joel Grant, September 3, 1863, LS by the General Superintendent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, p. 71, RG 105, NA; R.D. Mussey to Lt. O.P. Brorn, October 31, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organiza­ tion of U.S.C.T., vol. 221 DC, p. 260, RG 393, NA. 17 Eaton, Grant.- Lincoln and the Freedmen. p. 58; barren, ed.. Extracts from Reports ,~~ier. 1, p. 34; ibid. . ser. 2, p. 24; "List of Colored Refugees from the State of Kentucky," vol. -/213 DMT, RG 393, N.A; Maj. James 0. Pierce to Maj. Gen. C.C. V/ashburne, September 15, 1864, LR by the D istrict of West Tennessee, RG 393, NA.

^®Burton, "Diary," p. 8 (.^ril 15, 1864); "List of Colored Refugees from the State of Kentucky," vol. -/213 DMT, RG 393, Ni^ Abbott, Reminiscences, p. 248; R.L. Barnard to Brig. Gen. Oliver 0. Howard, May 30, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA: Capt. Charles H. Cole to Lorenzo Thomas, October 20, 1863, LR by the Colored Troops Division, RG 94, NA. Con­ trabands on the South Carolina Sea Islands received token pay for their work on government farms. See Gerteis, Con­ trab an d . p. 54. 153 ^^Lorenzo Thomas, 8.0. 94, November 5, 1853, L. Thomas letters and Orders Book, vol. for içril-November, 1863, p. 197, GPB; Superintendents of Freedmen for the State of Arkansas and the District of lest Tennessee, Reports. p. 13.

^°Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 45.

^^Lewis Pettijohn to 8.8. Jocelyn, March 8, 1864, AlvIA-Tenn.; E aton, G rant, L in c o ln and th e Freedmen, pp. 26- 27. pp John Eaton to Henry Wilson, n.d., LS by the Gen­ eral Superintendent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, pp. 18-19, 21-22. RG 105, Nü; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Com­ mission, Report, p. 19. 23 Wiley, Southern Negroes, p. 341; McGee, 72d Indi­ ana Infantry, pp. 22o-227; Abernethy, ed., Stockwell. p. 39; Fitch, Annals, pp. 620, 633; Porter Diary, July 4, 1864. For sample impressment orders see Lt. James A. Towne to Capt. Counsellor, October 14, 1862, James S. Negley Verti­ cal File Material, Ohio Historical Center, Columbus, Oh.; Col. James G ilfillan, S.O. 23, December 4, 1864, U.S. Forces at Gallatin, vol. 168/200 DMT, pp. 138-139, RG 393, NA.

24j.H. Hardgrove to William Hardgrove, July 19, 1 8 6 2 , in C harles F. Herndon, e d . , Some Comments C oncerning Civil War Letters of an Ohio Family (Fresno, C al.. 1959). p. 78. Also see Maslowski, "Treason Must Be Made Odious," p. 214; Charles W. Wills to ?, February 25, 1863, in W ills, Army L ife, p. 158. 25 Rs?fick, ed., American Slave, vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 126. Also see Porter Diary, October 4-16, 1863.

^^George L. Stearns testimony, n.d., AFIC, file VII, p. 58; (New York) National Antislavery Standard. April,9, 1864; Rajfrick, ed., American Slave, vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 126; ibid., vol. 19, p. 116; OR, ser. 1, vol. XXIII, pt. 2, p. 290. A lso se e John ÏÏ. B ird w ell to Andrew Johnson, Johnson Papers; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 10.

^^John Eaton to ?, March 15, 1863, AMA-Tenn. ; George L. Stearns testimony, n.d., AB’IC, file VII, p. 68; U.S. Statutes, vol. XII, p. 599; Œ, ser. 1, vol. XVII, ppl §ÏÏ7~Ï58^59; Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, p. 12. Less scrupulous Federal officials on the southeastern coastline began paying contraband laborers during the summer of 1862. See Gerteis, Contra­ band, pp. 30, 54. 154

2Sjohn Eaton to ?, March 13, 1863, #ArIenn. ; Yeatman, Condition of the Freedmen. p. 4; OR, ser. 1, vol. XXIII, pt. 2, pp. 17-18; OR, ser. 3, vol. Ill, p. 560; Lt. George Burroughs to Andrew Johnson, October 8, 1863, and Capt. James S t. C. Morton to Andrew Johnson, December 5, 1863, Johnson Papers. 29 OR, ser. 3, vol. Ill, p. 840; George L. Stearns to Robert Dale Owen, November 24, 1863, AFIC, file VII, p. 74; R.D. Mussey to W, hit law Reid, December 19, 1863, Reuben Delavan Mussey Appointment Commission Personnel Branch file , NA.

^%apt. James St. C. Morton to Andrew Johnson, December 4, 1863, Johnson Papers; George L. Stearns to Robert Dale Owen, November 24, 1863, AFIC, file VII, p. 74; Brig. Gen. Alvin C. Gillem to Col. A.A. Smith, October 1, 1863, LR by the Post of Nashville, RG 393, NA; R.D. Mussey to whitlaw Reid, December 19, 1863, Reuben Delavan Mussey Appointment Commission Personnel Branch file , NA.

^^Capt. B.K. Polk to Brig. Gen. William T. Ward, December 16, 1863, and Capt. B.H. Polk to Brig. Gen. K.S. Granger, December 21, 1863, LS by the D istrict of Middle Tennessee, vol. 2 DMT, pp. 43-44, 48, RG 393, N^ Capt. L. Howland to Capt. Hunter Brooke, December 3, 1864, Regis­ ter of LR by the Nashville Provost Marshal, vol. 177/241 DMT, p. 245, RG 393, NA; R.D. Mussey to Lt. George Mason, April 11, 1864, Records of Capt. R.D. Mussey, RG 393, NA; Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, pp. 12-15* 32 Yeatman, Condition of the Freedmen. p. 4; Fitch, Annals. pp. 269-270.

^^John Eaton to Henry W ilson , n . d . , LS by th e Gen­ eral Superintendent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, p. 21, RG 105, NA; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 51.

^'^Capt. Charles H. Cole to Lorenzo Thomas, Octo­ ber 20, 1863, LR by the Colored Troops Division, RG 94, NA.

^^Eaton 1863 R ep ort, AFIC, f i l e V I, p . 51; John Eaton to henry Wilson, n.d., LS by the General Superintend­ ent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, p. 21, RG 105, NA; Memphis Bulletin. July 18, 21, 1863; Gerteis, Contra­ band . p. 100. Federal officials in New Orleans adopted a similar pass system. See Blassingame, Black New Orleans, p. 31. ^^Memphis Bulletin. August 8, 13, October 28, 1863, # r il 15, 1864; Capt. J.l. Fox to John Eaton, January 26, 155

1865, LS by the Department of M ississippi, vol. 52/55 DMiss, p. 140, RG 593, NA. Gen. C.C. Washbur^e,.S.O, 79, Jjily 12, 1864, D istrict of &est Tennessee, vol. 12 DWÏ, p. 142, RG 595, NA; Warren, ed., Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 25; Lt. L. Methundy to Capt, I.A. walker, February 15, 1864, LS by Fort Pickering, vol. 27/45 D%T, p. 151, RG 595, NA; Capt. I. A. Walker to Lt. L. Methundy, March 18, 1865, LR by Fort Pickering, RG 595, NA; Nashville Dispatch, April 10, 1864,

^^Lorenzo Thomas to George H. Thomas, February 27, 1864, L. Thomas Letters and Orders Book, vol. for November, 1865-Wuly, 1864, p. 48, GPB; E.A. Paine, S.O. 11, May 50, 1865, Post of Gallatin, vol. 168ADMT, sec. 5, p. 97, RG 595, NA; Contract between Berry and Mary Taylor, Janu­ ary 26, 1864, Miscellaneous Records of the Superintendent at Lebanon, Tenn., RG 105, NA; ser. 1, vol. XXXII, pt. 2, pp. 268-269; S. A. Paine to Capt. B.H. Polk, Janu­ ary 26, 1864, LR by the Department of the Cumberland, RG 5 9 5 , NA. ^^OR. ser. 1, vol. XXXII, pt. 2, pp. 268-269.

'^^Brig. Gen. W.D. Whipple to L. H. Rousseau, Febru­ ary 5, 1864, LR by the D istrict of Middle Tennessee, RG 595, NA; Lorenzo Thomas to George H. Thomas, February 27, 1864, L. Thomas Letters and Orders Book, vol. for November, 1865- July, 1364, p. 48, GPB. ^^OR, ser. 5, vol. I ll, p. 100, 908; Lorenzo Thomas to Edwin M. Stanton, itoril 12, November 16, 1865, L. Thomas Letters and Orders Book, vol. for April-November, 1865, pp. 24-25, 206, GPB. At about the same time compulsory contract labor systems were being established for contra­ bands in other Federal occupation zones. See Wiley, South­ ern Negroes, p. 204, Gerteis, Contraband, pp. 60-61, 78-81. 42 Gerteis, Contraband, p. 132; Eaton, Grant> Lincoln And the Freedmen, pp. 25-24, 111; Eaton 18Î55 Report, Ae'IC, file VI, p. 10; John Eaton to Henry Wilson, n.d., LS by the General Superintendent of Contrabands, M ississippi Book No. 74, p. 21, RG 105, NA. ^^Eaton, Grant. Lincoln and the Freedmen, p. Ill; John Phillips, Circular, December 50, I8 6 5 , U .S . Bureau o f Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Orders and Circu­ lars C ollection, Memphis and Shelby County Library, Memphis, Tenn.; John Egton to Lt. Col. Henry Binmore, June 25, I8 6 5 , LS by the General Superintendent of Contrabands, M issis- ippi Book No. 74, pp. 47, 5 9, RG 105, NA. Thomas soon 1 5 6 revoked the wage tax, but Eaton may have later won its reinstatement. See Lorenzo Thomas, Order 15, March 28, 1864, L. Thomas Special Orders of Appointment Book, p. 105, GPB; Eaton, Report for 1864, p. 8.

^^Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., Ko. 28, p. 2; OR, ser. 3, vol. IV, pp. 124, 143* 48 OR, ser. 3, vol. IV, pp. 166-167.

4^I b i d . . p. 167.

4?Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen, pp. 205-206; OR, ser. 3, vol. IV, pp. 1 6 6 - 1 6 7 .

^®0R, s e r . 3 , v o l. IV, p. 168. 49 Gerteis, Contraband, p. 150; OR, ser. 3, vol. IV, p . 1 6 6 . 80 A.D. Olds to G. Whipple, February 10, 1864, AMA-Tenn.

^Ipt. Col. John Phillips, Consolidated Report, Feb­ ruary 1, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, HA; Memphis B ulletin, %iril 15, 1864.

^^Nashville Dispatch, April 10, 1864; R.D. Mussey to Lt. George Mason, April 11, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, p. 28; Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 SeSS., No. 28, p. 11; R.D. Mussey to Capt. C.P. Brown, October 31, 1864, LR by the Commissioner for the Organization of Ü.S.C.T., vol. 221 DC, p. 260, RG 3 9 3, NA. The Vi est Tennessee File of Contracts, RG 105, NA, shows th a t contrabands w ere o n ly h ir e d a t th e minimum wage rates in Memphis during 1864.

^^Gerteis, Contraband, pp. 164-166; arren, ed., Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 25; Maj. Gen. C.C. lashburne, S.O. 209, November 28, 1864, D istrict of Vest Tennessee, vol. 13 3A'T, p. 142, RG 393, NA.

^^Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, p. 2; Col. James G ilfillan, 3.0. 43» December 22, 1864, Post of Gallatin, vol. 186/200 DMT, RG 393, NA; Brig. Gen. J.C. Starkweather, S.O. 96, October 12, 1864, U.S. Forces at Pulaski, vol. 167/193 DMT, pp. 135-136, RG 393, NA; R.D. Mussey to R .l, Barnard, December 4, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of u.S.C.T., vol. 221 DC, p. 346, RG 393, NA. 157

^^Gerteis, Contraband, pp. 155-156.

^ Ibid.. p. 181; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census: Miscellaneous, p. 512. The federal government did lease some Southern farmlands to selected contrabands, but none of the remaining records indicate that this was done in Tennessee during the war. 57 Undated McKee Diary excerpt in McGranahan, ed., freedmen's M issions, p. 15.

^®Rawick, ed., Anerican Slave, vol. 19, p. 214» Eaton, Grant. Lincoln and the Freedmen. p. 207.

^^"List of Colored Refugees from the State of Ken­ tucky," Records of U.S. Forces at Clarksville, vol. -/213 DMT, RG 393, NA; Cartmell Diary, January 30, 1863; Memphis Bulletin, June 10, 1864; Nashville Dispatch, December 27, 1862; Rayrick, ed., American Slave, vol. 18, p. 68.

^^Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted; The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People (New York, 1951), pp* 90-91; Annette E, Church and Roberta Church, The R obert R. Churches o f Memphis; A F ath er and Son W.ho Achieved in Spite of~Race (Am Arbor. 19747, pp. 11-12; Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, August 21, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA. Also see James T. Haley, Afro- American Encyclopedia; Thoughts. Doings, and Savings of the Race {Nashville. 1896). pu. 206, 211; J.C. Napier, "Some Negro Members o f th e T en n essee l e g i s l a t u r e d u rin g Reconstruction Period and A fter," Journal of Negro History. V (January, 1920j, p. 117. CHAPTER VI

THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION

Contrabands had much more success in improving their social position than in advancing themselves economi­ cally. Unlike economic needs, social needs could be ful­ filled separately from Southern whites. The white popula­ tion of Tennessee generally remained committed to caste restrictions but had little ability to keep blacks subordi­ nated in Federally garrisoned areas. Northern white reformers worked for essentially the same changes in the social sphere that the contrabands sought. The paternal­ istic reformers would have preferred, like the later advo­ cates of Indian reservations, to isolate their charges for supervised instruction regarding new privileges and respon­ sib ilities. The contraband camps looked like the best means for achieving this end, but most Tennessee contra­ bands chose not to enter the camps.^ Although the contra­ bands w illingly accepted any aid which seemed to enhance their freedom, they always retained their independent­ mindedness.

Among other things the contrabands wanted a secure family life. Slave families frequently fled as a unit from

158 15 9

their masters. In other cases, husbands or wives traveled long distances and overcame great risks to liberate and

reunite members of their family who had been separated by 2 sale. Contraband parents, especially the men who enlisted in the i'ederal army, showed much concern for their families' welfare in freedom, is the black soldiers' families usu­ ally lived near the i'ederal camps, the men frequently visited their families even when denied the required offi­ cial permisssion. Inbetween the army paymasters’ rare visits the soldiers helped to sustain their families by sharing rations, "moonlighting" at odd jobs, or stealing necessities. When the Freedmen's Department once tried to move some black soldiers' fam ilies by force from a shanty­ town near Fort Pickering to the President’s Island contra­ band camp, the arrival of armed and angry husbands abruptly ended the transfer attempt. These and other contrabands showed a deep commitment to keeping their fam ilies united and secure.3

Believing that proper family life was one of the foundation stones of a sound society, the paternalistic reformers were very concerned that contrabands should fu l­ fill their fam ilial responsibilities.^ When Eaton asked his camp superintendents how the contraband fam ilies had been affected by slavery, he received such answers as

"Loose « by example" and "Have had no opportunity for cor­ rect notions and practices." Fiske, who did not share the 160 biases of the paternalistic reformers, dissented by report­ ing that most couples in the Memphis camps were faithful to one another b ecause th ey "know what m arriage i s among th e 5 whites." Baton dismissed such fam ilies as exceptions and concluded that most contraband family members felt no obli­ gations whatever to one another.^

Baton's encounter with a sick contraband's husband in early 1863 illustrated his preconceptions. On entering their cabin Eaton observed: "ALas.' his ardent attachment finds expression only in hugging, in condolence, and 7 candy." Because the man had purchased a gift not of food or clothing but of candy for his wife, Eaton scolded him for not fulfilling his familial duties. The husband angrily retorted that he had surmounted great d ifficulties to locate and rescue his wife, who had been sold away from him before the war. Recoiling from the husband's hostility,

Eaton left the cabin. Not until late 1864 would Eaton’s e x p e r ie n ce s among th e contrabands r e v e r se h is v iew s on Q black familial sensibilities.

Not all black families fit the image in the pater­ nalistic reformers’ minds, historians have demonstrated that close family ties existed within slavery. One study indicates that relatively few Tennessee slave couples, possibly as few as %, ever w illfully ended a marriage, while the firmer unions were reaffirmed amidst the d iffi­ culties of wartime survival, the shakier marriages often 1 6 1

dissolved as slavery deteriorated. The cae of Louise and

Hense illustrated the latter possibility. Federal soldiers

frequently flirted with Louise, a young and attractive

mulatto. She enjoyed the attention, but it angered her

husband Hense. Domestic tensions gradually increased, cul­

minating in a fight during which Louise twice stabbed Hense

in the jaw. Louise then ran away from her husband and

their mistress to live with a white man. Contrabands' mar­

ital quarrels over infidelity often resulted in Police

Recorder Court trials for either assult and battery or for 9 disturbing the peace.

Northern reformers tried to make contraband mar­ riages work and to secure them from outside interference through a legal saction. Fiske required all couples in the lilemphis contraband camps to undergo a wedding ritual and used his legal power as an army chaplain to issue marriage certificates. He emphasized that the new privilege of lav?- ful marriage came to the contrabands from a Federal author­ ity by printing the American flag on the certificates. In march, 1864, Eaton ordered all contrabands who wished to live as couples in the west Tennessee camps to be legally m a r r i e d .M jutant General Thomas approved the order and empowered Eaton's camp superintendents to conduct the wed­ dings. Since Eaton did not intend to tolerate marital infidelity in the camps, he required the superintendents to instruct applicants for marriage in fam ilial duties and to 1 6 2

verify that both parties were single before performing the

rites. In Middle Tennessee the only recorded mention of

contraband weddings regards the fulaski contraband camp where the superintendent tried to persuade all couples to undergo a marriage ceremony. Some couples refused to be

remarried, possibly because they considered the idea an

insult to their past marital fidelity or because they pre­

ferred an unsupervised common law marriage. Unce again

the reformers’ offer of a new privilege, one not granted in

Tennessee law, entailed a measure of paternalistic control

and g u id a n ce.

Freedmen's Department officials were concerned not only with binding families together but also with the care of children who had lost their fam ilies. Three orphanages for black children opened in Tennessee during the v/ar.

Black women began two of the orphanages in the contraband camps at Clarksville and President's Island. In both cases, the camp superintendents later appointed a white woman to supervise the children. Martha Canfield, a Northern white philanthropist, established the third orphanage in a con- 12 fiscated Memphis hotel. hxcept for the Canfield orphan­ age, little information exists about these institutions.

Mrs. Canfield tried to provide what she considered the best possible environment for the children. She saiv that they regularly attended church and school. For assis­ tance Canfield relied upon the Memphis black community. 163 The Reverend Morris Henderson, a local black Baptist minis­

ter, helped her to find part-time black volunteer workers.

Henderson also held occasional religious services at the

orphanage. Although Canfield kept the children in con­

tact with other blacks, she seems to have preferred to

place them in white families. Mrs. Canfield's facial

ambivalence was manifest in her special efforts to find a white guardian for Jenny Lind, a mulatto child who looked

white. "I could not bear the idea of keeping her with

black children, and I think I have found a home more suit­

able for her," Canfield wrote. Jenny, however, liked

living with the other black children. When a white couple

finally adopted her, the girl cried and remonstrated: "I

alw ays had a hard tim e because I was w h ite , and now you are

goin g to send me away from here.During i t s f i r s t

eleven weeks of operation one hundred children entered the

orphanage but only eighteen were placed with guardians.

The reformers' programs for contraband fam ilies and

orphans aimed at commendable ends. These efforts may have

increased the aura of sanctity surrounding marriage and

certainly did make life more pleasant for some orphans.

Yet, the conduct of these programs often implied a distrust

of the blacks' ability to fu lfill their social obligations

on their own. Actually black orphanages and marriages

succeeded not so much because of the reformers’ efforts but

because of the black participants' preexisting sense of 164

social responsibility.

Another area in which contrabands sought to advance

themselves was education. During early 1863 a census

revealed that only % of the 1,382 residents in the Memphis

contraband camps could read and that none could write.

Throughout the state northern reformers encountered exten­

sive black illiteracy. Even among free blacks the illiter-

act rate exceeded Volunteering donations and serv­

ices, blacks begged reformers to open schools. The freed­

men's aid societies would spend a great deal of money and 1 7 effort responding to this need.

Black initiative led to the founding of the first

schools in Tennessee for contrabands. During the fall of

1862 the contraband employees at a Federal m ilitary hospi­

tal in Memphis persuaded a white nurse, Lucinda Humphrey,

to hold secret night classes in their quarters. Using only

a booklet of Bible quotations which the hospital distrib­ uted to patients, she began teaching twenty-five students

to read . Somehow lo c a l w h ite s soon lea rn ed about th e

school. Miss Humphrey wanted to continue her teaching but no longer considered the hospital quarters a safe place for

such a controversial activity. She turned the hospital

class over to the most advanced pupil, quit nursing, and

opened a new school in the Shiloh contraband village. In

January, 1863, she received a salaried teaching commission from the American Missionary Association.^® 165 During the same winter Private I.H. Place began teaching Memphis contrabands in their shanties. In Febru­ ary of 1863 he rented the basement of the black Beale

Street Baptist Church, intending to hold a school there.

I'he church's white trustee soon ordered the school stopped.

When Place delayed obeying the trustee, hostile whites burned the church down. Although Place then gave up the work, Eaton entered it. A former school superintendent himself, Eaton began urging the freedmen's aid societies to send teachers to Memphis. The contraband community's desire for education was so extensive that the American

Missionary Association, the United Presbyterian Church's missionary board, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the Western Freedmen's Aid Commission, and the Northwestern

Freedmen's Aid Commission all established schools in the city before the end of 1863. Eaton spent some of the

Freedmen's Fund to aid their work. Adjutant General Thomas ordered military authorities to provide teachers with 19 transportation, rations, and quarters. Black education in Memphis appeared to be off to an excellent start.

But by early 1864 hostile rivalries, sometimes com­ plicated by sectarianism, developed among the freedmen's aid society schools. Because some teachers encouraged their students to look down on those in other schools, fac­ tional conflicts appeared within the black community. Fur­ thermore, the cost of attending school ranged from nothing 166

to rather exorbitant tuition rates. Teacher salaries and

the amounts of educational equipment also varied widely 20 among the different societies' schools. The commander of

the occupation district of west Tennessee tried to resolve

all of these problems on September 6, 1864, by placing all

schools for blacks under the military municipal govern­

ment's control. Shortly after?/ards Mjutant General Thomas

ordered Eaton to assume supervision over these schools.

Eaton waited for a month to see how the military municipal government would handle the school problem, but it did nothing. In late October he inaugurated his o?/n supervi- 21 sory system.

Eaton wanted to make these schools the cornerstone

of a permanent public education system structured after the

New England model. Ke appointed Chaplain Joseph ït,arren as the General Superintendent of Schools throughout his Ereed- men's Department and Chaplain Devi H. Cobb as the subordi­ nate superintendent for Memphis schools. Cobb divided the city into school wards. All new pupils were required to attend their ward's school, but students already enrolled could remain in their current school. Eaton and Cobb standardized tuition, teacher salaries, the school year, hours, and most procedures. Students who could not afford the tuition (01.25 per month for day school and 01.00 per month for night schoolj could pay according to their abil­ ity or attend free. Cobb held sole control over the 167 allocation of funds and school property, but the societies 2? could audit his accounts.

Cobb inmedlately encountered a string of difficul­

ties. The free black elite wanted a separate school for

their children, but Cobb flatly refused. William C.

Hubbard, a teacher who had profited from high tuitions

(S2 a month fo r day school and S4 a month for night sch ool),

refused to bring his school into the system. Cobb sent a

Federal patrol to take possession of Hubbard’s school and

to dismiss him from further service there. Cobb faced one difficulty which he could not overcome: the refusal of most teachers to follow the tuition rules strictly. These

teachers viewed the schools as charitable institutions and

so collected little or no tuition. Accordingly parents who were required to pay tuition became disgruntled. Rising

enrollments prevented any decline in tuition receipts, but

the matter still upset Warren because he believed that

tuition payments were an important means of inculcating contraband parents with the Puritan Ethic. Nonetheless,

Cobb and Warren could not fire the noncooperative teachers without damaging the schools’ operation and offending the 23 sponsoring freedmen's aid societies.

Cobb attempted to upgrade the quality of black education in several ways. He eliminated the multiplicity of reading texts in the schools, established the uniform use of McGuffey’s Eclectic Headers, and divided the student 1 6 8

■body into graded classes. In February, 1865, he opened a

separate "high school" for students in the fourth and fifth

readers. The "high school" became the most prestigious

unit within the school system, and Cobb planned to raise

its standards gradually. Although some teachers and socie­

ties grumbled about military interference, the new school

system greatly improved the educational opportunities

available for contrabands in M e m p h i s .

Northern reformers did not begin any schools for

Nashville's blacks until October 13, 1863* On that day the

Reverend Joseph G. McKee, a United Presbyterian missionary,

opened a school in the First Colored Baptist Church.

During the winter he moved his classes to Capers Chapel, a

Methodist church for blacks. After resentful whites threw

rocks at McKee and through the chapel windows, Military

Governor Johnson promised military protection for the con­

trabands' teachers and schools. Subsequently the Western

Freedmen's Aid Commission, the Pennsylvania Freedmen's

Relief Association, the American Missionary Association,

and the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends founded schools 25 in Nashville. The Freedmen’s Department of the Depart­ ment of the Cumberland never attempted to regulate or supervise these schools.

Outside of the state's tv/o largest cities Northern w hite reformers only opened schools in areas which seemed m ilitarily secure. Schools operated at Island No. 10, 169 Jackson, Bolivar, and La Grange only as long as the Federal

garrisons stayed.Array officers who began schools at

Fort Donelson and Murfreesboro encountered no trouble from

local whites, but Northern civilians who started schools in

Gallatin and Knoxville ran into a good deal of harassment.

Hostile whites set the Gallatin school on fire, but contra­

bands doused the blaze in time to save the building. Knox­

ville Baptists ejected a school from their church, and the

teacher then had to hold his classes in a blacksmith shop.

The persistence of teachers and students kept these schools 27 going.

During the war blacks conducted several schools on their own in Memphis, Springfield, Nashville, Columbia,

Murfreesboro, Pulaski, and Knoxville. Black teachers actually founded schools in Pulaski, Columbia, $nd Nash­ ville before the white reformers did. One of these schools in Nashville had operated sporadically since the 1830s, but all the others were wartime creations, while a few of the teachers were well educated Northern blacks, most were native Tennesseans with widely varying capabilities. One

Federal officer rated the contraband teachers at Columbia as barely literate but then evaluated the ones at Pulaski . . 28 as very competent.

A commitment to improving th e ir ra c e 's s o c ia l p o si­ tion compelled these blacks to offer their services.

Alfred 2. Aiderson, a free black and Methodist preacher in 170

Knoxville, taught despite his poor spelling because "I

f e a lt that th is pepel must be traind fo r I knew tha wair p q humans. I sa crafised my b isn ess." When illn e s s and d is ­

couragement caused all the white teachers to abandon Nash­

ville temporarily during the summer of 1864, black teachers

continued to hold classes. At least one of them suffered

harassment from whites because of her school. In, Columbia

a contraband teacher received a public whipping from munic­

ipal authorities for teaching blacks.The black teachers

shovfed great courage and dedication in pursuing their con­

troversial work.

Competition between black and white teachers occa­

sionally caused friction. Daniel Watkins, a free black and

Baptist preacher in Nashville, ran a school in the basement

of the First Colored Baptist Church. Shortly after V/atkins

lost the church's pastorate to Nelson Merry, another free

black, the white Reverend McKee opened his school on the

church's ground level. Two days after McKee's school began,

Merry v is ite d W atkins’ classroom and requested Watkins to

recommend McKee's school to the students, when Watkins

responded by b itt e r ly denouncing McKee, Merry stalked out

but soon returned to hurl a rock at Watkins. The two

preachers brawled in front of the class until a third adult party separated them. In the wake of this incident the

congregation decided to eject McKee's school from the

church. 171 All of the schools for contrabands sought to

develop both the mental skills and morals of the students.

The most emphasized sk ill was the most fundamental one,

reading. Writing and arithmetic received only secondary

attention, if any at all. Very few schools offered classes 32 in any other subjects than those three. Some white

teachers probably refrained from teaching subjects more

advanced than reading because of racial views which con­

ceived of blacks as inherently having different, though not

necessarily inferior, personality traits than whites.

Blacks supposedly were as Miss Humphrey wrote "intuitive 33 and imitative but not reflective." Therefore, some

teachers probably refrained from offering their students

much intellectual challenge. Other difficulties hindered

the contrabands' education as well. Pupils sometimes had

to attend classes in overcrowded or uncomfortable rooms.

Often there were not enough teachers or texts.Still, a large number of contrabands gained at least a basic educa­ tion in the new schools.

Nineteenth Century teachers generally aimed to develop morals as well as minds, Eaton typically instructed the teachers under his supervision;

Use every j u s t if ia b le means . . . to stim u late the minds and improve the manners and morals of pupils. Remember that you are for the time the guardians of /their/ character and eternal destiny.55

Beyond th ese standard p ro fessio n a l a ttitu d e s the more paternalistic teachers felt especially concerned about the 172

contrabands' moral training because of their presumption

that slaves had received no such instruction.^^ Judeo-

C hristian and V ictorian behavioral norms were intertw ined

throughout educational activities. Many teachers opened or

closed the school day with Bible readings, prayers, and hymns. The popular old McGuifey’s Eclectic Readers and the

American Tract Society’s new Freedmen's Primer stressed the values of cleanliness, politeness, kindness, humility, hon­

esty, thrift, and hard work.^? Teachers sought to incul­ cate discipline by strictly enforcing punctuality and order.

Miss E.A, Otis went to the extent of beginning the school day with fifteen to twenty minutes of silence to teach self-control.^^ At least a few teachers attempted to shape their students’ opinions on current issues. Miss Humphrey, for example, "set aside time to talk on various subjects, liberty and slavery, the President’s proclamation, the war.Education played the central role in the reform­ ers’ plans for reshaping the contrabands’ lives.

Nineteenth Century Americans generally viewed edu­ cation as a key to self-advancement. Most antebellum slaveholders had opposed the education of slaves for fear that educated slaves would be discontented with their lowly status, v/hen contrabands learned to read, to write, or to make arithmetical calculations, they gained tools which helped them to cope more effectively with the world and occasionally to improve their personal fortunes as well. 173 Education greatly enhanced a contraband’s personal inde­

pendence, and as Eaton noted ’’whatever education has been

accomplished among the people cannot be taken from them.

Education would make the reenslavement of a contraband very

difficult, if not impossible.

Education improved social status as well as mental

skills. The sight of black children carrying schoolbooks

startled a new member of the Pulaski contraband camp;

"Lord a massyJ Guine to school lik e w hite folksi"^^ hot

all white Tennesseans found this change pleasing. One woman scolded the Reverend McKee:

The time was when the niggers carried the white children's bboks and_dinner and waited outside to bring them home. Now we /whites^ have ho schools and these Yankees are opening free schools for n i g g e r s . 42

When one Nashville mistress found her slave studying a

speller, she threw the text in the fire. Another slave­ holder drove a fifty-year old slave from his home in mid­ winter because she had sent her children to school. Yet, civilians could not effectively combat the education of contrabands in schools which the federal army protected.

Extant records list only two wartime cases in which threats 43 or violence succeeded in closing a school.

Besides the new privileges of education and famil­ ial security, the contrabands wanted religious independence.

Before the war some slaves had held secret religious meet­ ings to counteract the influence of the proslavery white 174 ministers» Federal occupation enabled black preachers to bring their underground activities into the open. This new opportunity to hold their own religious services freely was very important to the contrabands. One Chattanooga contra­ band told a Northerner that what he wanted most of all from emancipation was an exclusively black church to attend and the right to stay at services past 9:00 p.m.^^

Some black chapels which had been established under white auspices before the war now began to assert independ­ ence from their parent congregations. The best documented examples are the cases of the Liethodist Capers and Andrews

Chapels in Nashville. In the summer of 1862 the Fédérais arrested the white pastor of Capers Chapel. A black preacher, probably Napoleon Merry, then took charge. In

December, 1863, the blacks who attended Capers and Andrews

Chapels invited Bishop Daniel A. Payne of the black African

M ethodist Episcopal (A.M.E.J Church to N a sh v ille. When

Payne arrived, a committee headed by Napoleon Merry requested the admission of both congregations into Payne’s church. Their petition argued that their Christian and patriotic duties obliged them to disassociate themselves from the rebels in the Methodist Church, South. Payne accepted the two congregations into his denomination.

Capers Chapel was renamed S t. John's A.M,E. Church and

Andrews Chapel became St. P au l's A.M.E. Church. 175 ïhe black congregation played an important role in

promoting emancipation and the improvement of blacks'

social position. Sermons treated the breakdown of slavery

as an act of Divine intervention; several of the black

churches housed schools for blacks; some of the preachers

figured prominently in the movement for black suffrage.

Throughout the crisis the religious drive remained con­

structive rather than vindictive. Eaton once overheard a

Memphis contraband preacher pray "0 Lord, shake Jeff Davis

ober the mouf of H ell but, 0 Lord, doan' drap him ini"

The paternalistic reformers went South presuming that masters permitted slaves to have little if any reli­ gious training. They discovered to their surprise that most Tennessee contrabands were familiar with basic Chris­ tian tenets. Like most whites in the state, most blacks belonged to either the Baptist or the Methodist faiths.

By training and working with black preachers, the American

Baptist Home Mission Society was able to organize a number of black congregations in Tennessee. Northern Methodists, hov/ever, did not send missionaries into the state during the war. Congregational and United Presbyterian mission­ aries did not have much success in Tennessee and tended to frown upon the contrabands' preference for evangelical 49 religion. Chaplain Joseph Warren, for example, accused the contrabands of substituting "feeling for principle, presumption for faith, rant for knowledge, and the noisy 176 demonstrations of occasional religiousness for the daily 50 quiet moralities of life." Except by preaching morality in the contraband camps and schools, nonevangelical minis­ ters had little impact on contrabands.

During Federal occupation Tennessee contrabands gained religious independence, educational opportunities, and familial security. These new social privileges signif­ icantly increased the former slaves’ 'control over their private life, simultaneously reflecting and fulfilling their sense of having a greater human dignity. The contra­ bands could take advantage of wartime social disruptions to liberate their families and religion from white control, but only the Northern reformers had the power and the amount of professional expertise to secure contrabands marriage licences and numerous schools.- Contrabands expressed appreciation for the reformers' help, but reform­ ers rarely gave contrabands any recognition for their own efforts to reconstruct their social position.Only after a year's experience working with contrabands did William F.

Mitchell of the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association w rite:

I have • . . heretofore pleaded for the Freedmen, for what they can be made under the influence of freedom. Hereafter I contend for the colored people of Tenessee fo r what they a r e . 52 177

FOOTNOTES

^Indiana Freedmen’s ALd Commission, Report, p. 29; Warren, ed.. Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 62; Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen, p. 5; Brig. Gen. M. Brayman, S.O. 14, January 20, 1863, Post of B olivar, vol. 88/269 DArk, p. 7, HG 393, NA.

^Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1923 (New York, 197^3, pp. 267-269; R ip ley, S laves and Freedmen. p. 150; Maj. Gen. Augustus L. Ghetlain to Lt. Col. T. Harris, April 12, 1864, IS by the Tennessee Director for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 34/60 DWT, pp. 38-39, RG 393, HA; Charles Jills to ?, November 21, 1862, in W ills, ibrmy L i f e , p. 142; Rawick, ed., American Slave, vol. 7, p. 312; ibid., vol. 19, p. 205; Trimble, ed., "Behind the Lines," p. 50.

L t. Col. Joseph R. Putnam to Brig. Gen. W.D. Whipple, January 30, 1865, LR by the Department of the Cumberland, RG 393, NA; Lt. Col. John Foley to Lt. Col. T. Harris, January 11, 1865, Unregistered LR by the District of West Tennessee, RG 393, NA; Jiaj. John A. Shannon to Lt, H.H. Deane, March 6, 1864, 1st U.S.C.A. (iieavyj Letterbook, p. II, RG 94, NA. Also see Maj. Gen. Augustus L. Ghetlain to Lorenzo Thomas, ^ r i l 15, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA.

^2 at on 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, pp. 35-37. 5 Ibid., p. 17. Also see Gutman, Black Family, p. 295. ^ I b id .. pp. 35-37. 7 Ibid.. p. 36.

^ b id . ; Warren, e d ., E xtracts from R eports, se r . 2, p. 62; Eaton, Report for 1864, pp. 89-94. 9 Gutman, Black Family, passim; Blassingame, Slave Community, pp. 81-92, 102-103; E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1939), pp. 98- 100, 106; Meriwether, Recollections, pp. 65-66. For typi­ cal court cases see Nashville Dispatch, April 23, 1863; Memphis B u lle t in . December 22, 1863*

^*^L. Humphrey, "Thanksgiving Day in Camp," August 20, 1863, #IA-Tenn.; Eaton, Grant. Lincoln and the Freedmen. p. 35; John Eaton, Circular, March 19, 1864, U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands Orders and and Circulars Collection, Memphis and Shelby County Library. 178

ii similar order was issued by the superintendent of contra­ bands for the South Carolina Sea Islands. See Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction, p. 236.

^^iorenzo Thomas, Order 15» March 28, 1864, 1, Thomas Special Orders of Appointment Book, p. 105, GPB; Warren, ed.. Extracts from Reports, ser. 1, p. 39; Rawick, ed., Anerican Slave, vol. 18, p. 58; Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the freedmen, op. 34-36; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIG, file VI, pp. 35-36.

^^Eaton, Report for 1864, p. 88; lestern Freedmen’s Aid Commission, Second Annual Report, p. 28; Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the-Freedmen. pp. 201-202; Warren, ed., Extracts from Documents, p. 13*

arren, ed., Extracts from Documents, pp. 13, 17- 18, 20.

l^ibid., p. 21.

^^Ibid. , p. 13.

iGgaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 3; U.S. Cen­ sus Office, Eighth Census: Miscellaneous, p. 508; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census: Population, pp. 592, 594. Around lS@o of adult whites were illiterate.

^^Carpenter Diary, January 23, 1864; Cartmell Diary March 12, 1863; Warren, e d ., E xtracts from Documents, p. 5; Joe Bames to S. S. Jocelyn, January 26, 1803, AWA-Tenn.; Indiana Freedmen’s Aid Commission, Report, pp. 24-25; Swint, Northern Teacher, chap. 1. 1 o Warren, ed., Extracts from Documents, pp. 5-7; L. Humphrey to A.S. Fiske, n.d., and Joe Barnes to S.S. Jocelyn, January 26, 1863, AvlA-Tenn.

^^Warren, ed.. Extracts from Documents, pp. 6-7; John Eaton to Brig. Gen, James C. Veatch, March l6 , 1863, and John Eaton to M. Boynton, n.d., 13 by the General Superintendent of Contrabands, Mississippi Book No. 74, pp. 38, 41-42, RG 105, NA; Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen, pp. x ii, 194.

^%axren, ed., Extracts from Documents, pp. 8, 10; U.S. Army, Department of the Tennessee, Joseph Warren, ed.. Reports Relating to Colored Schools in M ississippi, Arkan­ sas, and West Tennessee (Memphis, 1865J, p. 24; Charles W arren to Brig. Gen. Augustus L. Ghetlain, June 22, 1865, LR by the District of West Tennessee, RG 393, NA; Rose M. 179

Kennedy to George Whipple, May 23» 1864, AivîA-Tenn.

^Igaj. Gen. C,C. Washburne, S.O. 134, September 6, 1864, District of uest Tennessee, vol. 13 DwT, p. 7, RG 393, NA; Charles Warren to Brig. Gen. Augustus L. Ghetlain, June 22, 1863, LR by the D is tr ic t of West Tennessee, RG 393, NA; Eaton, Report for 1864. pp. 85-86; Warren, ed., Extracts from Documents, p. 9.

^^Warren, ed., Extracts from Documents, pp. 9-11 ; Similar school systems appeared in occupied portions of Virginia, North Carolina, and Louisiana. See Wiley, South­ ern Negroes, pp. 262-263, 265. arren, ed., Extracts from Documents, pp. 12-14; L.K. Cobb to George Whipple, December 5, 1864, iMA-Tenn.; ï(arren, ed. , Reports Relating to Colored Schools, pp. 7, 21;warren, e d ., Final R eport, p. 6.

^^Charles Warren to Brig. Gen. Augustus L. Ghetlain, June 22, 1865, LR by the District of West Tennessee, RG 393, NA; Warren, e d ., Reports Relating to Colored S ch ools, pp. 7, 22. pc J.’W. Wait, "The United Presbyterian Mission among the Freedmen in N a sh v ille ," in mcGranahan, e d ., Freedmen's Missions , pp. 1-2; undated McKee Diary excerpts, ib id ., p. 14; Daniel Chapman to the American M issionary e d ito r , December 9, 1863, Louis P ettijo h n to S.S. Jocelyn, May 23, 1864, and Ira Bristol to ?, June 7, 1864, AMA-Tenn.; R.D. Mussey to Andrew Johnson, February 20, 1865, Johnson Papers. ^^t. Col. John Phillips, Consolidated Report, Feb­ ruary 20, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA; Cartmell Diary, June 1, 1863; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 12; Coffin, Reminis- cences, p. 629. ndiana Freedmen’s Aid Commission, Report, pp. 18-20, 23-24; Western Freedmen's Aid Commission, Second Annual Report, pp. 28, 33; McGranahan, "Early H istory of Knoxville College," in wIcGranahan, ed., Freedmen's Missions, p. 22; National Freedman, I (May, 1865), p. 127; Lt. Col. Alexander M. York to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, -August 5, 1865, U nregistered LR by the A sst. Com. fo r Ky. and Tenn. , RG 105, NA. pQ U.S. Army, Department of the Tennessee, Joseph Warren, ed.. Report and Extracts Relating to Colored Schools (Memphis, 1864)', PP« 7-8; Freedmen's Friend, I (June, 1865), p. 66; Cincinnati Colored Citizen, November 7, 180

1863; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, pp. 23-24, 27-30; Alfred E. Anderson to W,E* hi ting, April 25, 1865, AiviA-Tenn.; Schweninger, "Free-Slave Phenomenon,'’ pp. 296- 298. Only two schools, one in Clarksville and the other in rnemphis, had h ir a c ia l teaching s t a f f s dufing the war. For information on black teachers in other parts of the South see Wiley, Southern Negroes, pp. 278-279; Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen. p. 138. "" 29 Alfred Anderson to W.E. Whiting, j^ril 25, 1865, AMA-îenn.

^*^Lt. Henry S. P la tt to Brig. Gen. John F. k i l l e r , August 31, 1864 LR by the Post of Nashville, HG 393, NA; Indiana Fyeedmen's Aid Commission, Report. pp. 27-28; Nash­ ville Times and True Union, April 18, 1864.

^^N ashville D ispatch, December 10, 1863; J.W. Wait, "i.ïission in Nashville," in wicGranahan, ed., Freedmen’s Mis­ sions , pp. 2-3. The aïait article mentions two other simi­ la r cases. 32 L. Humphiy to A.S. Fiske, n.d., C.L. Tambling to George Whipple, January 14, 1865, Alfred E. Anderson to W.E. Whiting, April 25, 1865, and E.S. Otis to George Whipple, March 1, 1864, - AT^A-Tenn. ; R.D. Mussey to Andrew Johnson, February 20, 1865 , Johnson Papers; Warren, ed., Extracts from Reports, ser. 1, p. 34; Warren, ed., Final Report, p. 6.

^^L. Humphrey to A.8. F isk e, n .d ., AviA-Tenn. Also see George M. Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817-19147New York. 1971J; Eaton I 8 6 3 Report, AFIC, f i l e VI, pp. 1 3 , 2 5 .

^^Eaton, Report for 1864, p. 82; Burton, "Diary," p. 8 (i^ril 1 5 , 18649; Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission, Appeal. pp. 7-8; .Charles Warren, Circular, May 25, 1865, U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands Orders and Circulars Collection, Memphis and Shelby County P ublic Library, Memphis, Tenn.; R.D. Mussey to Andrew Johnson, February 20, 1865, Johnson Papers; L. Humphrey to A.S. F isk e, n .d ., and Rose M. Kennedy to George Whipple, April 5, 1864, MA-Tenn.; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, pp. 20, 24-25. 35 Warren, ed., Extracts from Documents. p. 10.

Rose M, Kennedy to George Whipple, April 5 , I 8 6 4 , AviA-Tenn.; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, 181

pp. 21-24; Vk,arren, éd., Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 62; Swint, Northern Teacher, p. 69. 37 Western Freedmen's Aid Commission, Second Annual Report, p. 33; Warren, e d ., Reports Relating; to Colored S ch o o ls, p. 23; L. Humphrey to A.S. F isk e, n .d ., MA-Tenn.; American Tract Society, The Freedmen's Primer of First Reader ( Boston, 18543, esp. pp. 10, 30-41 (Fisk University Library in Nashville, Tenn., has a copy which was probably used in that city during or after the warj. For a sample of the i.IcGuffey series see William McGuffey, Eclectic First Reader (Cincinnati, 1844), esp. pp. 11, 45, 83-99.

’warren, ed., Reports Relating to Colored Schools, p. 24; Warren, ed., Extracts from Documents, p. 10; ii. Humphrey to the American Missionary editor, June 11, 1863, and E.S. Otis to George Whipple, March 1, 1864, AfiiA-Tenn.

Humphrey to A.S. F isk e, n.d . , AiAA-Tenn. Also see Joe Barnes to S.S. Jocelyn, January 26, 1863, AiviA-Tenn. ; Rawick, ed., American Slave, vol. 18, p. 58; Swint, North- ern Teacher, p. 8é. ""

arren, ed., Extracts from Documents, p. 11. Also see Joe Bames to S.S. Jocelyn, January 26, 1863, AIvIA-Tenn. ; R.D. Mussey to J.M. McKim, April 6, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, p. 58, RG 393, NA; Swint, Northern Teacher, pp. 51-52.

^^Cincinnati Gazette, April 19, 1864.

“^^ndated McKee Diary excerpt, in McGranahan, ed. , Fr e ed men's Missions, p. 14. The Nashville public schools closed during the war; hence the woman's reference to the absence of schools for whites.

^^Chap. John Lawrence to B.H. Campbell, January 26, 1865, LR by the 15th Ü.S.C.I. , RG 94, N’4' R.D. Mussey to It. George Mason, March 28, 1864 LR by jutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, pp. 27-28; larren, ed., Extracts from Documents, p. 6.

^'^dward P. Smith to wi.E. Strieby, July 21, 1865, AMA-Tenn.; Rawick, e d ., American S la v e , v o l. 18, pp. 44, 53; ivright, Sixth Iowa Infantry, p. 1^9; Mildred Throne, ed., "The Civil War Diary of C.F. Boyd, Fifteenth Iowa Infan­ try ," Iowa Journal of History, L (April, 1952), p. 175; Eaton 18^3 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 40; Powers, Pencilings, p. 112 (October 12, 1864). 182 45 J. Wooldridge, ed. History of Nashville, Tennes­ see (Nashville, 1890), p. 503; Daniel A. Payne, History of the Mrican methodist Church, ed. by C.S. Church~^N ash ville, 1891), pp. 471-472. Por other cases see John Eaton to Brig. Gen. James C. Veatch, march 16, 1863, LS by the Gen­ eral Superintendent of Contrabands, Mississippi Book Ho. 74, pp. 41-42> RG 105, NA: L.H. Cobb to George Whipple, Decem­ ber 5, 1854, AMA-Tenn.

^^National freedmen, I (September, 1865), p. 265; Powers, Pencilings, p. 67 (May 1, 1864); wright. Sixth Iowa In fa n try , p. 169; Henry 3. P la tt to Brig. Gen. John F. miller, August 31, 1364, LR by the Post of Nashville, RG 393, NA; Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, pp. 23-24; Nashville Press and Times, May 29, 1865."

4^Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen. p. 351. On this aspect of black religion see Genovese, Roll. Jordan, Roll. pp. 254-255.

AO warren, ed., Extracts from Reports, ser. 2, p. 62; Indiana Yearly Meeting Committee, Report. p. 55; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, pp. 11, 17; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census: Miscellaneous, pp. 468-470. 49 David M. Tucker, Black Pastors and Leaders; Memphis, 1819-1972 (Memphis, 1975), p. 8; F u lle r , Negro Baptists, p. 24; Warren, ed., Reports Relating to Colored Schools. p. 15; Home Evangelist, XV (ApH!i . 1865), p. 15; H.L. Way1and to Brig. Gen. J.D. Webster, August 15, 1864, Johnson Papers. Northern missionary efforts had the same results in the South Carolina Sea Islands. See Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction, pp. 73-74.

50. Warren, ed., Reports Relating to Colored Schools, p. 15. Also see Freedmen's Friend, I (April, 1865), p. 45; Indiana Yearly Meeting Committee, Report. p. 56; Eaton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, p. 17. 51 Indiana Freedmen's Aid Commission, Report, p. 25; Home Evangelist. XV (April, 1864), p. 15.

^^Freedmen's Friend. I (April, 1865), p. 45. CHAPTER VII

BLACK MILITARY SERVICE

During the spring of 1863 Adjutant General Thomas travelled the length of the Mississippi Valley, addressing Federal troops about the army's manpower shortage and the expediency of recruiting as many contrabands as possible to fill the gap. Congress had empowered the President to accept black recruits back in July, 1862, but Lincoln had shown little interest in the idea at that time. Not until after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation did the

Administration initiate large-scale recruitment of blacks.

In March of 1863 Secretary of %ar Stanton ordered the

Adjutant General to organize a massive black enlistment program in the Western war th ea ter. Thomas' high authority and his rousing oratory silenced most dissenters. In his wake a s e r ie s of post commanders e n th u s ia stic a lly began recruiting black regiments. Tennessee slaves, whom state

Im had always prohibited from bearing arms, had now gained their ultimate opportunity for contributing to slavery's destruction. The number of disloyal slaves in the South and the extensive Federal use of this resource contributed significantly to the Union's eventual triumph over the

183 184

Confederacy. ^

iiven before black recru itin g commenced, some con­ trabands had shown a desire to fight for the Fédérais.

%hen a Federal cavalry unit could not dislodge a sniper during a skirmish at Lebanon in May of 1662 an officer's contraband servant succeeded in killing the Confederate.

Contrabands volunteered to do guard duty at several contra­ band camps, and at Bolivar they once beat off a Confederate attack. À number of contrabands offered to fight during the seige of Nashville in the fall of 1862 and during an engagement at Fort Donelson in February of 186]. On both occasions the Federal commanders refused the contrabands' services. During the Fort Donelson battle, though, several contrabands picked up r i f l e s from wounded so ld ie r s and joined the fig h t in blatant disregard of the commanders' 2 orders.

Upon arriving in lest Tennessee, Adjutant General

Thomas found a pre-existing interest in black enlistment among contrabands and some military officials. John Eaton and other paternalistic reformers held that supervised military service would develop manly qualities in the for­ mer sla v e s. The post commander at Jackson had already begun recruiting a black regiment without authority.

Thomas gave his official sanction to the Jackson regiment, and also empowered contraband camp superintendents to recruit within their camps.^ With General Grant's support 185

Thomas initiated additional recruiting projects at Bolivar,

La Grange, and Memphis.^

Beginning black recruitment in Middle Tennessee was not as easy as in the western part of the state. On

March 25, 1863, Lincoln wrote Johnson urging him to start recruiting blacks. The Military Governor did not want to tamper with slavery and so did nothing. Later that year on the Fourth of July Private James T. üyers, a Federal from

Illinois, recruited and trained a group of contrabands at

Gallatin with the approval of General Paine, the post com­ mander. Paine nervously telegraphed Johnson four times in the space of thirteen days begging him to grant the effort official authorization. The outcome of Paine's pleas is unknown, but on July 25 General Rosecrans bowed to pressure from the Adjutant General and began recruiting from among the impressed contrabands laborers in Nashville.

In order to increase black enlistments in Middle

Tennessee, Stanton appointed Major George L. Stearns as a special Commissioner for the Organization of United States

Colored Troops in that region. Stearns had belonged to the

"Secret Six," the militant Northern abolitionists who had financed John Brown's abortive 1859 attempt to start a slave rebellion at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and he came to

Nashville "determined to burn slavery out, or be burned by it myself."^ This appointment must have appalled Johnson, who like other Southern politicians in 185 9, had vehemently 186

condemned Brown’s conspiracy. Having p u b lic a lly endorsed

emancipation only a few days before Stearns arrived in

Nashville, Johnson still felt that the controversial matter 7 required cautious and discrete treatment.

On September 16 Johnson told Stearns that he would

object to any large-scale recruiting program.® The next

day Johnson wired Washington to request Stearns’ removal,

claiming that the famous abolitionist "with his notions" would offend public sentiment and endanger the unionist

movement in Tennessee. Johnson also contended that contra­ bands were needed much more as military support laborers

than as soldiers.^ linooln’s reply yielded nothing to

Johnson’s objections: "let me urge that you do your utmost to get every man, black and white, under arms at the ear­ l i e s t moment." Stanton’s accompanying note reaffirm ed the new policy of black enlistment and made only one concession;

"If Major Stearns . . . is obnoxious, he will of course be removed.Johnson buckled under this pressure and decided to coexist with Stearns. But before Stearns pro­ ceeded further, Johnson convinced the Viar Department to promise unionist slaveholders S300 for each slave they enlisted and manumitted. Stearns then established a wide netvrork of r e c r u itin g sta tio n s at C la r k sv ille , G a lla tin ,

Nashville, Murfreesboro, Columbia, Shelbyville, and

Wartrace. 187

During the winter of 1853-64 the black recruitment structure in Tennessee underwent reorganization. Grant placed Brigadier General Augustus L. Ghetlain, an aboli­ tionist from Illinois, in charge of recruiting operations in West Tennessee. Grant also directed the commander of the Department of the Ohio to open a recruiting station at

Knoxville. In Middle Tennessee Steams resigned because of personal differences with Secretary Stanton. Captain

(soon Colonel) Mussey, who had served as Stearns’ assistant, 12 then became the acting commissioner» On February 6 and 9,

1864, Adjutant General Thomas linked these three separate operations in a command structure: Mussey would direct recruiting in East and Middle Tennessee from Nashville, and

Ghetlain would oversee all recruiting in the state from

Memphis. Ghetlain studiously avoided publicity and rarely expressed any opinions. Mussey, in contrast, frequently entered the public spotlight to champion the contrabands' interests. His weekly reports to Ghetlain, copies of which went to a number of Federal o f f i c i a l s , were a ctu a lly news­ letters about contraband affairs in Middle Tennessee.

Mussey carefully cultivated good relations with Johnson to the benefit of black recruiting and possibly to the general benefit of contrabands as well.^^

Although many blacks wanted to f ig h t , a number of factors made it difficult for the recruiters to secure large numbers of enlistees. One black soldier observed 188

that a "Heap of slaves was afraid to go /ïn7to the army.

Enlistment would be the ultimate act of treason against

Southern white society, and the potential recruit had every

reason to fear harsh retaliation. A married contraband

might refrain from enlistment because of concern for his

family's welfare and safety in his absence, particularly if

the family remained under a slaveholder's control. During

the earlier part of the war the black private recived only

SIO a month (minus the cost of their clothes) from the army

when he could earn much higher wages in private employ- 15 ment. The contraband enlistee also lost much of his

newly won personal independence by entering into another

white-controlled authoritarian institution. Military

enlistment involved both sacrifice and risk for contrabands.

Thus the r e c r u ite r s had to d ev ise means fo r

enticing contrabands to join the army. They most often

tried to appeal to the potential recruit's patriotism and

racial pride. Recruiters sought to allay the family men's

anxieties by providing for the families' subsistence and

security within a contraband camp. Sometimes they also

tried to find jobs for the soldiers' wives.As fo r the

low pay problem, recruiters made special efforts to enlist

recent runaways, as Eaton put it, "before their minds have been corrupted by life at private service, or in the 17 cities." During the summer of 1864 Congress aided the recruiters by raising the black private's monthly pay to 189 816 and granting blacks a Federal enlistment bounty of 8300.18

Stearns and Mussey used blacks very effectively to

recruit other blacks. They sent black agents into the

countryside and even behind Confederate lines to recruit

slaves. They also sent black troops marching through rural

areas to attract enlistees. Mussey considered this the 19 best of all recruiting techniques. The sudden appearance

of armed and uniformed blacks marching in ranks must have

impressed rural slaves deeply. One field hand belonging to

a White County slaveholder later recalled the event: "They

came right in my house, I walked right out with them, never

said a God's word to nobody." Taking pride in his new

associates and his self-emancipation, this slave quickly 20 enlisted in the black regiment.

Black leaders in Nashville and Memphis encouraged

enlistment in speeches and resolutions at mass meetings 21 held in their black communities. At a meeting in Nash­

ville on October 20, 1863, all the speakers argued that

only direct military action would end slavery and improve

race relations. The meeting's president reasoned;

Two paths present themselves for the choice of our­ selves and our race: to continue ground down in abject slavery, to live, and our children after us to live in chains and contempt; or to rise up in our might to assert our manhood and win our freedom from bondage.

Another speaker added: "Ihy don't you remember how afraid they used to be that we would rise? And you know v/e would, 190

too, if we could. (Cries of 'that's so.’9"^^ The time had

come when a number of male slaves could and did rebel in the controlled form cf military.service.

because of an unwillingness either to assume the risks or to make the sacrifices involved, not all male con­ trabands chose to enlist. When the army could not get enough volunteers, it turned to involuntary enlistment.

A3.jutant General Thomas viewed slaves as a resource which the fédérais should wrest from the Confederates to use to their own advantage. With his encouragement and Grant's approval the earliest recruiters in West Tennessee often 23 forcibly impressed unemployed contrabands into the array.

When ./illiam Ï. Sherman succeeded Grant as commander of the

Department of the Tennessee, he found the practice dis­ tasteful and ordered it stopped. When Sherman was promoted to the command of the military Division of the Mississippi,

Chetlain quietly reinstated orders for the conscription of all Memphis blacks who did not carry employment registra­ tio n papers.In actual practice Federal patrols often seized employed blacks for enlistment in blatant disregard of their passes much to Eaton's disconcertment. Despite a high desertion rate among the conscripts, this ugly prac- 25 tice continued in Memphis through the rest of the war.

Stearns did not tolerate involuntary enlistments by his subordinates, nor did he comply with numerous unionists who wanted th e ir runaway or insubordinate sla v es impressed 191

so they could apply for the #300 compensation. As soon as

Stearns left Tennessee, several recruiting agents began

conscripting blacks to their own profit since they received

a monetary commission for each enlistee. Complaints from

employers of impressed blacks quickly reached Mussey, but

before iùussey could react. Adjutant General Thomas took the matter into his ov/n hands. On February 4, 1854, Thomas

ordered the Middle Tennessee recruiters to enlist all able- bodied black males into the army. By implication the recruiters were to impress any black whom they could not sv/ay into enlisting voluntarily.^^

Conscription quickly antagonized a number of Fed­ eral officials in Middle Tennessee. A proslavery post com­ mander at La Vergne arrested a w hite captain and h is com­ pany of black troops for impressing slaves. After the cap­ tain secured his and his men’s release, he obstinately led a second impressment expedition into the same area. The proslavery General Rousseau then had the captain imprisoned.

Rousseau also had some contraband conscripts, v/ho had pre­ viously worked in a Federal woodyard, discharged from another recruiter. A proslavery post commander at Spring­ field appealed to Johnson to make recruiters relinquish slaves impressed at that post. The requested order arrived, but in this case practically all of the conscripts then 91 voluntarily enlisted. 192

The controversy over conscription culminated after

an entire repair crew from the militarily-controlled Ten­

nessee and Alabama Railroad was impressed. This time the

complaints reached all the way to Grant, who as commander

of the Military Division of the Mississippi requested Adju­ tant General Thomas to return the contraband laborers.

Rearing the displeasure of one of the most important Fed­

eral generals, Thomas acted swiftly to absolve himself. He

ordered the impressed blacks released and revoked his con­

scription order "as recruiting officers have shown no dis­

cretion." Grant also issued an order forbidding the

involuntary enlistment of contraband military laborers, and

Rousseau followed with an order of his own prohibiting the

conscription of any black on the ground that the practice 29 often deprived slaveholders of their means of support.

Colonel Mussey obeyed the new orders but doubted

their wisdom, believing instead that the enlistment of all

male slaves by either voluntary or involuntary methods was

the best means of destroying slavery. Re urged Johnson to

request the Federal government for a state enlistment quota under the Conscription Act and then to fill it by drafting

slaves. Johnson ignored Mussey*s proposal but complied with a state unionist convention’s request for an order

requiring all able-bodied black and white male Tennesseans

of military age to enroll in the state m ilitia. In Memphis the Federal army impressed blacks into active m ilitia duty. 193 Elsewhere the enrollm ent amounted to nothing more than the

sign in g of names on forms. Johnson might have placed a ll

enrolled black militiamen in active federal service,

thereby fulfilling Mussey's request, but he never chose to 30 do so.

The enlistment of contrabands caused great contro­ versy in Tennessee during the war. Most white civilians could do little to resist the program beyond punishing black soldiers* families, inducing enlistees to desert, or complaining to sympathetic Federal officers. The East Ten­ nessee unionists, though, because they were the majority in their region, limited black recruiting through political pressure in an effort to keep their slaves at home.

The most significant opposition to black recruiting came from within the army. The conflict centered on the enlistment of military laborers. A Columbia post commander v/ho had no sympathy for blacks refused to let recruiters talk to the contrabands whom he had digging earthworks.

The recruiters fulfilled their mission by sending a contra­ band boy into the works to inform the laborers where recruiting would take place that night. Pragmatic reasons as well as prejudices could set a commander against black enlistment. General Dodge forbad the recruiting of his impressed laborers at Pulaski, even though he favored black enlistment, because the men could not be spared until important railroad work had been completed. Since Dodge's 194 prohibition had Grant's endorsement, recruiters tried no 32 tricks as they had at Columbia.

In the summer of 1864 black recruiting incurred the

disfavor of General Sherman, who had succeeded Grant as

head of the Military division of the Mississippi, while

engaged in his Atlanta campaign, Sherman deeply resented

the siphoning off of his contraband labor pool by

recruiters. Privately he also held strong doubts about

racial equality, and in any case, he felt that "black troops should for some years beused with due regard to the prejudices of the Races.On June 3 Sherman forbad the recruiting of black military laborers throughout his com­ mand. The proponents of black recruitment reacted angrily.

Mussey's next weekly report to Chetlain denounced the order in veiled terms. Soon after receiving a copy of the report.

General George H. Thomas placed Mussey under arrest. Mju- tant General Lorenzo Thomas' mediation secured Hussey's release after the recruiting director retracted his state­ ments and made an apology. The Adjutant General then sent his own protest against Sherman's order to Secretary

Stanton. The Adjutant General contended that the army needed soldiers more than military laborers, but Sherman replied that Thomas misunderstood the realities of the mil­ itary situation. That concluded the debate in Sherman's favor since he led a major fighting unit in the field while 195 the Mjutant General merely served as a high ranking

bureaucrat.

Later that same summer Congress permitted Northern

states to fill their conscription quotas by recruiting

blacks in occupied Confederate territories. Being opposed

to programs designed to increase black enlistments, Sherman

denied the state recruiting agents access to military

transportation facilities and ration supplies. Numerous

state agents arrived at Memphis and Nashville only to find

that their further progress southward would be extremely difficult. The new recruiting law treated Tennessee as a

loyal state so that state agents could not legally recruit

there, but Sherman's actions created a very strong tempta-

tion to disregard the law. The agents, most of whom 37 Mussey labelled "mere Sharpers—land sharks—men buyers," began recruiting Tennessee blacks, inducing blacks already enlisted into bounty jumping, and bribing Federal officers into aiding their corrupt practices. In an effort to pre­ vent such abuses, Mussey ordered his own mustering officers to scrutinize the state agents' recruits before accepting their enlistment. Although deeply committed to the enlist­ ment of as many Southern blacks as possible, both Mussey and Adjutant General Thomas eventually admitted disgust with the state recruiting agent program. In early 1865

Congress repealed the law establishing it.^® 196

Vi hen federal recruitment of blacks stopped on

June 1, 1865, a total of 20,133 blacks had enlisted in Ten­ nessee. In ü'ebruary of the previous year Congress had decreed that slaves would receive their freedom upon being mustered into the army regardless of their owners' loyalty or disloyalty to the federal government. If most of the blacks enlisted in Tennessee were slaves and contrabands from the state, then as much as 3$ of the state's male slaves of military age may have gained legal freedom by 39 th is means.

Some of the federal officers in black regiments saw military service as a way of preparing former slaves for a new status as freedmen. Like the contraband camps and the contract labor system, the black regiments were paternalis­ tic institutions. The white military hierarchy not only provided for the black enlistee's subsistence needs but also tried to guide and control his life. The army ini­ tiated blacks into its ranks by changing their personal appearance. It sheared off most of their hair and burned their slave clothes. Next recruits received a thorough washing and a new uniform. The fledgling soldiers then received military training under white officers.Accord­ ing to Colonel Robert Gowden of the 5 9th U.S.G.I., th is training needed to accomplish certain things:

All that he has ever learned except prompt, unquestion­ ing obedience must be unlearned. The plantation man­ ners, the awkward bowing and scraping at two or three 197

rods distance, with hat under arm, and with averted look, must be exchanged fo r the upright form, the onen face, the gentlemanly address and soldierly salute.

I'he army built up the black enlistee's morale by developing

his pride in marksmanship, military appearance, and d rill­

ing s k i l l s . T h e goal of the entire process, in another

o f f ic e r 's words, was "to c u ltiv a te in them s e lf-r e s p e c t and a l l manly q u a l i t i e s ."^3

The white officers regarded high standards of con­ duct as very important both in developing the black sol­ diers ’ character and in winning public respect for the blacic troops, military records show that the officers put a great deal of effort into maintaining discipline in their regiments. But there were limits: those who took disci­ pline to an extreme, incuding one colonel who flogged mis­ creants, were either censured or court martialed.^^ Disci­ pline in the army usually was neither as arbitrary nor as severe as it could be in slavery. One private in the l]th

U.3.C.I. observed:

Our old masters would get angry with us and sometimes punish us almost to death, and we not understand why; but here if we are punished, we know why for the offi­ cers tell us our duty and never punish us unless we d iso b e y .45

Because an enlistee had lived under the sometimes severe regime of slavery did not mean, as the historian

David Donald suggests, that the experience had made him a highly disciplined person. The slace might develop a serenely devious and deceptive character instead. In fact, 198 discipline was not always easy to maintain in the hlack regiments for several reasons. Black soldiers easily

absorbed the attitude commonly held among white Fédérais that Southern white civilians had no rights that need be respected. This view and the example set by some white troops led some black soldiers into depredations upon civilians.In Memphis the nearby presence of soldiers' families caused other problems. The men preferred to spend nights with their wives rather than in camp. They stole food, clothes, and lumber for their families' support.

Black sentries often abetted these disciplinary viola- 47 tions. The disciplinary situation varied widely among the regiments but remained one of the white officers' major concerns.

Some officers went beyond military training and discipline in their efforts to prepare the men for a free life. Some tried to encourage thrift in the ranks. Colo­ nel Gowden held discussions with his men about the conse- / o quences of idleness and the reward of industry." A num­ ber of officers helped enlisted blacks save money by start- 49 ing company banks. ' At least half of the Tennessee black regiments offered their men educational opportunities in schools generally taught by chaplains or company offi- 50 cers. Military duties occupied most of the black sol­ diers' time, but some very dedicated students constantly carried their texts and studied in all spare moments even 199

during labor or picket duty. Officers encouraged their men

to read newspapers once they gained sufficient education.

In at least one case, white officers assigned responsibil­

it y for some company paperv.'ork to a black sergeant as soon

as he could read and write.former slaves who left the

army w ith an education and some savings had indeed made

some very tangible gains from their military career.

Service in a black regiment could have a deep per­

sonal impact on the slave or contraband volunteer, from

the perspective of his old age a black sergeant named

Caruthers recognized that "This was the biggest thing that

ever happened in my life. I felt like a man with a uniform

on and a gun in my hand. The self-esteem which flov/ed from belonging to a powerful array increased one’s sense of personal importance. While conducting a former master, who had been placed under military arrest, to the Clarksville municipal jail, a black soldier boasted: "Massa, you put this nigger in dar two or free years ago—now dis nigga put you in dar, massa, yah, yah, yah.

Military service did not necessarily cause a slave to hate his former owner. Some black soldiers liked to spend leaves by visiting their old owners. One soldier took his foriher mistress to bid her sister farewell at the

Knoxville train station when the rules would not have allowed her inside the building without a military 54 escort. 1ft,hen Sergeant Caruthers visited his former 200

mistress, she accused him of fighting against her despite

all she had done for him. He answered: "No ’m, I ain’t

fighting you, I ’m fighting to get free."^^ with increased

self-esteem, new privileges, and military power the hlack

soldier awaited a réévaluation of his social status hy

w h ites.

Some white unionists and Fédérais did react posi­

tively to the black soldiers, but all too often these reac­

tions stemmed more from hatred of the enemy than from an

increased appreciation of the blacks. One white private,

for example, wrote home:

There is not a Negro in the army . . . for whom I have not a thousand times more respect than I have for a traitor to his country. . . . No traitor is too good to be k ille d by a N e g r o . 56

S till, the black troops’ service did move some Fédérais and

possibly a few Southern unionists to abandon their racial

prejudices. Another Federal soldier later reminisced:

This readiness of the negroes to become so ld ie r s exalted their manhood in the estimation of the Union soldiers for . . . the soldier's great and final test of manhood was bravery to face the e n e m y . 57

Hostility, however, was the most prevalent reaction

of whites to the black soldiers. Confederate sympathizers,

of course, viewed the contraband soldier as a traitor to

the South. One teenage secessionist prayed that "God grant not one life of our dear Soldiers will be sacrificed to no those cowardly dogs." Critics of black recruiting argued

that armed slaves would lack sufficient courage to fight 2 0 1 the Confederates and would viciously slaughter civilians instead. The first night that a black regiment camped in one Memphis neighborhood the terrified residents kept their homes l i t a ll n igh t. They u n su ccessfu lly p etitio n ed the post commander to place white Federal guards around their homes. To their surprise the black regiment turned out to

C Q be better disciplined than most white ones.^

Prejudiced whites deeply resented the transforma­ tion of powerless slaves into agents of the ruling Fédérais' military might. One Tennesee unionist commented that "it is indeed humiliating, but the country deserves to be humiliated.Ivhen black troops first began doing sentry duty, confrontations occurred. Black guards had to endure harassment in both verbal and violent forms. A woman in

Gallatin protested that "I w ill die on the pavement and rot there before I will ask a 'nigger* to let me pass.

Nashville civilians began to respect black sentries only after one of the soldiers shot a white who had deliberately disobeyed a warning and crossed a picket line without authorization.

The army, as i s w e ll known, did not give black and white soldiers equal treatment in all respects. Excepting

VNo lieutenants in the Memphis enrolled m ilitia, no Tennes­ see blacks served as commissioned officers. In most of the

Nest Tennessee regiments blacks were not even appointed to the rank of sergeant»Army hospitals refused to treat 2 0 2

sic k or wounded black so ld ie r s because th at would in volve

mixing the races. At first, blacks could receive médical

care only in their regiment's sick quarters or in a contra­

band hospital. Mjutant General Thomas later convinced

military authorities in Memphis and Nashville to establish

separate hospitals for black soldiers.Still another

inequity appeared in the area of compensation. Originally

all black soldiers received alO a month regardless of rank.

The monthly pay for noncommissioned white soldiers at that

time ran from S13 for privates to S21 for sergeants. White recruits also received a federal enlistment bounty while blacks did not. Black troops throughout the occupied South resented this discrimination. Some units, like the regi­ ments stationed at Chattanooga, protested by refusing to

accept any pay at all. In June of 1864 Congress granted black soldiers the same pay scale and bounty as whites.

This was the one in eq u ity which the army did f u lly rem­ edy.

Adjutant General Thomas originally intended for black troops to serve only in rear area garrisons. By the middle of 1864 he had come to favor their use in combat, but because of Department commanders' p a r t ia l i t i e s , Tennes­ see black regiments found themselves on fatigue and guard duty much more often than on field service. Vlhen recruit­ ing diminished the supply of contraband military laborers, commanders had black so ld ie r s do the la b o r e r s’ work. 203 Overly frequent labor assignments reduced the time for mil­

itary training and led to disciplinary problems. Both

Chetlain and Mussey wanted to get their recruits off labor

gangs and into the battle lines.Their hopes for a

change seemed fu lfilled when Mjutant General Thomas

ordered that black troops "only be required to do their

f a ir share . . . This i s necessary to prepare them fo r Ç\1 higher duties of conflict with the enemy,"

Both Generals Gherman and George K. Thomas doubted

that blacks would make good combat troops. During most of

1364 these two kept most Tennessee black regiments on non­

combat assignments in rear posts.Colonel Thomas J.

Morgan protested that the constant assignment of his black

command to fortification construction in Chattanooga vio­

lated the Adjutant G eneral's orders. Sherman and George H.

Thomas replied that this construction work was m ilitarily

essential to the Atlanta campaign then in progress. Thomas

closed the matter by threatening Morgan with dismissal if 69 he ever c r it ic iz e d h is command's assignment again.

Thomas Cole, a black soldier stationed at Chattanooga,

later recalled his feelings about this treatment: "But when dey wants to battle Gen. Thomas alius leave me in camp 70 to tend to supplies. He calls me a coward." The intran­

sigen ce of the two generals tem porarily rendered the Adju­ tant General's order ineffective. 204 By the fall of 186] Fédérais controlled most of

Tennessee. Except during General Hood’s Confederate inva­

sion in the fall of 1864, the state was no longer a major

theater in the war. Consequently hlack soldiers saw rela­

t iv e ly l i t t l e combat w ith in Tennessee even when th e ir o f f i ­

cers v;angled field assignments from the occupation district

commanders. The f i r s t major b a ttle in Tennessee to in volve

black troops occurred on April 12, 1854. On that day Con­

federate General Nathan B. Forrest, a former slave trader

from Memphis, attacked a racially mixed garrison at Fort

B illow .

Ever since the Fort Pillow battle a debate has

raged over why the Federal death toll was unusually high

(historians' estimates range from 37/* to 6%). In an

investigative report, which was obviously intended for use

as war propaganda, the Federal Congress' Committee on the

Conduct of the Viar charged that Forrest and his army com­ mitted an atrocious massacre after Federal resistance had 72 stopped. Forrest’s defenders since this report grant that some unnecessary killing may have occurred, but con­ tend that a drunken and/or desperate defense of the fort caused most of the casualties. The most recent histori­ cal studies of the incident argue that Confederate racism 74 caused a massacre of black soldiers.

It is clear that the decision of the Federal gov­ ernment to enlist blacks had a profound effect on the 205

Confederate mind. Ihe arming of d islo y a l sla v es was in e v i-

tol)ly viewed as an act which would probably instigate slave

rebellions. The Confederate government never officially

acknowledged armed blacks to be soldiers of war. Under

Confederate law the contraband soldiers could be treated

either as property to be restored to its owners or as slave

insurrectionaries who should be executed. The Confederate

Congress left the disposition of captured black soldiers up

to state authorities, which for all practical purposes no longer existed in Tennessee.

Trior to Port Pillow Confederate forces had met black troops in combat only a few tim es. Porrest him self had first encountered them shortly before Port Pillow in a battle at Paducah, Kentucky. The Confederate General had tried unsuccessfully to secure the surrender of a racially mixed garrison at that town by threatening to grant no quarter in battle. After failing to take the federal post at Paducah, his raid turned southward into Tennessee. The historian Ronald K. Huch argues that this defeat frustrated and inflamed Porrest's proslavery troops to the degree that a Port Pillow massacre resulted. Although Porrest was present both times, Huch ignores the fact that the General used entirely different units of his command in the two engagements. The troops which attacked Port Pillow had not participated in the Kentucky portion of Porrest’s raid and 76 had never before confronted black soldiers. 206

Fort P illo w ’s garrison was composed o f detachments from the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, the 6th U.S.C. A. (Heavy), and the 2nd u.S.C.A. (Light). About half of the 557 men were black. The garrison had conscripted area slaves into the service until the district commander ordered the prac­ tice stopped. The fort remained a haven for run at; ay slaves.

A number of Forrest’s men, whose families lived near the fort, implored their commander to eliminate the annoying

Federal outpost. To accomplish this mission, the General assembled a force two-and-one-half times the garrison's s i z e . 77 When the Fédérais repelled the Confederates’ open­ ing attack, Forrest sent a surrender demand to the fort under a flag of truce. He promised to give both black and white Fédérais all consideration due to prisoners of waj’.

Unlike his Paducah ultimatum, this one did not threaten to give the garrison no quarter if they continued fighting.

The f o r t ’s commander, Major W illiam F. Bradford of the 13th

Tennessee Cavalry, refused to surrender, whereupon Forrest ordered another assult. This time the Confederate columns smashed through the Federal defenses at a point manned by the 6th u.S.C.A. The Fédérais retreated from the fort’s embankment only to find themselves trapped by the Missis­ sippi River at their backs and the Confederates on all 78 other sid e s. Anarchy follow ed. Some Fédérais continued to fight, while others tried to surrender. Some 207 Confederates refused to grant any quarter, while others

tried to bring the fighting to a close.

The federal Congressional report contended that

practically all federal resistance ended after the Confed­

erates took the embankment. Yet, F o r r e st's prelim inary battle report (April 15) and tvro official reports from the

6th u.S.C.A. (April 14 and 19), all written before the incident became a major public controversy, contradict 79 this. Some of Forrest's defenders have claimed that the

Fédérais fought on despite the situation's hopelessness because many of them wer' intoxicated. Besides the fact that such an allegation is a commonplace propagandist device, this charge is also suspect since it did not first appear until over a year after the incident had gained pub­ l i c notoriety.Mother explanation may be given for the stiff resistance maintained by some—not all—of the defeated Fédérais. Just before Major Lionel Booth of the

6th U.S.C.A. was killed in Forrest's opening attack, he had urged the men of his detachment never to surrender. This unit apparently had a high esprit de corps, and the regi­ ment's official battle reports record that the men made

Booth's last words their rallying cry. For a short time these last-ditch fighters may have hoped to make a success­ ful stand under the cover of a Federal gunboat's fire, but OT Confederate artillery forced the gunboat to withdraw. 208

The 2nd U.S.C.A, and the 13th Tennessee Cavalry,

according to their preliminary and official reports,

stopped organized resistance after the Confederates entered

the fort. At that point in the battle Major Bradford

passed a verbal order through those two units for every man

to save himself. Some of these Fédérais may have continued

to fight for a time in self-defense. If fear that the Con­

federates would execute all unionist and contraband sol­

d iers had predisposed any Federal to fig h t d esp era tely , the

concluding part of the battle certainly seemed to justify

the apprehension.^^

Confederate Surgeon S.H. Caldwell described the

scene in a letter to his wife; "Terrible was the

slaughter—it was decidedly the most horrible sight that I 83 have ever witnessed." other Confederates were also aware

of the unusually high death toll. One Confederate diarist

grossly overestimated the portion of the garrison killed at

QOp. Forrest himself thought that it exceeded 70Jo. Sur­

geon Caldwell and all the official Confederate battle

reports argued that the high casualty rate resulted from

the garrison's refusal to surrender. Although the Fed­

eral command never officially capitulated, individual sol­

diers did try to surrender. A Confederate sergeant wrote

home that "The poor, deluded negroes would run up to our

men, fall upon their knees and scream for mercy but they 85 were ordered to their feet and then shot down." The 209 historian John ALlen Wyeth tried to vindicate the Confeder­ a tes at Fort P illow hy c itin g a number of sworn a ffa d a v its written in the 1890s by Confederate participants. Yet, when c a r e fu lly read the statem ents which Wyeth quoted deny only th at the Confederates k ille d or wounded prisoners after the fighting stopped. Public and private statements which Federal participants made before the Congressional investigation began corroborated the occurance of an

"indiscriminate slaughter." The evidence squarely lays the blame for the incident upon the Confederates’ racial pre­ judices. In this first encounter with black Fédérais many

Confederates refused to recognize them as anything other than rebel slaves who deserved summary punishment. Some of the white Fédérais suffered the same fate partly because of their association with the black troops.

Not all Confederates at Fort Pillow participated in the slaughter. Some accepted and protected surrendering

Fédérais. A handful of officers tried to stop the killing 87 and restore discipline. One Confederate sergeant wrote home shortly afterv/ards:

I with several others tried to stop the butchery and at one point had. partially succeeded but Gen. Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs and the carnage con tin u ed .88

Several Federal survivors claimed to remember hearing Con­ federates say that Forrest had ordered all black soldiers k i l l e d . 89 2 1 0

It seems unlikely, though not impossible, that

Forrest explicitly ordered his men to massacre the blacks

during the battle. The General stayed outside Fort Pillow

during the successful charge and was probably unav^are of

the events transpiring behind the fort's earthworks. Hov;-

ever, the verbal order by which he launched the successful

assult could very easily have played a key role in the sub­

sequent events. Li any years later one Confederate officer

remembered that Forrest had in stru cted him to " fight every­

thing 'blue' between wind and water until yonder flag comes dovna." 90 The Fédérais never lowered the fort's flag during the battle. In this situation the more hostilely racist

Confederates may have interpreted Forrest's orders as a license to kill (provided that the above rendition was a reasonably accurate version of the directions received by the rank and file).

After directing the artillery fire which forced the

Federal gunboat to retreat upstream, Forrest rode into the fort along with Brigadier General James A. Chalmers, the commander of the brigade used in the attack. At about the same time a Confederate soldier brought the Federal flag down. That signal and the generals' presence soon halted the Confederate firing. 91 Surgeon Caldwell reported that

"if General Forrest had not run between our men & the Yanks with his pistol and sabre drawn not a man would have been 92 spared." Obviously all Federal resistance had ended by 2 1 1

that time or Forrest would not have exposed himself in such

a manner.

Neither Confederate general expressed any regrets

about the incident. Federal naval officers, who spoke to

Chalmers under a flag of truce after the battle, reported

the General as saying that "it was nothing better than we

could expect so long as we persisted in arming the 93 negro." Forrest gloated over the Federal casualties in

his official battle report;

The river was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered for 200 yards. . . . It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners.94

Forrest never reprimanded nor disciplined any of his troops for misconduct during the battle. Although no historian has yet proved Forrest to have been directly responsible 95 for the incident, he clearly was guilty of tolerating it.

Forrest took 226 Federal prisoners with him into

Mississippi, and he treated the surviving blacks as recap­ tured slave property. Before abandoning Fort Pillow,

F orrest d elivered six ty -sev en wounded prisoners to a Fed­ eral gunboat. Accounts emanating from this group and from a handful of escapees gave the incident its public notori­ ety in the North.The remnant of the 6th U.S.C.A. pub­ licly swore to revenge their unit. Some black regiments adopted "Remember Fort Pillow" as a battle cry. The inten­ sity of the controversy and possibly even a fear of retali­ ation prompted Forrest to disclaim any guilt in the affair. 2 1 2

In all probability it was the Northern outcry over Fort

Pillow which prevented the later occurance of similar inci­ dents. Throughout the latter part of the war the Confeder­

ate army treated black military prisoners not as insurrec- 97 tionaries but as recaptured slave property.

The bth U.S.C.A. did not get its desired revenge, and black troops saw practically no more action in v/est

Tennessee during the war. In Middle Tennessee a series of

Confederate raids finally brought the black regiments there into combat. The 14th U.S.C.I. beat off Forrest's cavalry in a skirmish at Pulaski. The 12th U.S.C.l. lost a supply depot at Johnsonville to Forrest but successfully evaded capture. Most of the 11th U.S.C.l. became ForrestTs p r is ­ oners when he took a line of blockhouses which they manned along the Tennessee and Alabama R ailroad. Confederate Gen­ eral Hood captured the entire 44th U.S.C.l. in Georgia and took them along as military laborers during his invasion of

Tennessee. Some 300 of them escaped, reformed, and fought 98 their way to safety in Nashville. Thus, several Middle

Tennessee regiments were already experienced in combat before the climactic battle of Nashville on December 15-15,

1864. Because of his racial prejudices General George H.

Thomas had never used black troops in any of his previous battles. .6s Hood's army swept through the state toward

Nashville, Thomas had no choice but to concentrate all 213

available federal units, black and white, in the city’s

defenses. On the first day of battle Thomas ordered the

black troops, which consisted of the 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th,

18th, and 44th U.S.C.l», to participate in a feigned attack

against Hood's right wing. Their success in diverting

Hood's attention enabled Thomas to deliver a smashing

assult on Hood’s left wing. Hood then retreated to higher 99 ground and reformed his lines.

On the second day of battle the black regiments

supported an attack against Hood's center. The first

charge failed but sufficiently preoccupied the Confederates

so that Thomas' rig h t wing could again crash through Hood's

left. The shouts of victory coming from the other part of the battlefield emboldened the federal center to sweep over the Confederate lines with a second charge. Hood's routed

army fled southward. As Thomas watched the final assult from a distance, he underwent a significant change of heart.

He declared to his staff: "Gentlemen, the question is set­ tled; the negroes will fight.The black troops also realized that they had proved their worth. As several of the regiments marched from the battlefield, the men caught sig h t of Thomas. The black so ld ie r s spontaneously f e l l into a precise drilling formation and began singing the 102 militant abolitionist song "John Brown's Body."

The privilege of bearing arras changed the former slaves' position in society. The ban on the possession of 214

weapons had particularly helped to maintain slaves as

defenseless subordinates. The armed black soldier deferred

to no one but h is fed era l commanders. With a strengthened

sense of personal dignity he would not readily submit to

subjection again.Nor could the Federal government con­

scientiously permit the reenslavement of these troops after

their service to the Union's cause. By risking their lives

for their country the black soldiers had laid a claim to a

genuine freedom and greater rights for their race after the war.

FüüTNCTiiiS

^OR, ser. 3, vol. Ill, pp. 100-101; Dudley Taylor Cornish, The Sable Arm; Negro Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865' Ù^ew York. 1956J. pp. 95, 11Ô-119, 125; U.S. Statutes, vol. XIi, p. 599; Du Bois, Black Reconstruction, p. 5 7; Lovett, "Negro's Civil lilar in Tennessee," p. 37. 2 Sipes, Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, p. 21; Coffin, Reminiscences. p. 629; Baton I 863 Report, AFIC, file VI, pp. 3-9, 20; Fitch, Annals, p. 633; Capt. William Brunt to R.Û. Mussey, May 24, 1365, William Brunt Compiled Service Record, NA» Also see Memphis Bulletin, April 10, 1863; Thomas J. Morgan, Rem iniscences o f Service w ith Colored Troops in the Army of the Cumberland, 1863-65 (Providence, R.I., 18859, p. 12. 3 Baton, Grant. Lincoln and the Freedmen, pp. 58, 111; Baton 1863 Report, AFIC, file VI, pp. 19-20, 24; Lorenzo Thomas to Col. B.D. Townsend, May 20, 1863, L. Thomas Letters and Orders Book, vol. for April-Noveaber, I 8 6 3 , pp. 59-60, GPB; OR, ser. 1, vol. XXIV, pt. 1, p. 31.

^Bills Diary, May 18, 1863; Robert Gowden, A Brief Sketch of the Organization and Services of the Fifty-Ninth Regiment of united States Colored Infantry {Dayton, Oh., 18839, pp. 38-39; Lorenzo Thomas to Col. B.D. Townsend, April 7, I 8 6 3 , L. Thomas Letters and Orders Book, vol. for April-November, I 8 6 3 , p. 15, GPB. 215 "OR, ser. 5, vol. Ill, pp. 103, 560; OR, ser. 1, v o l. aX, pt. 2, p. 317; John Hope Rranklin, ed., Ihe Diary of James I. Avers: C iv il War R ecruiter (S p rin g field , 1 1 1 ., 1947), pp. x iii, 106 (July 4, 7, 1863); E. A. Paine to Andrew Johnson, July 6, 9, 13, 18, 1863, Johnson papers; Lorenzo Thomas to I.S. Rosecrans, June 15, 1863, LR by the Department of the Cumberland, RG 393, NA; OR, ser. 3, v o l. IV, pp. 763-765. ^George L. Stearns to Mary Preston Stearn s, August 17, 1863, as quoted in Stearns, Stearns, p. 308. Also see OR, ser. 3, vol. Ill, p. 684; Stearns, Stearns, pp. 163-164. 7 Nashville Union. September 1, 1863; OR, ser. 3, v o l. Ill, pp. 819-820.

^Stearns, Stearns, pp. 309-310; OR, ser. 3, v o l. Ill, p. 816.

^OR, ser. 3, vol. Ill, pp. 819-820.

^°Ibid. . p. 823.

^^Ibid.. pp. 837, 840, 861. 12 Augustus L. Chetlain, Recollections of Seventy Years (Galena, 111., 1899), pp. 67, 100; OR, ser. 3, vo l. Ill, pp. 765-766; Knoxville Vihig and Rebel Ventilator, January 16, 1864; Stearns, Stearns, pp. 322-323»

^^Lorenzo Thomas, S.O. 14, Pebruary 6, 1864, Records of Capt. R.D. Mussey, RG 393, NA; OR, ser. 3, v o l. iV, p. 90; R.D. Mussey to Mr. Meyer, March, 27, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of u.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, p. 39, RG 393, NA. 14 Rawick, ed., American S la v e, v o l. 18, p. 218. 15 Stearns, Stearns, p. 317; Col. Charles R. Thompson to Brig. Gen. J. A. Garfield, August 25, 1863, 12th U.S.C.l. Letterbook, p. 2, RG 94, NA; R.D. Mussey to Lt. George Mason, April 11, 18b4, and R.D. Mussey to Capt. C.P. Brown, November 7, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA.

^^Maj. J.H. Cochran to Capt. v/.T. Spurgin, August 9, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T. , vol. 221 DC, p. 7, RG 393, NA; Senate Executive Documents, 38 Con., 2 Sess., No. 28, pp. 10-11; Lt. Col. Joseph R. Putnam to Brig. Gen. W.Û. Whipple, January 30, 1865, LR by the Department of the Cumberland, RG 393, NA; 2 1 6

Lt. Col, John Phillips, Circular, April 4, 1864, LR hy the 59th Ü.S.C.I., RG 94, NA N a sh v ille P ress, November 27, 1863 . 1 7 Eaton, Reoort for 1864. p. 19. Also see Nash­ ville Press, April 21, 1864; Cowden, Brief Sketch, pp. 38- 39.

^^U.S. Statutes, vol. XIII, pp. 144, 379.

1 9 William P. Viheeler to George L. Stearns, Octo­ ber 22, 1863, and James N. Holmes to George L. Stearns, October 8, I 8 6 3 , Records of Major George L. Stearns, RG 393, NA; Col. W illiam B. Gay; to R.D. Mussey, January 24, 1864, l6 th U.S.C.I. Letterbook (unpaginated); Stearns, Stearns, p. 313; R.D. Iviussey to L t. George Mason, A^ril 18, 1864, and R.D. Mussey to Lt. George B. Halstead, May 30, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA. Black recruiting patrols also worked well in Maryland. See Charles Louis ïtagandt, The Mighty Revolution: Negro Emancipation in Maryland, 1862-1864 (Baltimore, Md., Î964J, pp. 198-199. 20 H a w ic k , e d . , American Slave, vol. 18, p. 218. Pi (Boston) Liberator, January 29, 1864; Cincinnati Colored C itiz e n , November 7, I 8 6 3 . pp C incinnati Colored C itiz e n , November 7, I 8 6 3 . 2 ’5 Lorenzo Thomas to W.3. Rosecrans, June 15, 1863; LR by the Department of the Cumberland, RG 393, N A U.S. Grant, G.O. 53, August 23, 1863, Department of the Tennes­ see, v o l. 1 3 /2 1 DT, pp. 224-225; RG 393, NA; Bills Diary, July 22, 1663; Gartmell Diary, June 1, 1863; Brig. Gen. James C. Veatch to A.S. E iske, July 22, 1863, LS by the D is tr ic t of Memphis, vo l. 16/25 DWT, p. 110, RG 393, NA; OR, ser. 3, vol. Ill, pp. 686-687. Eor federal pressing in other pants of the South see Rose, Rehearsal for Recon- struction, pp. 328-329; Ripley, Slaves and Ereedmen, pp. 107-108; Gutman, Black fa m ily , p. 3^8; Wag andt, Mighty R evolu tion , p. 198.

^^Brig. Gen. J.D. Webster to Capt. G. A Williams, January 29, 1864, LR by the D istrict of Memphis, RG 393, NA; Brig. Gen. R.P. Buckland endorsement, February 1, 1864, on Col. I.G. Kappner to Capt. G.W. Dustan, January 26, I8 6 4 , LR by fort Pickering, RG 393, NA; Augustus L. Chetlain, S.O. 2 7 , May 6, 1864, Tenn. Director for the Organization of U.S. C. T., v o l. 3 6 / 6 6 A DWT (unpaginated), RG 393, NA.

^^Eaton, Report for 1864, pp. 78-79; Augustus L. 217

Chetlain, Circular, April 12, 1864, LS by the Tenn. Direc­ tor for the Organization of U.S.C.T. , vol. 34/60 DWT, p. 40, RG 393, RA; Augustus L. Chetlain, G.O. 13, June 23, 1864, Tenn. Director for the Organization of L.S.C.T., v o l. 36/66 DWT (unpaginated, RG 393, NA; i/iaj. George L. Paddock to Lt. Charles P. Brown, July 21, 1864, LR by the 17th U.S.C.I. , RG 94, NA.

George L. Stearns, testimony, n.d., AFIC, f i l e VII, pp. 66, 69-70; Renry R. ivleizener to ?, Decem­ ber 15, 1363, LR by the 15th U.S.C.I., RG 94, NA; Senate Executive Documents. 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 28, p. 2.

Z^Trimble, ed., "Behind the Lines," p. 71; Col. W illiam B. G aw to R.D. Iviussey, February 17, 1864, LR by 15th U.S.C.I., RG 94, NA; Col. T. J efferso n Downey to R.D. iviussey, February 24, 1864, Records of Cant. R.D. Hussey, RG 393, NA.

Endorsement by Lorenzo Thomas, February 25, 1864, on J.M. Nash to R.D. Mussey, February 23, 1864, Records of Capt. R.D. Mussey, RG 393, NÂ. Also see the letter itself and all the other endorsements. 29 U.S. Grant to George H. Thomas et al., March 2, 1864, Military vol. 34, p. 149, Ulysses S. Grant Papers, Library of Congress; L.R. Rousseau, G.O. 10, March 7, 1864, District of Middle Tennessee, vol. 9 DMT, p. 26, RG 393, NA.

^^R.D. Mussey to Lt. Osborn, Anril 6, 1864, R.D. Mussey to Lt. Byron 0. Camp, May 13, 1864, and R.D. Mussey to D.K. Carter, June 26, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, pp. 56, 102, 170, RG 393, NA; R.D. Mussey to Andrew Johnson, August 18, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 221 DC, pp. 50-51, RG 393, NA; Nashville Times and True Union, September 8, October 2, 1864; Brig. Gen, B.S. Roberts, S.O. 41, February 14, 1864, District of West Tennessee, vol. 13 DAT, p. 224; Capt. Edward 3. Richards to And rev; Johnson, January 10, 1865, Johnson Papers.

^^Capt. B.H. Folk to R.D. Mussey, December 11, 1863, LS by the District of Middle Tennessee, vol. 2 DMT, p. 36, RG 393, Nii; Lt. Col. John A. Shannon to Lt. R.H. Deane, May 27, 1864, 1st U.S.C.A. (Heavy) Letterbook, pp. 26-27, RG 945 NA; L t. Col. J.R. Putnam to R.D. Mussey, July 18, 1864, 42nd U.S.C.I. Letterbook (unpaginated), RG 94, NA; Col. Charles R. Thompson to Brig, Gen. J.A* Garfield, August 25, 1863, 12th U.S.C.I. Letterbook, p. 2, RG 94, NA. 218 32 Romeyn, With Colùred Troops, p, 8; OR, ser. 1, vol. XXXI, pt. 3, pp. 3$6-367. 33 w illiam I. Sherman to Lorenzo Thomas, oune 26, 1864, Sherman Letterbook, v o l. I (in co r r e c tly marked P oh the cover}, pp. 245^246, GPB. Also see William T- Sherman to Lorenzo Thomas, June 21, 1864, ib id . , p. 231; se r . 1, vol. XXXVIII, p. 306. 34 OR. ser. 3, vol. IV, p. 434. 35 Ibid . . pp. 433-434; R.L. Mussey to Lt. George B. Halstead, June 8, 25, 1864, LR by Mjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, KA; Brig. Gen. W.Û. Whipple to R.D. Mussey, June 19, 30, 1864, Register of LR by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 223/433 DC, pp. 128-129, RG 393, NA; Lorenzo Thomas to Brig. Gen. w.D. Whipple, June 26, 1864, L. Thomas Letters and Orders Book, vol. for November, 1863-July, 1864, p. 134, Gr B; W illiam T. Sherman to Lorenzo Thomas, June 21, 1864, Sherman Letterbook, v o l. I (in co r r e c tly marked P on the cover}, p. 231, GPB. Franklin, ed., Avers Diary, xviii, claims that Sherman soon revoked his order, but this author could find no evidence to that effect.

^^U.S. Statutes, vol. XIII, p. 379; R.D. Mussey to Col. Charles Foster, ikigust 8, 1854, LS by the Commissioner for the organization of U.S.G..T. , v o l. 221 DC, p. 1 , RG 393, NA; Maj. James 0. P ierce to Maj. Gen. K.J.T. Dana, Febru­ ary 11, 1865, Register of LR by the Department of Missis­ sippi, vol. 5 DMiss (unpaginated}, RG 393, NA.

^^R.D. Mussey to J.M. McKim, August 14, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T. , vol. 221 DC, p. 31, RG 393, NA.

Ibid.; R.D. Mussey to Capt. C.P. Lyman, Septem­ ber 3, 1364, and R.D. Mussey to Brig. Gen. J.D. Webster, October 1, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organiza­ tio n o f U.S.C.T., vol. 221 DC, pp. 96, 168, RG 393, NA; George H. Thomas, Court M artial Order 2, Department of the Cumberland Printed Orders for 1865, RG 393, NA ; Lorenzo Thomas to Col. E.D. Townsend, July 22, 1864, L. Thomas Let­ terbook, vol. for July, 1864-June, 1865, pp. 26-27, GPB; U.S. Statutes, vol. XIII, p. 491. 39 OR. ser. 3, vol. V, pp. 13, 662; U.S. S ta tu te s , v o l. XIII, p. 44.

^Ogowden,40 B rief Sketch, p. 45.

41Ibid. , p. 46, 219

^^Cowden, B rief Sketch, p. 46; Iviorgan, Reminis­ cences , p. 20.

^^Morgan, R em iniscences, p. 24.

'^^iiugustus L. C hetlain, G.O. 14, May 14, 1864, Tenn. Director for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 36/66 DWT, p# 23, RG 393, RA; R.D. Mussey to Lorenzo Thomas, April 20, 1864, LS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 220/227 DC, pp. 76-77, RG 393, LA; Lt. J. A. Copeland to Lt. Col. J.R. Harper, November 19, 1864, LS by Port Pickering, vol. 27/42 DWT, pp. 227-228, RG 393, NA; R.D. Mussey to Col. Charles Roster, n.d., LS by the Commis­ sioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 221 DC, p. 175, RG 393, NA; Capt. Charles W. Bennett and Lt. John M. Woodruff to Col. John A. Hottenstein, December 12, 1864, LR by 13th U.S.C.I., RG 94, NA.

^^Nashville Union, March 10, 1864.

^^David Donald, "Died of Democracy," in David Donald, ed., Why the North Won the Civil War (Baton.Rouge, La., 19609, pp. 81-82; Rawick, ed., American S la v e , v o l. 18, p. 258; Capt. Charles W. Bennett and Lt. John M. Woodruff to Col. John A. Hottenstein, December 12, 1864, LR by 13th U.S.C.I., RG 94, NA; Endorsement by Lt. Col. Thomas Trauemich, October 4, 1863, on P.O. Bynes to George L. Stearns, October 2, 1863, Records of Maj. George L. Stearns, RG 393, NA. 47 Lt. L. Methudy to L t. Col. J.M. Irwin, April 7, 1864, LS by Fort Pickering, vol. 27/42 DWT, p. 116; Lt. Col. John Foley to Lt. Col. T. Harris, January 11, 1865, Unregistered LR by the District of V/est Tennessee, RG 393, NA; Lt. Henry McLean to Lt. L. Methudy, November 3, 1863, LR by Fort Pickering, RG 393, NA.

^®Lt. Col. Robert Cowden to Capt. W.W, Deane, August 29, 1865, LR by 59th U.S.C.I., RG 94, NA.

'^%,t. Col. Robert Cowden to Lorenzo Thomas, Decem­ ber 1, 1864, LR by 59th U.S.C.I., RG 94, NA; Lt. Col. J.R. Putnam to Lorenzo Thomas, August 2, 1865, 42nd U.S.C.I. Letterbook, (unpaginated), RG 94, NA; Col. L. Johnson to Lorenzo Thomas, December 18, 1865, 44th U.S.C.I. Letterbook, p. 57, RG 94, NA.

^*^Freedmen*s B u lle tin , I (March, 1865), p. 79; Cowden, B rief Sketch, p. 61; OR, ser. 3 , v o l. IV, p. 771; Morgan, R em iniscences, p. 23; C incinnati G azette , March 14, 1864. 220

^^owden, Brief Sketch, p. 61; Indiana Freedmen's -Aid Commission, Report, p. 26;' Chap. C.P. Taylor to Lorenzo Thomas, May 1, 18^5, LR by 3rd U.S.C.A- (Heavy), RG 94, HA; Romeyn, Yiith Colored Troops, p. 10.

^^aw ick, ed., Anericam Slave, vol. 19, p. 179.

^^Col. W illiam B. Gaw to R.D. Mussey, January 2, 1864, l6th U.S.C.I. Letterbook (unpaginated), RG 94, NA. Also see Morgan, R em iniscences, pp. 16-17. 54 Martha L uttrel M itchell Memoir, p. 1, TSLA.

^^Rasfick, ed., Anerican Slave, vol. 18, p. 253*

^%oseph G. Theaker to lizzie Theaker, October 19, 1863, in Paul L. Rieger, ed.. Through One Man's Eyes: The Civil Vi, ar Experiences of a Belmont County Volunteer (Mount Vernon, Oh., 1974), p. 63. Also see Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, January 16, 1864; Leonidas C. Houk speech speech in Nashville Union. August 25, 1864. 5 7 McGee, 72d Indiana Infantry, p. 227. -Also see Loyal Citizens of Tennessee Petition, October 19, 1863; Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress; Wiley, B illy lank, pp. 120-121.

^^Bdmondson Diary, May 4, 1864.

^^Cartmell Diary, February 2, 1863; Letter by "Con­ stitution" in Memphis Bulletin, February 20, 1863; Nash­ ville Press, April 19, 1864; Cowden, Brief Sketch, pp. 53- 54. ^‘^Blankenship, ed., Cumberlands, p. 232 (March 26, 1864). Also see John 0. Flanagan to Andrew Johnson, August 7, 1864, Johnson Papers; Lt. Austin 0, Lyn to ?, August 14, 1865, Register of LR by the District of East Tennessee, vol. 2 LET, p. 244, RG 393, NA; Lt. C.H. Thompson to Capt. W.W. Deane, February 15, 1865, LR by 1 st U.S.C.A. (Heavy), RG 94, NA,

^^Cincinnati Gazette, October 28, 1863.

R.D. Mussey to L t. George Mason, March 14, April 4, 1864, and R.D. Mussey to Lt. C.P. Brown, August 8, 1364, LR by Adjutant General Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA; Nashville Union, May 3, 1864; Nashville Times and True Union, July 6, September 27, 1864; Morgan, Rem iniscences, p. 20; Romeyn, With Colored Troops, p. 14. 2 2 1

^^Brig, Gen. M.T. Vv.illamson to Capt. B.K. Roberts, February 1, 1865, LR by the District of West Tennessee, RG 595, RA; Augustus L. Chetlain to L. Thomas, May 10, 1864, LS by the Tenn. Director for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 54/60 DWT, p. 58, RG 593, NA.

^^Surg, H.H. Hood to Surg. R.J. Irwin, September 9, 1865 (and all of its endorsements), LR by 5rd U.S.C.A., RG 94, NA; New York Anglo African, August 19, 1865; Lorenzo Thomas to George H. Thomas, June 27, 1864, L. Thomas L et­ ters and Orders Book, vol. for November, 1865-July, 1864, p. 157, GPB; Brig. Gen. William D. Whipple to Lt. Col. J.L. Donelson, June 28, 1864, LR by the Post of Nashville, RG 593, NA.

^^U.S. Statutes, vol. XII, p. 599; OR, ser. 5, v o l. Ill, pp. 420, 816; Cornish, Sable Arm, pp. 187-*1S8, 192-195; McPherson, Struggle for Equality, pp. 212-219; Col. I.G. Kappner to L t. Col. Henry Binmore, September 2 , 1865, 5rd U.S.C.A. (Heavy) Letterbook, p. 19, RG 94, NA; Romeyn, With Colored Troons. p. 12; U.S. S ta tu te s , v o l. XIII, p. 129.

^^Lorenzo Thomas to Edwin M. Stanton, April 1, 1865, Orders and Letters Book, vol. for April-November, 1865, pp. 7-8, GPB; Col. T. Jefferson Downey to Capt. uernes P. Rusling, May 18, 1864, 15th U.S.C.I. Letterbook, p. 5, RG 94, NA; Lt. Col. J.P. Harper to Lorenzo Thomas, Novem­ ber 7, 1864, LR by 5rd U.S.C.A. (Heavy), RG 94, NA; OR, ser. 1, vol. XXX, pt. 4, p. 182; Eaton, Report for 1864. pp. 78-80; R.D. Mussey to Lt. George Mason, April 11, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas Relating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA. Several regiments (42nd, 65rd, 64th, and 101st U.S.C.I.) were recruited solely for noncombat duties from volunteers who were not fit for field service. See Tennes­ see Civil War Centenial Commission, Tennesseans in the Civil V;ar. vol. I, pp. 405, 410; Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the Ereedmen, pp. 107-109.

^^L. Thomas, G.O. 21, June 14, 1864, LR by the Col­ ored Troops Division, RG 94, NA.

^^William T. Sherman to E llen Sherman, üpril 17, 1865, in Howe, ed.,Home Letters, pp. 252-255; OR, ser. 1, v o l. jOXXVIII, pt. 5 , p. 506; Morgan, Rem iniscen ces, p. 22; R.D. Mussey to J.M. McKim, August 14, 18^4, LS by the Com­ missioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., v o l. 221 DC, p. 53, RG 393, NA. ^%homas J. Morgan to Lorenzo Thomas, July 20, 1864, (and endorsement by George H. Thomas, n.d.), LR by the Col­ ored Troops Division, RG 94, NA; William T. Sherman to 222

Lorenzo Thomas, July 25, 1864, Sherman Letterbook, vol J, p. 124, GPB; Brig. Gen. W.D. Whipple to T.J. iviorgan, August 9, 1864, LS by the Department of the Cumberland, vol. 9 DC, pp. 442-445, RG 595, NA. orks Progress Administration, "Texas Narra­ tives," pt. 1, p. 255, in Hawick, ed., American Slave, v o l. 4. 71 This study will not present detailed military narratives and analyses of battles as earlier works have already done this. On Port Pillow see Ralph Selph Henry, "first with the Most" Porrest (New York, 1944), pp. 250-256; on Nashville see Quarles, Negro in the Civil War, pp. 507- 510. This study is concerned primarily with the status accorded fighting black troops by white soldiers and the relationship of that treatment to social change.

^^Albert Castel, "Port Pillow: Victory or Massa­ cre," Aneriçanjî^toi^^^ IX (April, 1974), p. 47; John J L i. Jordan, "Was There a Massacre at Port Pillow?" THQ. VI (June, 1947), pp. Ill, 114, 129; Senate Executive Com­ mittee Reports, 58 Cong., 1 Sess., No^ Ô5, p. 4. 73 Thomas Jordan and J.P. Pryor, The Campaigns of Lieutenant General N.B. Porrest (New York, 1868), pp. 459- 440, 444-445; John Allen Wyeth, Life of General Nathan Ledford Porrest (New York, 1899), pp. 555-556; J. narvey Mathes, General Porrest (New York, 1902), p. 227; Eric William Sheppard, Bedford Porrest: The Confederacy’s Greatest Cavalryman (New York. 1950). pp. 170-172; Andrew Nelson Lytle, Bedford Porrest and His Critter Company (New York, 1851), p. 279; John L. Jordan, "Fort Pillow," pp. 122-125, 151-152. Sheppard, unlike the others, feels that Porrest could have taken some precautionary measures (left unspecified) which might have reduced the battle's t o l l . 74 Cornish, Sable Arm, pp. 174-175; Albert Castel, "The Port Pillow Massacre: A Fresh Examination of the Evi­ dence," Civil War History. IV (March, 1958), pp. 46-49; Castel, "Port Pillow: Victory or Massacre," pp. 4-11, 46-48. Henry, Porrest, pp. 256-266, gives some credit to each interpretational school. 75 yuarles, Negro in the Civil V^ar, pp. 205-206; OR, ser. 2, vol. V, pp. 797, 844, 940-941.

Cornish, Sable Arm, pp. 240-242, 259-, 264, 267; Ronald K. Huch, "Fort Pillow Massacre: The Aftermath of Paducah," Illinois State Historical Society Journal. LXVI (Spring, 1975), pp. 65, 70; Henry, Porrest, p. 245. 223

^"^ÜR. ser. 1, vol. AXilI, pt. 1, pp. 520, 560-561, 569, 609; Rrig. Gen, R.G. Buckland to iviaj. Bradford, February 24, 1864, 13 by the D is t r ic t o f Memphis, v o l. 16/25 DYiT, p. 200, RG 393, Nii; Thomas Jordan and J.P. Pryor, Campaigns of Porrest, pp. 422-423- 78 Senate Committee Reports, 38 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 63, pp. 38-39.

'^% b id ., p. 4; UR, ser._ 1, v o l. XXXII, p t. 1, pp. 571, 610; Lt. Col. Tom J, Jackson to Capt. George B. Halstead, April 19, 1864, LR by 11th U.S.C.I., RG 393, NA. Also see Charlie Robinson to his parents, April 19, 1864, in George Bodnia, ed., "Port Pillow massacre: Observations of a Minnesotan," Minnesota History. a LIII (Spring, 1973), p. 188.

By ran mcAllister statement. May 18, 1865, in Prank Moore, ed., Rebellion Record (9 vols,, New York, 1865), vol. VIII, poetry section, p. 56; Lois A. Bejack, ed., "The Journal /actually a memoir written in 18667 of a Civil Vi ar ’Commando*—Be %itt Clinton Port," Y est Tennessee Historical Society Papers, II (1948), p. 20; Thomas Jordan and J.P. Pryor, Campaigns of Porrest, pp. 339-340; Richard R. Hancock, Hancock’s Diary (Nashville, 1887), p. 367; G. A. Hanson, Minor Incidents of the Late War tBartow, Pla., 1887), p. 72; Jyeth, Porrest. p. 382 (cites a number of sworn affadavits written in the 1890s by Con­ federate participants who merely claim to have seen whiskey pails inside the fort). None of the official Confederate battle reports raised this allegation. See OR, ser. 1, vol. vŒAlï, pt. 1, pp. 595-599, 609-622. One of the white Pederal participants later accused, probably just as falsely, the Confederates of the same thing. See G. Pitch, "Capture of Port Pillovr--Vindication of General Chalmers by a Pederal Officer," Southern Historical Society Papers, VII (October, 1879), p. 441. ^^OR, ser. 1, vol. kXXII, pt. 1, p. 570; Lt. Col. Tom J. Jackson to Capt. George 3. Halstead, i^pril 19, 1864, LR by the 11th Ü.S.G.I., RG 94, NA; Ryeth, Porrest, pp. 387, 390; Castel, "Port Pillow Massacre," p. 43.

®^0R, ser. 1, vol. XXkll, pt. 1, pp. 560-561, 564, 566; Wyeth, Porrest, p. 390; Castel, "Port Pillov'; Victory or Massacre," p. 46.

^^S.H. Caldwell to h is w ife , Tnril 15, 1864, in works Progress Administration, "Civil Y-ar Records," vol. IV, p. 61.

^^Ibid.; OR, ser. 1, vol. XXXII, pt. 1, pp. 610, 224

620-622; S.R.Dyer Diary, April 12, 1864, TSLA.

Achilles V. Clark to a sister, i^ril 19, 1864, as quoted in henry, Forrest, p. 264. Also see Hancock, Diary, p. 361.

^^wyeth, Porrest, pp. 382-390; OR, ser. 1, vol. .axil, pt. 1, pp. 519, 522-525 , 531-532, 535, 558, 564, 566, 571, 668; U.S. Navy Department, Official Records of the Xavies, ser. 1, vol. XXVI, pp. 215, 220, 225-226; Charlie Robinson to his parents, April 19, 1864 in Bodnia, ed., "Port Pillow," p. 188; Cairo (Illinois) News, April 16, 1864, as quoted in W.illiam l e l l s Brown, The Negro in the American Rebellion; his heroism and His fidelity (Boston, 18Ü7), pp. 240-241. ^'^OR, ser. 1, vol. XxXII, pt. 1, pp. 535, 563, 566, 616; Pitch, "Port Pillow," pp. 440-441; Senate Committee Reports, 38 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 63, p. 22.

Achilles V. Clark to a sister, April 19, 1864, as quoted in Henry, Forrest, p. 264.

89^^OR, ser. 1, v o l. XXXII, p t. 1, pp. 525, 532, 536.

Charles W. Anderson, "The True Story of Port Pillow," ConfederateVeteran, III (November, 1895), p. 323. 91 Fitch, "Fort Pillow," np. 440-441; kyeth, Forrest, pp. 382-390.

^^S.H. Caldwell to his wife, April 15, 1864, in korks Progress Administration, "Civil War Records," vol. IV, p. 61.

93pR, ser. 1, v o l. XXXII, p t. 1, p. 558.

^^Ibid. , p. 610. ^^Forrest would play a leading role in the Tennes­ see Xu Klux Klan later during Reconstruction.

96'OR, ser. 1, v o l. XXXII, p t. 1, pp. 571, 590; VI yeth, Forrest, pp. 35 9-360; Senate Committee Reports, 38 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 63, pp. 4-5. Besides the major charge of a massacre, the report also accused the Confeder­ ates of (1) killing some prisoners after the battle, (2) killing some wounded Fédérais by burning or burying, and (3) killing some contraband women and children. Sig­ nificant supportative data has not yet appeared to confirm the first charge. Castel "Fort Pillow," pp. 48-50, 225 presents a good case for minimizing the significance of the other two a lle g a tio n s.

^"^Memphis B ulletin, jtoril 28, 1864; Cornish, Sable Arm, pp. 176-177; OR, ser. 1, v o l. .{XXII, pt. 1, p. 5 90; Lovett, "Negro's Civil ar in Tennessee," p. 45; Hanson, Minor Incidents, pp. 74-75. Confederates refused to give black troops quarter in two minor battles in Arkansas on April 18 and 25, 1864. 98 Morgan, R em iniscences, pp. 51-32; Romeyn, With Colored Troops, pp. 18-19; R.D. Mussey to Lt. C.P. Brown, December 5, 1864, LR by Adjutant General L. Thomas R elating to Colored Troops, RG 94, NA. 99 Cornish, Sable Arm, p. 283; OR, ser. 1, vol. XLV, pt. 1, pp. 504-505.

^^^OR, ser. 1, v o l. XLV, p t. 1, p. 505; Morgan, Rem­ in iscen ces , p. 48; George H. Thomas Journal, December 15, 1864, GPB.

^^^Morgan, R em iniscences, p. 48. Quarles, Negro in the Civil War, pp. 30o, 310-311, contends that Thomas had reversed his attitudes toward black troops prior to the b a ttle . 102 Morgan, R em iniscences, p. 49. 103 Litwack, "Free at Last," p. 156; Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, p. 157. GHÜPTER VIII

THE POLITICS OF EMANCIPATION

Although the contrabands virtually freed themselves

under the increasingly approbative Pederal military regime,

only the white politicians could legally emancipate them

since blacks held neither political rights nor power. As

the previous chapters have detailed, the very existence of

numerous contrabands and their willingness to serve the

union cause pressured political leaders to act in their

favor. Yet, in the beginning most Northern Republicans and

and their Southern unionist allies waged war not to abolish

slavery but solely to save the Union. The Southern imion-

ists were particularly dedicated to preserving the institu­

tion with which they had always lived. But because the

Pederal army received more support from blacks than whites

in the South, the Pederal government would eventually

accept emancipation, forcin g many u n io n ists to abandon pro­

slavery commitments.

Immediately after secession the Tennessee unionists had nowhere to turn except to the Republican-controled Ped­ eral government. On July 25, 1861, Senator Andrew Johnson induced the Republican majority in the Senate to pass a

226 227

resolution renouncing any intention of making abolition a

war aim, I'he passage of this resolution and of a similar

one in the House drafted by John J, Crittenden of Kentucky

greatly eased the Tennessee unionists' transition from

enmity against Republicans to alliance with them,^

Johnson's appointment as military governor placed him in

the key role of intermediary between the state's unionists

and the Republican Administration,

T'ederal occupation completely changed the political

situation in Tennessee, Prominent unionists could now return home while many prominent secessionists fled the state. Secessionists who remained had to watch their words while the once repressed unionists again became vocal. But both unionists and secessionists chafed under the arbitrary military rule. The unionists believed that successful res­ toration of civilian rule would depend upon unionism's strength, under Johnson's leadership they initiated a cam­ paign to convert the public's allegiance back to the fed­ eral government, As during the secession referendum the unionists denied that slavery was the issue of the war.

They could now use the Congressional war aim resolutions of

July, 1861, and the army's policy of excluding contrabands as proof that the Federal government would not harm slavery.

To intensify their impact, unionist speakers often threat­ ened to support emancipation should continued rebellion p force them to choose betv/een slavery or the Union, 228

The deterioration of slavery caused by growing

slave disloyalty and changing Federal policies embarrassed

the proslavery unionists’ crusade. William G. Brownlow, the most important unionist leader after Johnson, pleaded with Northern generals and legislators to "cease this war upon the everlasting 'nigger,' until we conquer their white 3 masters." Still, because the unionists had to coexist with their Federal ally, they did their best during 1862 to excuse the army's impressment of slaves and its failure to enforce the Fugitive Slave Lav/ as unavoidable consequences of an efficient v/ar prosecution. The unionists charged that secessionists held the greater responsibility for dam­

aging slavery because secession had started the war and the collapse of Tennessee's Confederate government had shat­ tered most of the normal controls over slaves. The union­ ists confidently expected to salvage slavery after a quick defeat of the Confederacy.^

The two Tennessee unionists v/ho served in Congress during 1862-63 tried to restrain Federal encroachments on slavery. Both Horace i.iaynard and Andrew J. Clements voted against the new article of war which prohibited military enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. Both also fought the Second Confiscation Act. îTaynard argued that the b ill would make it extremely difficult for Southern unionists to continue defending the Federal government and themselves against Confederate charges of abolitionism. If 229 emancipation had to happen, then both Congressmen favored the plan which Lincoln had proposed to the border states.

Under this program the states would pass gradual emancipa­ tion laws, and the Federal government would help the states compensate slaveholders. Since the two Congressmen consid­ ered emancipation harmful to s o c ie ty , they demanded that 5 the Federal government colonize any slaves whom it freed.

,/hile Clements opposed the Second Confiscation bill to the bitter end, Maynard joined the Republican majority 6 during the final vote. This division illustrated a seri­ ous dilemna which Southern unionists faced because of their numerical weakness. ïheir minority status limited their participation in the shaping of Federal policy at the same time that i t made them dependent upon Federal troops for safety. Thus, when the Federal government adopted policies distasteful to unionists, they had to choose from anong three unpleasant alternatives: they could switch their allegiance to the enemy, a step which few combat-hardened unionists could stomach; they could dissent, an action which would cause internecine strife potentially endanger­ ing the Federal war effort; or they could submit, the pain­ ful and humiliating choice which alone would please their powerful allies.

The increasingly strained relationship between the

Tennessee unionists and the Republican Administration reached a critical point in September, 1862, when Lincoln 230 issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This document threatened all seceeded areas with immediate and uncompensated emancipation unless they renewed their alle­ giance to the Federal government before January 1, 1863.

Thomas A.R. Nelson, the most prominent unionist still behind Confederate lines in East Tennessee, converted to 7 the Confederate cause because of the proclamation. In, a public address, which the Confederates widely distributed.

Nelson condemned the proclamation as an act of

"despotism . . . atrocity and barbarism."^ Although the

Confederates' propaganda campaign failed in East Tennessee, it terrified unionist leaders in the Federally occupied g parts of the state. The Memphis Bulletin's editors denounced the proclamation "as unconstitutional and inexpe­ dient, and calculated to crucify the union men of the Bor­ der States.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately force unionists to choose between submission and opposition since it included an escape clause. The President promised to consider insurrection ended in any area which had Con­ gressional representation by January 1, 1863, thereby exempting those areas from emancipation. Lincoln hoped that the threat of emancipation would restore at least the semblance of loyalty in Federally occupied areas, the only places where Congressional elections might conceivably occur.He urged Johnson to hold elections so that 231

Tennesseans could "avoid the unsatisfactory prospect before 12 them." The unionists had deviously elected Federal con­ gressmen for all three Fast Tennessee districts and one

Liiddle Tennessee district during the Confederate Congres- sional elections of August, 1861. 13 The rest of the state except lower Fiddle Tennessee now lay behind Federal lines.

Tennessee then could potentially have a nearly complete

Congressional delegation by January.

Earlier in his tenure as Military Governor, Johnson had authorized some local elections only to see Confederate sympathizers win. This embarrassing experience made him highly reluctant to call Congressional elections. The unionists in test Tennessee, the region with the largest proportion of slaves in its population, repeatedly peti­ tioned Johnson to issue writs of election but received no response, by la te November u n io n ists in upper J e s t Tennes­ see had become so desperate that they planned to hold an extralegal election. At the last minute Johnson officially called a Congressional election to take place on Decem­ ber 2 9, but only in the two %est Tennessee districts.

Around the time that Johnson issued the writs of election, Wnlliam B. Campbell approached the Military Gov­ ernor with another scheme for preventing emancipation in

Tennessee. Campbell, a slaveholder from Wilson County, had had a long and highly respected career in public office as a Whig, he had actively campaigned against secession until 232 the war began and then fell silent until the Fédérais

entered the state. Campbell proposed that Tennessee's

leading unionists petition Lincoln to exempt their state

entirely from the Emancipation Proclamation. His written

petition claimed that most Tennesseans were loyal but that

Confederate raiders would inevitably prevent fair elections.

Johnson placed his all-important signature on the petition

alongside those of forty other unionists residing in rlash- 15 ville. Maynard and Brownlow, neither of whom was in Ten­ nessee at the time, independently notified Lincoln of their support for the s t a t e 's exemption, Emerson E theridge, a prominant West Tennessee unionist, presented Campbell’s p e titio n to Lincoln on December 23»^^

Meanwhile Congressional campaigns were progressing in Jest Tennessee. At least iwro of the four announced can­ didates ran on platforms condemning emancipation. A union- is’’- convention at Bolivar passed resolutions instructing their district's victor to vote against all emancipation measures and for tougher fugitive slave laws. Lincoln's

Emancipation Proclamation had aroused great interest in the election just as he had intended, but it also stirred up a storm of abuse for the Federal government's methods of pro­ secuting the war. True loyalty can hardly be created by threats. The Administration escaped further embarrassment in Tennessee when a Confederate raid prevented the election from being h eld. The e le c tio n had become ir r e le v a n t anyway. 233 Campbell's petition had swayed Lincoln to exempt all of

Tennessee in the Final Emancipation Proclamation.^'^

Having prevented emancipation in their state, the

Tennessee unionists found themselves in an anomalous posi­

tion. Could they continue to support an Administration, which had just declared the slaves in most other Southern states free, without eventually accepting emancipation in

Tennessee as w ell? Most of the discom fited u n io n ists tried to ignore the issue, but a few committed themselves.

Etheridge castigated the Lincoln Administration and its emancipation p o lic y . In co n tra st, Brownlow in April of

1863 became the first Tennessee unionist to reverse his stand against emancipation. Soon after Brownlow's public conversion the Nashville Union Club passed resolutions calling for emancipation in Tennessee. The Nashville union, which had belatedly defended the Emancipation Proclamation in March, immediately endorsed the club’s resolutions, william B. Campbell and several other proslavery members of the club published a protest which by implication also denounced the Lincoln Administration's interference with slavery. A new newpaper, the Nashville Press, served as the dissidents' mouthpiece. The Tennessee unionist camp had c le a r ly begun to d iv id e .

Under state law the next gubernatorial and legisla­ tive election was scheduled for August of I 8 6 3 . Brownlow decided to use this opportunity for reinstating civil 234 government as a means of reuniting unionists, under his leadership several politicians called a convention of all those "T.’ho d e sir e to maintain the S tate Government in con­ nection with the Federal Union as it stood prior to the rebellion." 19 i'he call's wording implied that the state government could be restored without emancipation, however,

Brownlow*8 reconciliation attempt failed. Campbell and

John Lellyett, tv/o prominent opponents of emancipation, refused to sign the convention c a ll when in v ited to do so.

Lellyett wanted to pack the convention with fellow dissi­ dents, but his scheme must have failed since the convention did not elect any of them to a Union State Executive Com- 20 mittee which it created.

Except for a few antislavery speeches by unimpor­ tant delegates, the convention ignored the slavery issue.

During its sitting Maynard, a political associate of

Brownlow, actually delivered a Fourth of July oration which promised the preservation of slavery in the state and even the reenslavement of contrabands if white Tennesseans would only cease supporting the Confederacy. The dissident u n io n ists were not s a t is f ie d , Knowing th at they could best protect themselves against unrelished Federal policies by replacing military government with a complete civil admin­ is t r a t io n , they demanded th at an e le c tio n for th is pupose take place in üugust. The majority of the convention, though, only endorsed the election of a legislature to 235 advise military Governor Johnson until the Confederates were entirely driven from the state. sVhen Jonnson refused to call any election at all, the dissidents held an extra- legal gubernatorial election in several counties. They proclaimed Campbell, their candidate, the victor, but

Lincoln's refusal to recognize the election ended the mat­ ter. Jll the same the division between the supporters and c r i t i c s o f the Republican Adm inistration had become irrep a­ rab le.

As the unionist leadership split over emancipation,

Johnson carefully avoided taking a clear stand on the issue.

Since h is foremost commitment was to resto rin g a lo y a l state government, the most important Tennessee unionist continued in the old path of merely threatening to support 22 emancipation should i t become necessary to win the war.

In the controversy over the August election Johnson had poin ted ly shown the s ta t e 's u n io n ists that he u ltim a tely controlled the reconstruction process, üith his power and political skills he could play a key role in either the enactment or the prevention of emancipation. Johnson had already succeeded in helping to secure Tennessee's exemp­ tion from the final Emancipation Proclamation. However, unyielding opposition to Lincoln's hopes for border state emancipation could potentially lose him the military gov­ ernorship and increase Federal interference with Tennes­ see's reconstruction as well. 2 3 6

During an impromptu speech on August 29, 1863,

Johnson finally declared himself in favor of immediate

emancipation in Tennessee. From the beginning of the

national crisis he had argued that the secessionists were

plotting to create an autocracy ruled by wealthier slave­

holders. Johnson's intense class consciousness, a byprod­

uct of his difficult rise from poverty, and his Jacksonian

belief in equality among white men eased the difficult

transition to emancipationism. 23 ^ The central argument in

the speech announcing his conversion was ;

The slave aristocracy had long held their foot upon their _/nonslaveholders_|_7 necks, and exacted heavy trib­ ute from them, even to robbing them of free speech. Let the era of freedom be henceforth proclaimed to the nonslaveholders of Tennessee.'24

Johnson's advocacy of immediate emancipation at a time when Lincoln was urging only gradual emancipation upon the border states was not as significant as it seemed.

Johnson originally intended to accomplish emancipation through legislative action. The only feasible way in which the legislature could initiate emancipation under the state constitution was by passing a proposed constitutional amendment in two consecutive general assemblies and then submitting it to a popular referendum. This legal process would take at least two years to complete. Johnson's plans for blacks after emancipation evidenced his strong racial prejudices. He wanted the legislature to pass a strict black code including a mandatory term as indentured 237 25 apprentices for all freedmen. In his opinion, blacks

could "stay in the same space in freedom as they did in ..2b slavery. "

Shortly after ^ohnson's public conversion. Major

Stearns arrived in Nashville. Besides beginning black recruiting, Stearns also tried to secure Johnson's support for some practical and quick emancipation scheme. Stearns probably wanted the pro-Administration unionists to peti­ tion Lincoln for a withdrawal of Tennessee's exemption from the Jinal Emancipation Proclamation. Johnson was too much of a states rights Democrat to have sanctioned such a plan.

Besides, in a September 11 telegram Lincoln urged Johnson to accomplish reconstruction and emancipation quickly through state constitutional revision, an approach which

Lincoln was then recommending to all military governors.

Johnson realized that he would have to modify his recon­ struction plans, but not necessarily in the direction which

Stearns advocated. Stearns’ intrusion into Tennessee poli­ tics contributed to Johnson's abortive effort to secure the 27 Major's removal.

Humbled by the clash with Johnson, Stearns s till organized a unionist petition to the President, but it only condemned slavery and ca lled for the equal payment o f black troops. Johnson did not sign it, though several of his close political allies did. One of them, manson M, Brien, had less than a year before been a prominent signer of 238

Campbell’s petition for Tennessee's exemption from the

Emancipation Proclamation. The Stearns petition bore over

210 signatures and significantly illustrated the growing acceptance of emancipation among pro-Administration union­ ists, many of whom were slaveholders.

On December 8, 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation permitting the reestablishment of state government in Fed­ erally occupied areas and encouraging the new governments to abolish slavery. Dy this time the Pederal army had cleared the Confederates from practically all of Tennessee so that the opportunity for effecting emancipation and reconstruction finally seemed to have arrived. To please

Lincoln, Johnson scrapped his plan for emancipation through state legislative action. A new plan was publically unveiled at a mass meeting of Nashville unionists on Janu­ ary 21, 1864. In an obviously staged maneuver the meet­ ing's resolutions committee proposed that the Military Gov­ ernor should begin reconstruction with the election of a constitutional convention. The committee asked that the convention propose among other things a state constitu­ te tional amendment for immediate emancipation. Since Ten­ nessee's constitution did not explicitly provide for con­ stitutional conventions, the committee justified their pro­ posal by citing a section of the document which read:

ALl power is inherent in the people, and . . . they have at all times an inalienable and indefensible right to alter, reform or abolish the government in such a manner as they think p r o p e r . 50 239 Despite some opposition to the emancipation resolution, the

meeting passed all of the committee's report. The evening

closed with Johnson appearing on the stage to announce his 31 hearty approval of the plan.

All the most prominent pro-Admihistration unionists

had taken a stand by early 1864 in favor of state emancipa­

tion. dy taking this step they abandoned all hopes of con­

verting proslavery secessionists back to the old federal

allegiance. Johnson and his cohorts now sought to bring most unionists into the emancipationist fold, but they

often coupled persuasive tactics with proscriptive measures.

Beginning with a county officers' election in March, 1864,

Johnson required prospective voters to swear both loyalty to the federal government and support for all its war measures. The pro-Administration unionist leaders treated

acceptance of the Emancipation Proclamation as a test of true loyalty to the federal government.

Johnson delayed calling a constitutional convention through most of 1864, w hile he tr ie d to lead the mass of unionists into accepting immediate and unconditional eman­ cipation. The task proved very difficult. In february

Daniel C. Trewhitt, an East Tennessee unionist, proposed that the state adopt a gradual and compensated emancipation program for slaves belonging to unionists and amnestied secessionists. A unionist meeting at Kingston passed reso­ lutions agreeing with Trewhitt, and the Nashville Union 240 temporarily wavered from immediatism. Pro-idministration unionist leaders in Memphis briefly toyed with compensation schemes while remaining firm on immediatism. In âpril

Trewhitt decided to toe Johnson’s line, but his conversion had little impact on the overall picture.

The immediatists suffered a serious setback when the East Tennessee unionists convened in Knoxville to dis­ cuss reconstruction.^^ The anti-Kdministration unionists attended in force and gained control of the resolutions committee. The committee's majority report consequently favored strict adherence to the proslavery state constitu­ tion. Minority resolutions written by Trewhitt called for immediate emancipation. Debate over the resolutions revealed a great deal of disagreement among the delegates.

Sam Milligan, Johnson's chief political lieutenant, ended the wrangling by moving for permanent adjournment, the one thing which the majority could agree upon. To save face after this defeat, Johnson engineered a subsequent mass meeting in Knoxville. This meeting adopted resolutions proposed in Brownlow's name (but secretly written by 35 Johnson^ in favor of immediate emancipation.

The movement to propagate emancipationism eventu­ a lly became a part of the 1864 p r e sid e n tia l campaign in

Tennessee. The pro-Mministration unionists naturally linked them selves to the Union Party, a c o a litio n of Repub­ licans and some other war supporters. Johnson becane 241

Lincoln's running mate on a party platform calling for immediate emancipation throughout the South, fhe foremost

Tennessee Unionists^^ had gravitated to a position where slavery stood as the central issue in the v;ar. They faced a formidable task in trying to turn the diverse mass of unionists against an institution which had always been a part of Southern society. Because their party contained a conglomeration of varying viewpoints, the Unionist leaders had to resort to every possible line of argument.

The one factor which unified the Tennessee union

Party was a common commitment to destroying the Confederacy regardless of the cost. The top party leaders tried to lin k th is commitment to emancipation: "the whole strength of slavery is the Confederacy and the whole strength of the •5 7 Confederacy is slavery." They argued that slavery caused the war by fostering a desire for aristocratic government and an anxiety for the institution's security. Irresponsi­ ble demagogues, according to the emancipationists, had exploited these volatile sentiments to accomplish secession.

In the Unionist leaders’ opinion, Anerica had reached a point of no return: slaveholding secessionists would never voluntarily submit themselves to the federal government and that government could not coexist with secession. The

Unionist argument concluded that slavery must die if the 38 United States were to continue to exist. 242

ïhe advocates of emancipation also advanced practi­ cal reasons for ending slavery. They pointed out that war­ time stresses had made slavery inoperative in many parts of the state. In Brownlow's words, "It is no longer the local 39 but the travelling institution." Maynard contended that any attempt to return the disloyal slaves to their former status would result in a race war. Emancipationists held that the legalization of the contrabands' virtual freedom was a necessary first step for ending the current social 40 chaos and readjusting race relations. Even the most avid proslavery members of Tennessee's Union Party would bow to 41 xhese practical arguments.

Emancipationists, though, diverged on the issue of race relations. The Tennessee Union Party contained a few radicals who wanted to move the state toward a more equali- tarian so cie ty and who condemned slavery in much the same terms used by Northern abolitionists. James K. Hood and

S.C. Mercer, editors respectively of the Chattanooga

Gazette and the Nashville limes and True Union, labeled 42 slavery a violation of Divine la?; and of imerican ideals.

Tut a larger number of Unionists justified emancipation along racist lines. A Unionist who owned thirty slaves complained to the Nashville Union that blacks were lazy and immoral. He believed that emancipation and the forced col­ onization of all blacks outside the United States would greatly improve the nation. Viewing the blacks as insur­ mountably inferior, most Unionists argued that racial 243 equality could not possibly result from emancipation. They

held that the black race either would remain in a subordi­ nate p o sitio n or would become e x tin c t without sla v e r y 's

p a te r n a lis tic care.^^ Johnson, Brownlow, lAaynard, and a

few other U n ion ists wove r a c ia l preju d ices in to arguments

appealing to class antagonism. They argued that the large

planters had used the wealth and power derived from their black slaves’ labor to control Tennessee’s government end economy at the nonslaveholders' expense.Some U nionists deeply resented the radical and the class conflict argu­ ments, These individuals reluctantly accepted emancipation, but made it clear that "we pass no judgement upon slave-

4.15 holders." The diversity of opinion within the Tennessee

Union Party stood out as its greatest potential vulnerabil­ it y .

The anti-Mministration unionists led by Campbell and Etheridge bitterly fought the Union Party for the unionists’ votes. Prior to the 1864 presidential campaign these politicians formed the Conservative Party, the name stemming from their attachment to a political pressure group known as the Conservative National Union Committee,

This organization, which operated from an office in New

York City, sought to restructure the Democratic Party by ejecting the party's anti-war wing and by attracting oppo­ nents of emancipation. The Committee chose Campbell as its vice presidential nominee, but at the Democratic convention 244 an anti-war candidate won the nomination instead. Although

the failure of the Conservative National union Committee's

schemes embarrassed the Tennessee Conservatives, they had

no choice but to adopt the Democratic ticket as their own.

The Democrats' hostility to emancipation kept the liaison

comfortable.

The Conservatives' arguments frequently reflected

the Democratic Party’s ideology. Conservatives decried the

federal government's interference with local law and self-

government in the m ilitarily occupied parts of the South, following a strict interpretation of the state constitution,

they denounced Johnson's proposed state constitutional con­

vention as unconstitutional. They treated emancipation as 47 a violation of the white majority's will and rights. The

Conservative N a sh v ille Press s a r c a s tic a lly commented;

It must be quietly borne, if the right of personal liberty, free speech, free press, and a free ballot are all lost to the white man, in a struggle to place Cuffie and Din^i in a position for which they are t o t a lly u n f i t ,48

The Conservatives were quite m a re that the majority opin­ ion as well as the traditional system of rights, laj?;s, and government in Tennessee favored the preservation of slavery.

They had a much easier political task than the Unionists, since they had only to convince unionists to retain the pre-war social status quo.

The Conservative Party fundamentally opposed any change in Southern race relations. Party spokesmen flatly 245 denied that slavery had any evil or dangerous effects on 49 society. The mercurial T. A.R. Nelson, who abandoned the

Confederates and joined the Conservatives after the federal

liberation of East Tennessee, declared:

I cannot bring my mind at once to accept the doctrine that slavery i s wrong; that fo r more than eig h ty years the South, so free, so intelligent, so chivalrous, have been , , . perpetuating a great c r i m e . 5 0

Conservatives charged that emancipation would not eliminate 51 sectional conflict but would intensify and perpetuate it.

These unionists rejected the Union. Party’s contention that

slavery had deteriorated beyond recovery: "The abolition­

ists in Nashville and elsewhere have continued to repeat

that ’slavery is dead' until they have created a doubt of 52 the fact." Like secessionists, Conservatives feared that

emancipation would have disastrous social consequences,

William 3. Carter, a leading East Tennessee Conservative, wrote: "They /the Union Part%7 may turn loose millions of

ignorant negroes to riot over their freedom and to devour 55 the land." Conservatives even repeated the old seces­

sionist charge that the Republicans had always plotted to 54 abolish slavery and establish racial equality.

The Conservatives’ attacks caused the Union Party

to have internal difficulties with the emancipation issue through most of the campaign. The more cautious and pro­ slavery Unionists wanted to avoid the touchy issue. When

Brownlov/ wrote resolutions for an East Tennessee party con­ vention, he did not mention the subject lest he antagonize 246 the foot draggers too much» He left it up to i.’aynard, the main speaker, to urge Unionist slaveholders to accept imme­ diate emancipation for the nation’s benefit. On Septem­ ber 5-7, a Union Party state convention settled the intra­ party conflict. A committee chaired by Maynard presented resolutions calling for immediate emancipation. Three minority members of the committee protested that such a position would hurt the party in the election. That night the emancipationists must have applied intensive pressure to the three in the name of party unity because tv/o of them withdrew their names from the protest the next morning.

The party then publicly committed itself to emancipation 55 by adopting the majority resolutions.

Thus united, the Union Party could direct all of its energies against the Conservatives during the last two months of the campaign. In this struggle the Unionists held a great advantage on account of their connection with the military state government. The army arrested Conserva­ tive editor Sdv.'in Paschal when his Nashville Press editori­ alized that the Federal emancipation policy entitled all soldiers to a release from their military obligations 56 because the policy had changed the nature of the war.

The arrest intimidated' other Conservative papers and gained the Union Party a propaganda victory, especially after a

Military Commission fined Paschal Ü500 for "Aiding and 57 encouraging the Rebellion," Johnson aided his party, not 247 to mention his own candidacy, by requiring voters to take

an oath pledging unconditional support of all federal war measures, i’he Conservatives protested that the oath would bar them from votin g, ,/hen Lincoln refused to overrule the oath, the Conservatives withdrew their electoral ticket.

The Union Party was now assured of a lopsided victory in

Tennessee.

The Unionist leaders’ campaign to convert rank-and- file unionists to emancipation met with at least a fair degree of success. Resolutions passed by a number of unionist meetings endorsed Johnson’s reconstruction propos- 59 als. A federal soldier who attended an emancipationist speech by Johnson at Knoxville observed that "The citizens concurred most enthusiastically with him.On e le c tio n day some 11,400 u n io n ists by one u n o ffic ia l count showed at least a tacit acceptance of emancipation by voting the

Union ticket.

At a time when many unionists’ assent to emancipa­ tion was just being won, the urban black communities started demanding even more. Both free blacks and contra­ bands now wanted to participate directly in the political processes which might reshape their race's status. Black suffrage was not without precedent in Tennessee, for adult male free blacks had enjoyed the franchise until a consti­ tutional change in 1834» Slaves had never held any politi­ cal rights, but they could not avoid knowing something 248

about politics because of the subject's tremendous popular­

ity as an American pastime in the Nineteenth Century.

Owners generally preferred to keep this knowledge limited,

especially during the prewar debates over political issues

related to slavery. The violent slave insurrection panic

of 1856 occurred in part because whites feared that the

slaves had learned too much about the Republicans' supposed

ab olition ism . Once a slave had become a contraband and federal occupation had interfered with the normal social

controls, the restraints on black political interest dis- , 62 appeared.

The rights to vote and to hold office ranked among the highest privileges an American could have, and most states in the early 1860s reserved political rights exclu­ sively for adult white males. The political awakening of the Tennessee black community required not only the commu­ nication and organization of political interest but also the development of enough self-esteem that the participants felt worthy of exercising political rights. The slave class' low status and the constant pressures of white racism had cramped some sla v e s' sense of personal worth. A federal officer observed that contrabands "say few harder things of each other than 'you damned nigger.* . . . They use the word nigger to express contempt, dislike, or defi­ ance, as often and freely as the whites.The sla v e ­ holders' support of a losing cause gave the contrabands an 249 opportunity for comparatively reevaluating their status.

At a Camp Holly Springs religious service contrabands sang;

"De ta ll, de wise, de rebel head/ Come down so low as

ours."^^ ny running away, working fo r the army, or e n l i s t ­ ing, contrabands contributed to the Confederates’ defeat,

ihey could pride themselves on belonging to the winning

s id e , a sid e which had rewarded them them w ith a number of new privileges. As the contrabands rejected and helped to destroy their old social status, they began constructing 65 new self-images.

The urban black communities provided a propitious setting for the propagation of black racial pride and political consciousness. Ignoring the laws which prohib­ ited black gatherings, blacks in the larger cities held mass meetings for the articulation and communication of their new attitudes. The first of these events was a rally in Nashville on October 20, 1863, to encourage enlistment in the Federal army. Several months later on January 1,

1864, a crowd of Memphis blacks assembled in the black

Middle Baptist Church to celebrate the anniversary of the

Final Emancipation Proclamation. The resolutions passed by the latter meeting stated:

We are highly gratified with the appelation by which the colored soldiers are addressed by their officers, viz.: men; and we urge the colored men in all places, at all times, and under all circumstances to cease using that vulgar phrase, ’nigger.

These first convocations called for the improvement of 250 their race's status through emancipation, military service, and education. À speaker at the Nashville meeting noted that e have nothing to lose, but everything to gain,"^^

urban blacks also held marches to demonstrate group pride and to agitate issues. Black regiments usually lei the procession, and the businessmen frequently served as parade marshals. Black ministers, military employees, benevolent so c ie ty members, craftsm en, and schoolchildren sometimes walked together as units. The marches usually occurred in celebration of some special event such as an n iversaries o f the Federal occupation of Memphis, the

Emancipation Proclamation, and emancipation in the British

Yiest Indies. Nashville blacks held a separate Fourth of

July parade in 1864, when black regiments were not invited to march in the c ity government's parade.Mottoes which appeared on banners and transparancies in some of the marches included "They rebelled against Right," "Free and 69 nqual," and "Liberty or Death."

The mass meetings and marches were organized by an emerging black political leadership. The names of seventy- three leaders appeared in newspaper accounts of black political activities during 1864-65. Forty-five resided in 70 N a sh v ille , nineteen in Memphis, and nine in K noxville.

Some biographical information is available for thirty of them. Table 5 shows that the largest group of identifiable leaders was the businessmen. Clergymen also figured 251 TABLE 4

IDENTIFIABLE BLACK POLITICAL LEADERS IN TENNESSEE, 1864-65

ii am e Legal Status Occupation

Knoxville Leaders

Alfred E. Anderson free Methodist preacher; teacher David Scraggs free t a ilo r

Memphis Leaders

’ir, arren Brown ■$> Ü.S.C.T. sergeant Morris Henderson slave minister (Beale St. Baptist congregation) Louis Murray Ÿ U.S.C.T. sergeant David Randolph 9 preacher (Middle Bap­ tist Church) John C. Scurlook U.S.C.T. sergeant Horatio N. Rankin free Northerner teacher Clestern Freed- men's Aid Commission)

Nashville neaders

James Caffery free farmer Anderson Cheatham free grocer; liquor dealer Ben J. Hadly ^ slave liquor dealer Henry Harding slave construction contractor; liquor dealer; hotel keeper Vi ade Hickman slave liquor dealer Peter Lowery free preacher (Disciples of (Samuel's father) Christ black chapel); Livery stable operator; general business agent Samuel Lowery free Disciples of Christ m issionary H. J, Maxwell 9 U.S.C.T. sergeant i'ilfred Menefee free grocer Nelson Merry free minister (First Baptist Church) 252 TABLE 4-Continued

Name Legal Status Occupation

Nilliam G. Napier free hack driver Prank Parrish free barber Hardy Perry®' slave hack line operator George Scott free shoe maker or pressman William B. Scott free editor of Nashville Colored Tennessean Abrahan Smith slave porter at the state C apitol Jerry Stothart free hack driver W illiam Sumner free livery stable operator; (father of James grocer; liquor dealer and W. Alex) W. Alex Sumner free hack driver

Privately but not legally freed by their masters (Harding in 1863 and Perry in 1850J ^The 1860 census also lists two free blacks with th is same name. 253 prominantly among the identifiable leaders. Sergeants from the black regiments spoke at some of the mass meetings, but their military duties seem to have prevented any deeper involvement. Under the law nineteen leaders were free, and six were slaves. The 1860 census schedules of free inhab­ itants for Davidson, Shelby, and Knox counties did not list 71 any of the remaining fifty leaders. It is quite possible then th at most of the f i f t y were runaway sla v e s. U nlike the situation in Louisiana, free blacks probably did not monopolize the early political leadership positions in Ten- 72 nessee’s black communities.

During the presidential election campaign of 1864 the Tennessee black leaders began calling for black suf­ frage, This demand became a major theme in speeches at mass meetings and on banners in marches. For advice and encouragement the Tennessee black leaders looked to their

Northern counterparts, who had been agitating for suffrage for some time. Some literate blac-: Tennesseans now sub­ scribed to Northern black newspapers. Nashville black leaders twice sponsored public speeches by John Mercer

Langston, a prominent Ohio black. Along with black commu­ nities in six other slave states, Nashville and Memphis blacks sent delegations to the first truly National Conven­ tion of Colored Men at Syracuse, New York, on October 4-7,

1854. None of the Tennessee delegates (Morris Henderson,

Horatio N. Rankin, Peter Lowery, Ransom Harris, and i&raham 254 Smith) spoke on the convention floor, but each of bhem

served as an officer or committeeman. 3y unanimous vote

the convention demanded the emancipation of a ll American

slaves, the prohibition of involuntary coloniztion, and the

extension of citizenship rights to blacks. To secure these

goals, the convention founded the Equal Rights League.

Ransom Harris of Nashville was elected to the League's

national executive board. Abraham Smith also of Nashville 7-5 became the o rg a n iza tio n ’s v ice president fo r Tennessee.

Blacks in Tennessee towns showed much in te r e s t in

the presidential contest. They attended several Union

Party rallies, and on one occasion joined a mob of white

Fédérais in breaking up a Conservative mass meeting. Nash­

ville blacks held a torchlight procession to demonstrate

support for the Lincoln and Johnson ticket. Wade Hickman

and 'William Sumner, two black leaders in Nashville, set up

a mock polling place for blacks on election day. All of

the "voters" except one cast Union Party ballots. A total

of 3,-464 black "votes" showed the significant extent to which the capital city black community had been politically 74 activated . The b la c k s’ p o lit ic a l a c t iv it ie s won approval from

very few whites, not even from many of the Northern reform­

ers. Colonel iviussey privately endorsed black suffrage, but

a woman who taught blacks in Nashville considered this 75 demand "quite in advance of the times." Radical 255 Unionists probably favored black political rights but pru­ dently declined to raise this highly controversial issue during the presidential election. Opponents of black political rights felt no such inhibitions about expressing their views. Gallatin whites showed their disapproval of a black parade by keeping their front doors and blinds shut as it passed through the town. Memphis and Nashville whites sometimes hurled rocks and insults at black marchers.

On two occasions black marchers in Nashville shot at the rock throwers, a response that only intensified white crût­ icism of the marches. Politicians from both partieses 77 denounced the idea of political equality for blacks

Johnson, the most important Tennessee politician, appreci­ ated the blacks' political endorsement but refused to sup­ port black suffrage in return. In a resolution, which he wrote for a Knoxville mass meeting, Johnson asserted;

The government of the united States and the govern­ ments of the States . . . are the governments of the free white man, and to be controlled and administered by him, and the negro must assume the sta tu s to which the laws of an enlightened, moral and high-toned society shall assign him.78

Although Johnson rejected political equality for blacks, his racial prejudices were tempered by his campaign for national office and possibly by his developing friend­ ship with the abolitionist Colonel Mussey as well. On

November 15, he to ld a black crowd: "I claim . . . every honest man, be he white or colored, as my brother. I am interested in whatever elevates, improves, and ennobles 256 either a people or individual.'* 7 9 Johnson dropped his ear­ lier interest in involuntary apprenticeships for freedmen and now urged that blacks have complete freedom to succeed or fail in their own economic endeavors.While he would not support black suffrage, Johnson dedicated himself to securing legal emancipation in Tennessee before entering the vice presidency. He once asked a black audience "Is there no Wloses who w ill arise and lead these people to freedom?" A listener replied "You shall be our Moses, Gov­ ernor?" The egotistic Johnson agreed: "Yes, if no other deliverer will come to you, I w ill be your Moses, and help to secure and perpetuate your freedom.

The Andrevf Johnson who made these campaign speeches looks very different from the man who later vetoed civil rights legislation as President. Although his political orientations did change, his behavior patterns actually sho\? much continuity. All of his life Johnson held deep- seated Jacksonian convictions along with prejudices against blacks, sectionalists, and the wealthy. As his actions during the reorganization of Tennessee's state government showed, he could stretch Jacksonian beliefs to great lengths to meet immediate needs. More importantly the momentary sta te of h is r e la tio n s w ith a group could e ith e r inflame or moderate his biases. In 1864 Johnson had the blacks' support as he battled against what he considered to be the unwarranted demands of Southern sectionalists and 257 aristocrats. The political situation and Johnson's per­

sonal alignments v/ould be reversed a fter the war.

Although Johnson illustrated some flexibility in

setting priorities, with each controversial choice he

became r ig id ly committed to certa in p o sitio n s as he

retreated on other grounds. Under d if f ic u lt circum stances

in both cases, he endorsed emancipation during the war and

quick restoration of Southern government after the war.

Thé first showed a dedication to the Union despite the blacks' gain, while the second upheld Jacksonian states rights principles despite the Southern sectionalists' gain.

Determined to keep face, Johnson took attacks on his con­ troversial choices very personally and vehemently lashed out against his critics, while capable of shrewd political maneuvering, he was too emotional and egotistic to be a truly machiavellian figure.

Johnson could not always keep his own supporters under control. A mere four days after the national elec­ tion of 1864 the Union Party Executive Committee for East

Tennessee on its own initiative .called a state party con­ vention to nominate candidates for constitutional conven­ tion delegates. Brownlow, who had recently suggested that the party run a single state-wide slate of candidates, probably instigated the call. This prominent East Tennes­ see politician had almost called a state party convention earlier in the year without consulting Johnson.In a 258 drive for personal power—most immediately for the postwar gubernatorial p o sitio n —Brownlow w illin g ly chose to act independently of Johnson.

The East Tennesseans' precipitate action must have startled the state's other Unionists. It took sixteen days for the party's Middle Tennessee executive committee to respond. That committee, which included several of

Johnson's close political associates, called for a Tennes­ see unionist convention at Nashville on December 19 (the same time and place as the East Tennessee call) "to taloe such steps as wisdom may direct to restore the State of

Tennessee to its once honored status in the great National

Union.The wording of this call, as later events would show, indicated that Johnson and his associates had decided to give the convention a much larger role in the recon­ struction process than the East Tennessee committee had intended.

The Confederate invasion led by General Hood forced a postponement of the convention until January 9, 1865.

Several Conservatives considered attempting to pack the convention, but they either abandoned the idea or were excluded by the credentials committee. As soon as the meeting had organized itself and proceeded to business,

Johnson's closest political lieutenant, Sam Milligan, offered some stunning resolutions. Milligan proposed that the convention constitute itself into a constitutional 25 9 convention. He also presented several constitutional amendments fo r con sid eration , including one to abolish slavery. Daniel C. Trewhitt, a more legalistic Unionist, countered M illigan’s proposal with resolutions declaring 85 that the convention acted only as a nominating body.

A majority of the business committee favored

Milligan’s resolutions over Irewhitt's. The majority report argued that the convention represented the state's loyal citizens and therefore could exercise the people’s ultimate power to revise the government. Their argument used the same popular sovereignity clause in the state con­ stitution that the Union Party had earlier cited as justi­ fication for beginning reconstruction with a constitutional convention. The committee majority proposed several con­ s t it u tio n a l amendments fo r the convention’s con sid eration , including ones for emancipation and black soldier suf­ frage. %hile emancipation f u l f i l l e d a commitment made in the recent presidential election, the suffrage proposal can only have resulted from the blacks’ agitation. The conven­ tion itself had received a petition from Nashville blacks which in part read:

This i s not a Democratic Government i f a numerous, law- abiding, industrious, and useful class of citizens, born and bred on tha soil, are to be treated . . . as an inferior degraded class, who must have no voice in the Government which they support, p rotect and d efend.87

The committee majority had met Johnson’s obvious wishes and then added a small radical measure to its report as well. 260

James R. Hood, the radical editor of the Chatta­ nooga Gazette, submitted a personal minority report against the Milligan plan. He based his opposition purely on pro­ cedural grounds. All delegates wanted both a constitu­ tio n a l convention and an emancipation amendment. Under

Hood’s léadership M illigan’s opponents argued that a con­ stitutional convention must be elected or the populace would not regard its work as legitimate. Brownlow and

Maynard led another group of delegates in supporting the

Milligan plan as an expedient means of avoiding the expense,

OO delay, “and trouble of holding another convention. On

January 12 Johnson visited the convention and personally urged it to adopt the Milligan plan. He contended that the unusual problem of restoring an entire state government required unusual measures: "Suppose you do violate the law, if you restore law and Constitution, your consciences will

P Q approve your course, and aJ.l the people w ill say, amen.'"

Johnson’s opinion had always carried great weight among

Unionists, yet this time many delegates remained firmly convinced that his preferences portended disaster.

A le s s e r part of the debate revolved around the proposed amendment granting suffrage to black soldiers. A curious combination of Maynard and Hood defended this pro­ posal. Johnson, Brownlow, and all others who spoke on the 90 sub ject denounced the id ea. John A. Campbell of Roane

County asserted that "This revolution /In the blacks’ 261

sta tu s7 must be checked, and the sooner the b e tte r , because 91 we ourselves become su b jects or sla v es." Most d elegates

would not willingly grant blacks anything beyond emancipa­

tion for fear of promoting racial equality.

v/hen the convention finally settled both issues on

its fifth day, Johnson would have his way. Half of the

delegates had run out of funds and returned home by this

time. By I6l to 113 votes the remnant defeated a resolu­

tion to reject the Milligan plan. The business committee

then presented a revised list of proposed constitutional

amendments which did not include black soldier suffrage but

which did permit the next general assembly to set new suf­

frage qualifications. After some quibbling the meeting

passed the revised report. The convention completed’ its work by nominating Brownlow for governor and a statew ide

slate of candidates for the legislature. Johnson then set

February 22 as the date for a referendum on the proposed

co n stitu tio n a l amendments. A separate e le c tio n for gov­

ernor and legislature would follow on March 4. In accord­ ance with resolutions passed by the convention Johnson

required prospective voters to swear to their active loy­

alty and unconditional support of the Aiministration-s war p o lic ie. s . 92 Since the Unionist leaders knew that emancipation remained a highly controversial issue in Tennessee, they feared that a low voter turnout would endanger public 262 acceptance of the amendments and the new state government.

Congress and the President might even refuse to recognize

Tennessee as being reconstructed. The Unionist campaign repeated the emancipationist arguments used in the 1864 election and additionally stressed the: importance of 93 restoring local self-government. Conservatives generally- ignored the election because the proscriptive oath excluded their votes and because they rejected the Nashville conven­ tion's legality. The Conservative Nashville Dispatch reported with dissatisfaction that the local contrabands were showing great interest in the referendum. At one

Unionist rally in Nashville the contrabands in the audience boldly expressed disapproval when a speaker used racist arguments. Confederate g u e r r illa s also showed great in te r ­ est in the election. Because of their disruptive activi­ ties, little more than half of the state's counties could hold the referendum. The voter turnout almost everywhere 94 was low.

On February 25, 1865, Johnson announced that the voters had ratified the amendments, making Tennessee the sixth Southern unionist state government to have abolished slavery during the war. White unionists had cast 27,684 95 votes to give up slavery. In gratification the Nashville black community presented Johnson with a S350 gold watch honoring his "Untiring Energy in the Cause of Freedom."

Shortly afterwards Brownlow and the Union Party s la te of 263

legislators won their election without any significant

opposition. Having accomplished his goals, Johnson trium­

phantly le fv Tennessee to become v ic e p resid en t.

Tennessee’s white electorate always had the legal

power to abolish slavery. Since a majority of whites had fully accepted the institution's existence during the pre­ war period, the internal enactment of-emancipation required

a number of them to undergo a s ig n ific a n t a ttitu d in a l change. Pressures exerxea by the multidimensional social conflicts of the v;ar created this change. Large numbers of slaves fled both secessionist and unionist masters to serve the Federal government and to demand the higher status of freemen. The unionists bitterly divided over their Federal ally's plan to use emancipation as a weapon against the s e c e s s io n is t enemy. Caught betv/een the movements toward emancipation by the Federal government and the contrabands, the pro-Aiministration unionists increasingly were forced to collaborate in order to retain ascendancy over their

Conservative and secessionist enemies. Ly the time of the referendum a significant minority of Tennesseans had seen their social views recast in the furnace of civil war. w'ith few exceptions this attitudinal change did not purify their minds of racial prejudices. It would take much more than the legal act of emancipation to secure freedom in its fullest sense for the slaves. 264

FOOTNOTES

^Congressional Globe, 37 Cong,, 1 Sess., pp. 223 (July 22, 1861), 257, 265 ”

^New York Times, September 9, 1862.

^Memphis B u lle tin . July 29, 1862; N a sh ville Union, May 23, 30, June 27, 1362.

^Congressional Globe, 37 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 959 (February 25, 1862), 273-274 (May 23, 1862), 2533-2534 (June 3, 1862), Appendix pp. 191-192 (May 24, 1862); Nash­ ville Union. July 26, 1862.

^Congressional Globe. 37 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 5267- 3268 (July 11, 1862). 7 U.S. Statutes, vol., XII, p. 1267; Knoxville Reg­ ister, October 5, 1862; C.W. Charlton to T.A.R. Nelson, October 5, Nelson Papers.

^Knoxville Register. October 5, 1862.

%amuel Jones to T.A.R. Nelson, October 17, 1862, Nelson Papers; Athens Post. October 10, 1862; Palmer, Recollections, p. 127.

^^Memphis B u lle tin, November 9, 1862.

^^U.S. Statutes, vol. XII, p. 1267; Herman Belz, Reconstructing the Union: Theory and Policy during the Civil U.ar (Ithaca. N.Y. , 1969), pp. 105-106.

^^OR, ser. 3, vol. II, p. 675. 13 Patton, Unionism, pp. 28-29. Only Maynard and Clements managed to avoid capture by Confederates on th e ir way to Washington.

^'^Hall, Johnson, pp. 48-49, 87-89; Emerson Etheridge to Andrew Johnson, October 29, 1862, and several undated petitions from West Tennessee unionists, Johnson Papers; House Committee Reports, 37 Cong., 3 Sess., No. 46, p. 8; Nashville Union. December 8, 1862. 265 Campbell to William B. Campbell; November 22, 1863, Campbell Papers; Allan Johnson and üumas Malone, eds», Dictionary of American Biography (22 vols., New York, 1928- 194-6), vol. Ill, p. 466; Nashville Press and Times, July 6, 1865; Loyal C itizen s of Tennessee P e titio n , December 4, 1862, Lincoln Papers.

^% illiara G. Brownlow to Abraham L incoln, Decem­ ber 25, 1862, Lincoln Papers; Memphis Bulletin, October 6, 1863; Cincinnati Gazette, December 24, 1862. 1 7 Memphis B u lle t in , November 28, December 27, 1862; Brig. Gen. M. Bray man to Andrew Johnson, December 17, 1862, Jolinson Papers; house Committee Reports, 38 Cong., 3 Sess,, No. 46, pp. 3, 8; U.S. Statutes, vol. XII, p. 1269. Con­ gressional elections were held in several Virginia and Louisiana districts, and the Pinal Emancipation Proclama­ tion exempted portions of those states also. See Belz, Reconstructing the Union, pp. 107-108.

^^Nashville Union, March 13, April 23, June 13, 1863; Cincinnati Gazette, April 17, 1863; Horace maynard, To the Slaveholders of Tennessee (n.p., 1863), p. 21; Nash­ ville Press, May 16, June 29, 1863.

^'^Nashville Union, June 28, 1863. 20 Edward H. East to William B. Campbell, June 22, 1863, and John Lellyett to Viilliam B. Campbell, June 27, 1863, Campbell Papers; Nashville Dispatch, July 7, 1863.

^ % ash ville P r e ss . July 3 -5 , 1863; Maynard, To the Slaveholders, pp. 21-23; Nashville Dispatch, July 7,^1863; Memphis Argus, September 4, 1863; Nashville Union, Octo­ ber 1, 4, I 8 6 3 . Louisiana and West V irgin ia u n io n ists divided along similar lines at about the same time. See R ip ley, Slaves and I'reedmen, pp. 162-163: Richard Orr Curry, A House Divided: A Study of Statehood Politics and the Copperhead Movement in West Virginia (Pittsburg, 1964), pp. 10-11.

^^Nashville Union. August 25, 1863; New York Times. March 2, 1863; Hall, Johnson, pp. 81-92, 106. Hall incor­ rectly contends that Johnson's early rhetorical threats about emancipation represented a full endorsement of the me asure.

^^Nashville Union, April 4, 1862, September 1, 1864; Andrew Johnson to Sam Milligan, January 13, 1861, in Graf et al., eds., Johnson Papers, vol. IV, pp. 160-162; Con­ gressional Globe, 37 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 293 (July 277 1861); Hall, Johnson, pp. 20, 91-92. 266 24 Nashville Union. September 1, 1863.

ser. 1, vol. XXXj pt. 1, pp. 182-183; Tennes­ see Constitution (1834J, art» II, sec. 31» art. XI, sec. 3; Mdrew Johnson testim ony, November 23, 1863, -‘Œ'IC, f i l e VII, pp. 48-50. 26 Nashville Press. January 22, 1864.

^^Stearns, Stearns, pp. 309-310; OR, ser. 3, v o l. Ill, pp. 789, 820; 3elz, Reconstructing the Onion, p. 292. 28 loyal Citizens of Tennessee Petition, October 10, 1863, Lincoln Papers; N.J. Kelly to Andrew Johnson, Septem­ ber 9, 1863, Johnson Papers; OH, ser. 3, vol. IV, p. 772. 29 U.S. Statutes, vol. XIII, p. 738; Andrew Johnson to Horace Maynard, January 14, 1864, uohnson Papers; H all, Johnson, pp. 114, 118; Nashville Press, January 22, 1864.

^^Tennessee Constitution (1834), art. I, sec. 1,

^Nashville Press, January 22, 1864.

^^i/lemphis Bulletin. October 6, 1863, January 27, 1864; Hall, Johnson, p. 119; Joseph Trigg speech in Mem­ phis Bulletin, March 5, 1864; Porter Diary, June 5, 1864. 33 Knoxville Nhig and Rebel Ventilator. Pebruary 6, 1864; "Call fo r a Mass Meeting," enclosed in J.Li. Tomeny et al. to Andrew Johnson, Pebruary 10, 1864; Nashville Union, Pebruary 7, 1864; Nashville Times and True Union, March 14, 1864; Cincinnati Gazette. February 27, April 22," 1864. In July, 1863, the gradualists among the Missouri pro- Administration unionists had succeeded in enacting a grad­ ual emancipation program. See Uilliam E. Parrish, Missouri under Radical Rule 1865-1870 (Columbia, Mo., 1965), pp. 3-4.

t is not at all clear who was behind the calling of this convention. On the surface the initiators were John V/illiams (a Conservative by late 1864) and William B. Heiskell (a proslavery Unionist). The contention in Hall, Johnson, p. 125, and Patton, Unionism, p. 45, that Johnson instigated the convention is based on a misreading of Temple, Notable Men, pp. 407-408. Also see Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, March 12, April 2, 1864; Nashville Press, October 27, 1864; New York Tribune. April 9, 1864.

^%illiam B. Carter to William B. Campbell, Septem­ ber 28, 1864, Campbell Papers; Nashville Times and Tne Union, April 23, 1864; Cincinnati Gazette. April 22, 1864; 267

Temple, Motable Men, pp. 407-408; Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, April 25, 1864. "

To resolve an unavoidable semantic problem in Chapters IX and X, the lower case "unionist" will continue to denote any supporter of the Federal government before and during the war. while the upper ca^e "Unionist" w ill be used only to r e f e r to a member of the Union P a rty .

^^Nashville union. I'llay 20, 1864.

^^Nashville Times and True Union, October 1, 1864; Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, November, 11, 1863; Nashville Union. April 21, 1864: Kemnhis Bulletin. Kay 24, 1864; ? /probably Sam M illigan/ to Andrew Johnson, Octo­ ber 21, 1863, Johnson Papers."* 39 K noxville Whig and Rebel V e n tila to r . November 11, 1863. Also see Nashville union. April 13, 1864.

“^^Nashville Times and True Union. September 10, October 25, 1864; Nashville Union,April 13, 1864; Knox­ v i l l e Whig and Rebel V e n tila to r . November 23, 1864; ii,J. Kelly to Andrev/ Johnson, September 9, 1863, Johnson Papers.

^^Memphis B ulletin, September 14, 1864; John Kambright to J. Hambright, June 17, 1864. Johnson Papers.

^^Philadelphia Enquirer excerpt in Nashville D isp atch . December 3, 1863; N ash ville Times and True Unio n , October 25, 1864; Chattanooga Gazette, March 20, 1864.

Nashville Union. June 28, 1864; Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, November 11, 1863; Nashville Times• and True Union, September 10, 1864; ? /probably Sam M illigan/ to Andrew Johnson, October 21, 1863, Johnson Papers; /Gilmore/, Dovm in Tennessee, p. 220.

Nashville Times and True Union. April 15, June 11, 1864; Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, ivlay 7, 1864; Maynard, To the S laveh o ld ers, pp. 16, 22; /G ilm ore/, Down in Tennessee, pp. 220, 227; Memphis Bulletin, March 5, 1864. E. Merton C oulter, W illiam G. Brownlow: F igh tin g Parson of the Southern Highlands (Chapel H ill, N.C., 1937), p. 92, notes that Brownlow had never appealed to class antagonism before 1860, 45 Rutherford County union Convention resolutions as quoted in Nashville Union. June 4, 1864. Also see Chatta­ nooga Gazet^ excerpt in Nashville Times and True Union, June 25 , 1864. "" 268

Stevens to W illiam B. Campbell, November 12, 1863, Ivlax Langenschwartz to William B. Campbell, January 12, 1864, and William B, Carter to William B. Campbell, Septem­ ber 28, 1864, Campbell Papers; Chicago Tribune, August 28- Sept ember 2, 1864»

illiam 3. Carter speech in Nashville Times and True Union. April 16, 1864; William B. Carter to William 3. Campbell, September 28, 1864, Campbell Papers; "Bedford" L etter in N ash ville P r e ss, August 8, 1364»

^^Nashville P r e ss, July 7, 1864* 49 Wieraphis Argus excerpt in memphis B u lle tin , Janu­ ary 27, 1864; Nashville Press, ilipril 19, 1864»

C incinnati G azette, Aj^ril 22, 1864.

^^Conservative Petition in Nashville Press, Janu­ ary 29, 1864.

^^Nashville Press. January 12, 1864. 83 Williai'n B. Carter to William B. Campbell, Septem­ ber 28, 1864, Campbell Papers. 84- J. Motherland to Andrew uohnson, July 8, 1864, Johnson Papers; Conservative National Union Committee Address in Nashville Dispatch, October 20, 1864. 55 Nashville Union, June 4, 1864; Nashville Times and True Union, July 11, 1864.

^Nashville Press, July 9, 1864; Nashville Times and True Union. July” l l , 1864. 57 George H, Thomas, G.O. 45, October 17, 1864, Department of the Cumberland P rinted Orders fo r 1863-64, RG"393, NA» ^^Nashville Times and True Union, October 2, 1364; Hall, Johnson, pp. 147-143. 5 9 John Hambright to J. Hambright, June 17, 1864, Johnson Papers; Knoxville whig and Rebel Ventilator, June 11, 1864; Nashville Times and True Union. June 25, August 25, September 5, 18^4; Memphis Bulletin, July 6, July 6, 1864. 60 James Theaker to Lizzie Theaker, April 13, 1864, in R ieger, ed.. One Man's Eyes, p. 93. Also see Andrew 269

Johnson to iNilliam G. Brownlow, April 6, 1864, Johnson Papers,

°^all, Johnson, p. 156. Congress refused to count Tennessee's electoral vote on the ground that insurrection had not entirely ended in the state.

'^^homas B. Alexander, Political Reconstruction in Tennessee (Nashville, 1950j, p. 129; Hughes, Thirty Years, pp. 13, 111-112; Schweninger, "Pree-Slave Phenomenon," pp. 301-302; Dew, "Insurrection Panic, " pp. 336-332. See Ralph Dahrendorf, Glass and Class Conflict in Industrial S ociety (2nd ed., Stanford, Cal. , 1959}, pp. 185-190, on conflict groups.

^^Beatty, Citizen, pp. 181-182 (April 1, 1863). Also see Powers, Pencilings. p. 68 (Hay 1, 1864).

^^Cincinnati Gazette, April 24, 1863. This v/as a variation on the popular slave funeral song "Hark from the Tomb." 65 See Coser, Continuities in Social Conflict, p. 80, on the role of the renegade,

^^(Eoston) Liberator, January 29, 1864.

^"^(Cincinnati) Colored C itiz e n , November 7, 1863.

^%estem Preedmen's Aid Commission, Second Mnual Report, pp. 40-41; Nashville Dispatch. August I d , 1864; Nashville Times and True Union, July 6, October 24, 1864; Memphis Bulletin, June 7, August 2, 1864, January 3, 1865; Nashville Press, January 2, 1864. Also see Williamson, After Slavery, p. 49.

69 Memphis Bulletin. January 3, 1865; Nashville Times and True Union. October 25, 1864.

"^^(Boston) L ib era to r. January 29, 1864; N ash ville Times and True Union, December 30, 1864, January 4, Febru­ ary 25, 1865; Nashville Dispatch, August 16, 1864; (Nash­ ville) Colored Tennessean. August 12, 1865; Nashville Press and Times. May 29, 1865. The large number of Nashville leaders is probably due to the greater availability of information on black political activities in that city. 71 Manuscript Returns of the Eighth Census of the United Si^ates for Davidson, Knox, and Shelby Counties, Ten­ nessee, Schedule 1--Pree Inhabitants, NA; Nashville Press and Times, i^ril 4, 1868; and the newspaper articles"cited 270

in the previous footnote identified most of the leaders. Information on the r e s t came from Napier, "Negro i.iemhers," p. 117 (Harding and Perry); R.l. Kichol to Mdrevr Jolmson, October 21, 1864, Johnson Papers (Hickman); Norton, Chris­ tians , p. 130 (the boiverys); Tucker, Black Pastors, pp. 7-8 (Henderson and Rankin); New York Anglo-African, August 12, 1865 (Peter Lowery). 72 Earnest Yi. Hooper, "Memphis, Tennessee: Federal Occupation and Reconstruction, 1862-1870" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1957), pp. 154-155; Donald E, Everett, "Demand of the New Orleans Free Colored Population for Political Equality, 1862-1865," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXXVIII (April, 1955), p. 64. Berlin, Slaves without Masters, p. 384, notes that blacks who had been free before the war held a dispropor­ tionate share of the political leadership during Recon­ str u c tio n .

^^Nashville Disnatch. August 16, October 19, 1864; Nashville Times and True Union, January 4, 1865; John Eaton to George Whipple, December 2, 1864, AMA-Tenn.; Memphis Bulletin, October 1, 1864; National Convention of Colored Men, Proceedings (Boston, 1864), passim. On the blacks' suffrage movement in occupied Louisiana and South Carolina see Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen, chap. 9; Everett, "Demand for Political Equality," passim; Rose, Rehearsal for Recon­ struction. pp. 316-317.

^^Porter Diary, October 29, 1864; Nashville Times and True Union, October 25, November 9, 1864; N ash ville Press, October 26, 1864.

^^R.D. Mussey to George L. Stearns, August 17, 1864, iiS by the Commissioner for the Organization of U.S.C.T., vol. 221 DC, pp. 44-46, RG 393, NA; Freedmen*s Bulletin. I (July, 1865), p. 136.

^^Nashville Dispatch, December 3» 1863; ’Western Freedmen's Aid Commission, Second Annual R eport, pp. 40-41; Nashville Times and True Union, April 26.October 25, November 14, 1864; Memphis B u lle tin , January 3, 1865; Nash­ ville Press, October 26, 1864; "Jeff Davis" to Andrew Johnson, October 24, 1864, Johnson Papers.

^^Nashville Dispatch, October 15, 20, 1864; Nash­ v ille Times and True Union, September 10, 1864; /Gilmore?, Down in Tennessee, pp. 220-221. ” 78 K noxville Whig and Rebel V e n tila to r , April 23, 1864. On Johnson's authorship see Temple, Notable Men, p. 408. 271 70 N ashville Times ajid True Union, November 14, 1864.

^^ Ib id ., June 11, November 14, 1864.

^^Ibid.. October 25, 1864. Op This study’s characterization of Johnson is most closely similar to that in Kenneth M. Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877 (New York, 1965), chap. 3; and Ivlichael Les Benedict, The Impeachment and Trial of indrew Johnson (New York, 1973), pp. 3-7. ^^Knoxville Jhig and Rebel V entilator, December 14, 1864; J.B, Bingham to indrew Johnson, June 26, November 25, 1864, Johnson Papers; Nashville Times and True union, November 25, 1864. Brownlo?f had no d i f f i c u l t y choosing to break politically from Johnson during postwar controversies over Reconstruction.

^^Nashville Times and True Union, November 28, 1864. This writer could find no evidence to support the hypothe­ sis in Temple, Notable Men, p. 411, that Johnson instigated the East Tennesseans' convention call.

®^Nashville Times and True Union, December 21, 1864, January 10, 1865; John Lellyett to William B. Campbell, November 18, 1864, Campbell Papers. The Samuel M illigan Memoir, p. 112, TSLA, claims that he had always been anti­ slavery. The Johnson Papers contain a letter to Johnson dated October 21, 1863, in which the writer, whose signi- ture has been clipped, states that he has just accepted emancipation. Milligan probably wrote it, given the simi­ lar handwritting, the included personal information, and the writer's evident closeness to Johnson.

^^Nashville Times and True Union, January 12, 1365.

^^Ib id . , January 18, 1865. ^^Ihid. , January 12-13, 1865; Nashville Press, Jan­ uary 13, 1865; H a ll, Johnson, p. 169.

®%ashville Press, January 13, 1865.

SOlbid., January 13-14, 1865. ^%ashville Dispatch, January 13, 1865.

^^Nashville Union, January 14, 1865; Nashville Times and True Union, January 14, 16, 27, 1865. Louisiana Unionists had resolved the black suffrage issue in the same 272 v/ay during their 1864 state constitutional convention. See Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen, pp. 171-173.

^^Nashville Union. January 25, 27, February 7, 11, 1365,• ?.S. Bland et al. to ündrev/ Jolmson, February 3, 1865, Johnson Papers, Memphis Bulletin. February 21, 1865; Nash­ ville Dispatch, February 21, 1865. The evidence in this study's next chapter contradicts the contention in Alexander, Reconstruction in Tennessee, pp. 46-47, that few Tennesseans opposed the emancipation amendment. 94 Alexander, Reconstruction in Tennessee, p. 33; Nashville Union. February 4, 1865; Nashville Press, Febru­ ary 1, 15, 1865; J.B, Bingham to Rndrew Johnson, Febru­ ary 18, 1865, Johnson Papers; Nashville Dispatch, Febru­ ary 21, 1865; Nashville Times and True Union, February 24, 1865.

^^Nashville Times and True Union, February 27, 1865; Tally Sheets of Elections, 1860-1864, TSLA. 113 votes were cast against the amendments. The u n io n ist sta te govern­ ments which preceded Tennessee in enacting immediate eman­ cipation were Arkansas (January, 1864), Virginia (April, 1864), Louisiana (September, 1864), Maryland (October, 1864), and Missouri (January, 1864). L'est Virginia entered statehood in April, 1863, with a gradual emancipation pro­ gram. 96 Nashville Times and True Union. February 25, 1865. CHAPTER IX

THE END OF AN INSTITUTION

On April 5, 1865, Viilliam G. Brownlow took the

inau.gural oath as the first governor of Tennessee-s

restored civil administration. During the ceremony at the

state capitol a gigantic thirty-hy-forty foot emancipation­

ist banner hung in front of the building. The painting

juxtaposed antislavery statements written by the nation's

founding fathers alongside depictions of black soldiers and

schoolchildren. On the very same day the legislature unan­

imously ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which proposed

to w rite the emancipation of a l l American sla v es in to the Federal Constitution.^ Whether the freedmen's freedom under the new state government would include all of the, wartime privileges won by contrabands, more gains, or less remained to be seen'. But then freedom had hot y et become a reality for all slaves in Tennessee. The state constitutional amendment may have legal­

ized the urban contrabands' virtual freedom, but it did not immediately touch the remaining pockets of rural slavery.

A lav;'s effectiveness depends upon the degree to which it is socially accepted and governmentally enforced. By

273 274 holding a legally questionable constitutional convention

and by excluding most adult male Tennesseans from voting,

the unionists had won electoral victories on paper but had

lost any chance of gaining any widespread support among the

white citizenry. V.'ith little public respect, financial

resources, or physical power, the new state government

could not by itself have triumphed over the obstinacy of

the last slaveholders. The Unionists would have to con­

tinue to rely heavily upon the Federal army to enforce

their policies.

As the spring of 1865 progressed, the major Confed­

erate armies surrendered, and warfare came to an end.

Within t?;o weeks of Brownlow’s inauguration Lincoln's

assasination raised Johnson into the presidency. The new

President was determined to reconstruct the nation quickly upon the basis of emancipation for slaves and forgiveness for most Confederates. Some Confederate soldiers came home willing to forget the past and accept emancipation. Many others returned embittered by the destruction of their pro­ slavery n ation . They blamed th e ir d efeat not only on the

Fédérais' greater power but also on the blacks' and union­ ists’ disloyalty. The Federal government's exaltation of its black and white Southern allies pained these former

Confederates all the more. In Maury County the paroled

Confederates talked so much about reviving slavery that many of the rural freedmen fled into the Federally 275 2 garrisoned county seat. The return of Confederate sol­

diers and refugees sharply reduced the blacks’ proportional

V/eight in the state’s population and consequently increased

white resistance to social change.

The Conservative Party tried to mobilize popular

discontent during the summer congressional election cam­

paign of 1865. William B. Campbell and Emerson Etheridge

prominently agitated the viewpoint that Nashville Conven­

tion and the tv/o subsequent elections were unconstitu- 3 tional. When Etheridge spoke at Dresden, the mass meeting

resolved not only that the Nashville constitutional conven­

tion was illegitim ate but also that the convention had

attempted "to subvert and abolish the most important pro­

visions of the constitution."^

On July 10, Brownlow reacted to this evidence of

dissent by ordering the arrest of congressional candidates 5 engaged in "denouncing and nullifying the Constitution."

Shortly afterwards a contingent of black troops arrested Etheridge. Campbell narrowly averted arrest by taking a

certified oath of loyalty to the state government and its

constitution. President Johnson publicly supported

Brownlow's action and ordered the army to continue sustain­

ing the sta te government. General George H. Thomas, who now commanded all Federal troops in Tennessee, kept

Etheridge confined until after the election.^ A sobered

Campbell closed his congressional campaign with a speech 276 advocating obedience to the last's and the state government:

I__now regard slavery as abolished, and expect the /Thirteenth^ constitutional amendment to be adopted . 7 . I do not desire to resurrect it, nor do the people of Tennessee.7

Confronted by federal military might, the Conservative

political resistance to emancipation collapsed.

Some slaveholders defied the authorities and reso­

lutely sought to retain their slaves in slavery. A few

owners kept their slaves isolated and unaware of emancipa­

tion through most or all of 1865. Recalcitrant masters,

suspecting that their slaves had heard about the legaD. end

of slavery, either denounced the news as false or turned to

the use of force.^ After shooting a disobedient slave on

July 2, Amos Black of Hardeman County warned h is other

slaves:

You have been fooled with the d-d Yankee lies till you thought you were free, and you got so you could not obey your master. There is no law against killing niggers and I will kill every d-d one I have, if they do not obey me and work just as they did before the war. 9

Confederate g u e r r illa s maintained slavery in Hickman, Dyer,

Gibson, Carroll, %eakley, and Haywood counties at least

through the early summer. In some parts of the state the

institution still remained fully alive as late as September,

1865 .^° The last strongholds of slavery fell through the

army’s intervention, the slaves' self-assertion, or both.

The Federal army and the Freedmen's Bureau, a new l a r 277 Department agency for supervising the transition from slav­

ery to freedom, held several public meetings around the

state to publicize emancipation.^^ John Houston B ills, an

amnestied secessionist in Hardeman County, did not acknw:- ledge the freedom of his slaves until he heard federal gen­

era ls t e l l a mass meeting at La Grange on Li ay 29 that s la v ­ ery v;as irrevocably abolished in Tennessee. Robert 11.

Gartmell, a diehard secessionist in Madison County, also tried to hold out against emancipation. As late as April 3 he signed a slave-hiring contract with a neighbor. In June a federal patrol arrived in Jackson and publicaly pro- 12 claimed the slaves’ freedom. Gartmell then had no choice but to accept the institution’s end since the local slaves

"fully appreciate the fact that they are free."^^

John S. Glaybrooke, who had large slaveholdings in

Haywood and %illdamson counties, observed that wherever the army went announcing emancipation the slaves "become by degrees of no use to us.After one Haywood County slave learned of her freedom from federal soldiers, she immedi­ ately slacked off in the performance of her uncompensated labors. When the mistress threatened to whip her, the slave retorted that the m istress no longer had any such rights. The slave woman's husband appeared and angrily struck his wife in disbelief of her contentions. Several days later because of the wife's prodding, this slave cou­ ple visited the county courthouse to inquire about their 278

legal status. Upon learning that their mistress had with­

held the news of emancipation from them, they left to seek 15 employment elsewhere.

when slavery was maintained hy force, forcible

intervention became necessary to break down the institution,

federal garrisons could curtail the activities of guerril­

las and vigilante slave patrols, but violence committed by

individual masters was much harder to uncover. The Freed­

man’s Bureau punished individuals who kept slaves through

violent coercion, but only if a slave could escape and

report the slaveholder.^^ Enslaved children particularly

needed help in securing their freedom. One little girl had

been locked in her o"wner's house throughout the war so that

her runaway relatives could not obtain her. inter the

referendum her brother came with a Federal soldier who

released the child over the master's protests. One freed- man, Cyrus Williamson, obtained a court writ of habeas cor­

pus to free his four ch ild ren . The Freedman's Bureau and

the army also issued orders returning children to their 1 Y parents. In the face of determined opposition from civil

and military powers, involuntary servitude crumbled.

The knowledge of legal emancipation transformed

many of the loyal slaves thrilling them with the prospect

of new opportunities and privileges. If a slave remained

faithful solely because that seemed to be the more advanta­ geous ch oice, compensated employment now was c le a r ly the 279 better option. Those who had accepted slavery as their

inevitable lot in the legal and social order now compre­

hended that the law had changed their social position. One mistress discovered that all of he; previously loyal slaves left her deliberately on the day of the constitutional referendum. Even loyal slaves who had felt a strong per­ sonal allegiance to their owner sometimes developed new

aspirations after the war and parted in friendship for employment elsew here.

hot all former loyal slaves left their old owners on good terms. A Davidson County slave, who had resisted

all peer presure to runaway during the war, was startled by her master's fury over emancipation; "He was gonna k ill me

'cause 1 was free. I got shame about it, they talked about it so." She eventually grew disillusioned and left to work 19 for someone else. Some loyal slaves who learned about emancipation from sources other than th e ir owners assumed that the trusted master would compensate them fairly after the fall harvest. But masters who did not announce their slaves’ freedom usually did not intend to pay them either.

When these masters refused to grant the freedmen any com­ pensation after the harvest, the hands were likely to become con ten tiou s. The old masters sometimes responded by 20 forcibly driving them from the farm. Emancipation revealed to loyal slaves just how much reality lay behind their masters' benevolent image. 280

A few slaves were so attached to genuinely pater­ nalistic owners that they ignored emancipation. One

Williamson County planter called his slaves together to

announce emancipation but broke down crying instead. His ill-tempered nephew then told the slaves that they were free and that they should leave the premises immediately, ihe old master interrupted the nephew to beg the freedmen to sta y . All of them continued to work w ithout wages for him through the rest of 1865. The Preedmen's Bureau records contain a small quantity of contracts between for­ mer masters and slaves in which the employee received only PI room, board, clothes, and medical care. Some of these faithful freedmen eventually abandoned their servile ways and started separate lives of their own. Henry, a loyal body servant to a paroled Confederate officer, grew tired of being ridiculed by black Pederals as being one of the

"Secesh Niggers who didn't have no better sense than to be slaves to a secesh master.'" Pin ally by mutual agreement

Henry moved onto a lot which his former master ovmed in a 22 black neighborhood and began to support himself. Others remained with their old masters for life, sometimes earning a fondfc remembrance in a former sla v eh o ld er's autobiogra- 23 phy.

Masters were inclined to resent the institution's end. Mass meetings at Memphis and La Grange in May o f 1865 refused to consider resolutions which approved emancipation. 281

C,R. Hall, an Bast Tennessee Unionist, complained for years

afterward about the absence of any fiscal compensation for 24 unionist slaveholders. Robert H. Gartmell accepted slav­

ery's passing with grim stoicism:

Without approving I must abide by and support the fa ct or law or proclamation, just as I support all 1 aws whether c o n stitu tio n a l or not. They must be obeyed until declared null & void. This one never w i l l . 25

fly late 1865 most of Tennesee's white population had bowed willingly or unwillingly to emancipation. There no longer remained any grounds on which to hope for the institution's preservation or restoration. Two county courts ruled favorably on the state emancipation amend­ ment's constitutionality. The Federal Military Commission trying Btheridge found him guilty of denying the legitimacy of the state government and the emancipation amendment.

Having made its point, the Commission chose to release 26 Btheridge without punishment. President Johnson’s prose­ cution of reconstruction in the South also showed a firm commitment to emancipation. As c i v i l government was r e s­ tored on all levels, white Tennesseans grew increasingly desirous of complete home rule and the end of military occupation. After the summer congressional election Con­ servatives and many former secessionists loudly proclaimed th e ir acceptance of emancipation. They hoped that th is concession would bring a quick end to military interference and prevent further changes in the blacks' status. Little choice remained anyway. On December 18, 1855, the 282

Thirteenth Aaendment officially became a part of the national Constitution. Whatever the legality of Tennes­

see’s emancipation amendment, the Thirteenth Amendment per- 27 manently settled the matter.

Vjhen emancipation destroyed slavery it produced

more open questions than distinct consequences. The story

of how those difficult questions regarding economic and

social readjustmentwere answered belongs most properly in a

history of Tennessee’s postwar reconstruction. The con­

cluding portion of this study will be confined to a short

overview of emancipation’s immediate implications.

Emancipation unquestionably meant that freedmen were no longer property but persons. In some sense their

freedom certainly would be accompanied by a higher status

than they had occupied previously. The possibilities ranged from supervised serfdom to full equality. The con­ trabands had pioneered their own alternatives to slavery during the war, but without outside intervention the odds stood against much change. When a social system’s equilib­ rium is disturbed, the society tends to preserve or to imi­ tate as much as possible of its old features while adjust- 28 ing to a new equilibrium.

Tennesseans could do nothing to modify one economic aspect of emancipation, the substantial loss of capital invested in slave property. In I860 the value of just the taxable slaves in the state had exceeded 114 million 28] dollars. The only compensation program ever to appear was the federal government’s offer of 3300 to unionists for each of their slaves who enlisted. A claims commission, which sat for three months in 1867 before Congress dismis­ sed it, paid only sixty of the Tennessee claims. Fiscal lo s s e s from emancipation combined with those from Confeder­ ate currency, Confederate bonds, and wartime property 29 destruction to set back the entire state economy.

Southern whites generally tried to continue the economic exploitation of blacks by retaining them in the position of landless, low income laborers. Li any freedmen, like the earlier contrabands, aspired to quick economic advancement, economic independence, or both in some cases.

The c o n flic t beiw/een black and w hite goals caused a good deal of contention and economic disruption during the tran­ sition from the slave labor system to free labor. Since freedmen could pick and choose among employers, a good deal of population movement accompanied emancipation. The labor shortage evident in some rural areas during the war spread over the state as many of the new freedmen migrated to the 30 towns.' Using the one major economic weapon that they had gained from emancipation, freedmen sometimes refused to sign contracts until they had won desired concessions from an employer. Since depressed economic conditions made the payment o f those who had once worked merely fo r a s u b s ist­ ence all the more distasteful to former masters, some 284 shortchanged workers on payday. Illegal beatings and whip­ pings of freedmen laborers occasionally resulted from a

continued belief in the old proslavery theory that blacks would not work properly unless forced. When aggrieved, black employees were much more disobedient and disrespect­ ful than slaves had ever been. Although some black hands and white employers worked together harmoniously, antago­ nism all too often prevailed. The amount of labor turnover from firing and quitting was high. White attempts to pre­ serve slavery and black rejections of proslavery norms had made each side very distrustful of the other.

Freedmen occupied a weak position in the postwar economy. Emancipation in 1855, like flight from a master during the war, usually left the former slaves with no financial resources other than their ability to work. The end of the war narrowed the range of economic options av a ila b le for blacks. Employment opportunities w ith the

Federal army drastically declined as the army demobilized.

In an effort to hasten the Southern economy's revitaliza­ tion, the Freedmen's Bureau forced hundreds of irregularly employed black day laborers to leave Tennessee's towns and 32 take farm jobs. Emboldened by the restoration of state government and Federal demobilization, several local courts tried to revive enforcement of the law against black busi­ nesses. The legislature did not repeal the law until Hay 33 of 1866. Contrabands who had worked their ovraers ’ 225 a^oandoned farms had to find new sources of income once the

landholder returned from the war. In at least a few coun­

ties white war veterans used social pressure or vigilante

violence to prevent freedmen from becoming independent ten- 34- ant farmers. It is no wonder then that most former

slaves continued to fill the plantation system's need for a

large supply of cheap unskilled laborers.

Although all labor contracts had to be approved by

the freedmen's Bureau, the Bureau did not set any minimum wages or behavioral rules as Adjutant General Thomas had done in his wartime contract labor system. Perpetuating one paternalistic aspect of slavery, compensation under postwar contracts usually included some or all of the basic subsistence needs. Ghile the whole value of compensation received by hands who worked fo r shares can not be d eter­ mined, Table 5 shows that wage laborers earned less than contrabands in the wartime contract labor system had earned. 35 v; ages fell even further during Reconstruction. The freedmen laborers' compensation represented some advance­ ment over slavery, but it offered little opportunity for economic mobility.

The federal government could have used its power to the freedmen's benefit. The act establishing the freed- men's Bureau allowed it to rent forty acre plots of con- fiscatable abandoned land to freedmen, the renters having a preemptory right after three years to purchase a 266 TABLE 5

AVERAGE MONTHLY WAGES FOR ADULT FREEDMEN HIRED IN TENNESSEE DURING 1865

Other Conditions of Compensation Males Females

room, board, c lo th e s, and medical care 84.80 (19) 84.46 (15) room, board, and clo th es 9.34 (18) 4.04 (20) room, board, and medical care 12.09 (145) 8.08 (83) room and board 10.54 (120) 6.72 (93) The figures in parentheses show the number of laborers in each sample group.

possessory title. The Bureau officials in Tennessee pre­ pared preliminary plans for land distribution, but Presi­ dent Johnson cancelled the program because of its conflict with his lenient reconstruction policy toward former seces­ s io n is ts . had the Bureau put the program in to e f f e c t , the black lessees would have encountered a great deal of white vigilante violence, just as some black tenant farmers did in 1865. If Federal forces succeeded in suppressing this resistance, then blacks would have a chance to gain eco­ nomic independence, iiov/ever, when the la n d ’s previous own­ ers died, the land reverted to the heirs under the Federal

Constitution’s treason cla u se.E v en if blacks could have used this temporary opportunity to buy other land, black economic independence would not have eliminated white racial prejudices. Land distribution was not a panacea for troubled race relations. 287 After abandonment of the land d istr ib u tio n scheme The Preedmen's Bureau turned in crea sin g ly towand a la is s e z - faire reform policy. Paternalistic programs had come under heavy criticism toward the war's end from radical Republi­ cans who felt that the programs were repressive. The radi­ c a ls succeeded in g ettin g the Preedmen's Bureau Act w ritten in laissez-faire terms, but the Bureau's policies sprang from more than the la?;'s wording. Many officials in the

Federal government wanted a quick return to normal after the war. Among other things this required a drastic cur­ tailment of the expenditures end the expansion of govern­ mental powers represented by paternalistic contraband pro­ grams. These wartime measures were designed solely to meet extraordinary problems occurring during a great national c r is• is ■ .^ 37

Soon a fte r the Preedmen's Bureau assumed control over the operations of the Freedmen's Departments in Ten­ nessee during July of 1365, a complete turnover of person­ nel followed. During the fall the Bureau ruthlessly closed 38 contraband camps and hospitals throughout the South,

Brigadier General Clinton B. Fisk, the first head of the

Bureau in Tennessee, held that "There i s no preventive for suffering among the freedmen save such as they themselves 39 furnish or succor except in industry. Let them work. "

The nineteenth Century free labor system spared little mercy upon the weak. Few freedmen would be able to r ise 288 out of their poverty. The orphaned, elderly, and handi­

capped freedmen would particularly suffer because their

former owners were no longer obliged to care for them.

Northern charitable organizations continued to provide some

help after the war but in lesser quantities.M though

emancipation gave freedmen laborers some new opportunities, i t l e f t most of them in economic dependence.

Emancipation had very explicit legal implications for the freedmen's social status. The former slaves now fell under the restrictive laws which had governed free blacks before the war. State law forbad all blacks from selling merchandise, marrying whites, and giving court tes­ timony against whites. It prohibited whites from selling liquor to blacks. Municipal ordinances in Memphis and

Nashville barred blacks from preaching or receiving an edu­ cation. free blacks, like slaves, could be executed for more crimes than whites. State law granted free blacks only one special privilege in the form of an exemption from the poll tax, and the state supreme court had ruled that local governments could not set curfews for them.^^

Enforcement of most discriminatory laws had ceased during the war. P reju d ice, greed, or a commitment to caste barriers motivated some whites to demand the enactment of a tougher new black code after the war. Radical Unionists simultaneously called for the repeal of all the old black laws. Deadlocks betvreen the more radical and the more 289 conservative Unionist legislators prevented any significant

revision in the blacks' legal status during 1865.^^ During

the fa ll several tovms and counties resumed enforcement of

the black laws regarding liquor and merchandising» Knox­ ville banned the possession of firearms by blacks, and

Tullahoma illegally set a curfew for them .freedm en quickly learned that the inadmissibility of their testimony

against whites seriously jeopardized the security of their freedom, white policemen, judges, and juries showed little 44 leniency, if not some prejudice, toward freedmen. Before the war the state had rarely jailed criminal slaves, but by the end of 1865 the black proportion of the state's peni- 45 tentiary population had sharply risen to 5%. Court fines and incarceration apparently replaced the whip as the legal means of physically maintaining blacks in a subordi­ nate status.

If the restored civil governments in the South sharply curtailed the freedom which the federal government helped slaves to secure, then the federal victory over the rebellious South would appear tarnished. This concern led to federal interference with Southern judicial systems.

General George H. Thomas declared martial law in Columbia when th at town ja ile d two black sc h o o lg ir ls under ex cessiv e bail for very minor offenses. The freedmen's Bureau in

Tennessee, as in other Southern states, assumed judicial jurisdiction over cases involving blacks on the ground that 290 State laws restricting black testimony violated the freed-

aen's r ig h ts. The Bureau tried to pressure the le g is la tu r e

into granting judicial rights to blacks by promising to

close the Bureau courts as soon as blacks were allowed to

testify against whites in civil courts. Federal pressure

would eventually secure the repeal of the old black laws

and the enactment of fully equal rights for black Tennes-

scans. 46

Emancipation exercised its most significant impact

upon social relations between the races. It eliminated the entire social class of slaves and raised all freedmen into

the free black class. Because the antebellum free black

status was designed strictly for a small exceptional class,

the admission of all blacks to it would have to lead to its

redefinition. The new social privileges which had resulted

from the efforts of contrabands and reformers during the

war contributed to the redefinition process. Freedmen could free their families from white control and reunify

members who belonged to different owners. If a county gov­

ernment refused to issue marriage licences to blacks, the

Freedmen's Bureau would do i t . Under Bureau pressure the

legislature gave freedmen the right to a legal marriage in

I,lay of 1866. New freedmen's schools sprang up throughout

the state with the Bureau’s encouragement. In 1867 the

state established a segregated public school system for

both races. More blacks established independent church 291 congregations rather than continuing to suffer the indigni­

ties of demeaning sermons and segregated seating in the

whites' churches. Eventually many of the black congrega­

tions combined to form separate black-controlled religious 47 organizations. Essentially the freedmen sought to enjoy

all of the whites' social privileges while minimizing

institutional connections with the other race.

The uncertainty surrounding the shape of the blacks' new social status perpetuated racial conflicts which had

surfaced during the war. Some white Tennesseans either through personal flexibility or ne'.vly developed convictions were willing to grant blacks a large degree of equality.

But most whites evidently retained old biases which stereo­ typed free blacks as lazy, criminal, and seditious. Still influenced by the old proslavery beliefs, some whites

advocated a close paternalistic supervision as the best means of controlling and subordinating the freedmen, Another line of proslavery thought, intolerant racism, pointed toward coercion to achieve the same ends. The first group approved of black education provided that white 49 Southerners did the teaching. The second group tried to halt the freedmen's education through the use of social 50 pressure and violence. Some members of both groups called for the colonization of all blacks either to allow a separate black self-development (paternalists) or to elim­ inate the black race from Anèrican society (racists). Most 292

Tennessee whites demanded that they—not the Federal government, Northern reformers, nor freedmen— should determine the blacks' new s t a t u s . 51 Racial prejudice and the caste mentality had survived the destruction of slavery to fester and break out in other forms.

Some freedmen continued to behave as submissively and d e fe r e n tia lly as sla v e s, but increasing numbers of blacks grew more self-assertive. Some freedmen refused any longer to engage in the demeaning rituals of racial eti­ quette. A few even attempted to defy customary segregation 52 in public places. Freedmen in several small towns held meetings to organize their own churches and schools or to demand equal rights. In August of 1365 the first in a series of state black conventions met in Nashville to lobby 53 for the franchise. Black assertiveness contributed greatly to the gaining and solidifying of new privileges, let, their activism and positive governmental responses also inflamed the racial prejudices which most whites felt.

Opponents of black advancement may have conceded slavery's demise, but they were not about to end the eco­ nomic exploitation and social subordination of blacks.

Their numbers sw elled by veteran s, returning war refu gees, and dissenting Unionists, the white résistants turned increasingly to extralegal violence. This traditional method of emergency racial control gained in effectiveness 54 as the Federal army demobilized. The reactionary forces 293 eventually overthrew Unionist rule but could never elimi­

nate the most rudimentary of the economic, legal, and

social privileges which the black minority had gained.

Emancipation had weakened most of the institutional

controls which whites held over blacks. Freedmen enjoyed a

larger zone of privacy than slaves in their personal lives,

they had a little more opportunity now to act for them­

selves and a great deal more freedom to think for them­

selves. Most importantly freedmen could develop a greater

sense of personal worth after having escaped the insidious

degradation of slavery. Their lives generally remained

restricted by poverty, the whites' numerical superiority,

caste barriers, and white racial prejudices. The most sig­

nificant social changes were qualitative rather than quan­

t it a t iv e .

Slavery did not die easily. The institution's

destruction required a bloody Civil V/. ar to rip white soci­

ety apart. This created opportunities for dissatisfied

slaves to assert a belief in their own human dignity and to

attempt a reshaping of their status. But the disloyal

slaves lacked the power to insure the permanency of their

gains. The Federal government and its Unionist allies in

Tennessee accepted emancipation primarily for reasons of

military expediency. Northern white reformers helped to

engineer the social change despite the condescension with which they all too often treated contrabands. Resistance 294

by proslavery whites could not withstand the powerful

internal and external forces demolishing slavery. In spite

of the original intentions of both the Federal and Confed­

erate governments, the war resulted in an irrevocable

social change which moved the reunited country one step

closer toward fulfilling the promise of its ideals,

FOOTNOTES ^Cincinnati Gazette, iipril 6, 1865; Tennessee, Sen­ ate Journal, 1865-67 General Assembly, 1 Sess,, p. 15 ("April 5 , 1865); Tennessee, House Journal. 1865-67 General Assembly, 1 Sess., pp. 17-18 (April 5, 1865). Incidents similar to those described in this chapter occurred else­ where in the South. See E. Merton Coulter, "Slavery and Freedom in Athens, Georgia, 1860-66," Georgia Historical Quarterly, XUX (September, 1865), pp. 360-3"6'5; Escott, "Context of Freedom," pp. 98-102; Kolchin, First Freedom, chaps. 1-2; Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen, chap. 10; hiliiamson. After Slavery, chaps. 2-4. Several interesting comparative cases from other parts of the world are dis­ cussed in M.G. Smith, "Slavery and Emancipation in Two Societies /Upper Nigeria and Jamaica/," Social and Economic Studies, III (December, 1954), pp. 275-284; Robert Brent Toplin, The Abolition of Slavery in Brazil (New York, 1972), pp. 259-262. 2 Meeting Minutes, September 28, 1865, in Mary % ilkin, e d ., "Some Papers of the American Cotton P la n te r ’s Association, 1865-1866," THQ, VII (December, 1648), p. 545; Capt. R.J. Hinton to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, Septem­ ber 8, 1365, Registered LR by the Asst, Com. for n y, and Term., RG 105, NA; Meriwether, Recollections, p. 181; Hampton J. Cheney file , Confederate Veterans Questionaires, TSLA; Brig. Gen. C linton B. Fisk to Maj. Gen. O liver 0. Howard, July 6, 1865, LS to the Commissioner, Tennessee Book No. 15, p. 18, RG 105, NA. ^Nashville Press and Times, July 6, 15, 1865; N ash ville Union, November 14, 1865; W.G, Brownlovr to Andrew Johnson, June 14, 1865, Johnson Papers; Cincinnati Gazette, June 24, 1865. 4 N ash v ille union, November 14, 1865.

^Nashville Press and Times, July 14, 1865. 295

^Nashville Dispatch, July 23, 1365: A.J. Fletcher to Andrew Johnson, June 14, 1865, Johnson Papers; Andrew Johnson to Browhlow, July 20, 1865, and Andrew Johnson to George K. Thomas, July 21, 1865, Là Presshook, pp. 157- 160, Johnson Papers; Jashville Union, November 14, 1865.

^ N ashville D isnatch , November 23, 1865. O Rawick, e d ., American S la v e , v o l. 11, p t. 7, p. 193; ibid., vol..18, pp. 267, 306; Nashville Press and Times, July 11, 1865; J.I. Trowbridge, The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities (Hartford, Conn., 1866), p. 341; R.D. Mussey to Maj. Southard Hoffman, March 17, 1865, Register of IS by the Superintendent of Contrabands for East and Middle Tennessee, Tennessee Book No. 8 (unpaginated), RG 105, NA; Dabney Affadavit, August 12, 1865, LR by the La Grange Superintendent, RG 105, NA; T. A. Walker to Capt. L.W. Deane, July 19, 1865, Unregistered LR by the lUiemphis Subassistant Commissioner, RG 105, HA.

9joe Black Affadavit, July 19, 1865, Unregistered LR by the Memphis Subassistant Commissioner, RG 105, HR.

^%.H. Puckett to Brig. Gen. C linton B. R isk, Janu­ ary 15, 1866, Reports of Outrages -'iled with the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Surg. J.D. Stillman to Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson, June 21, 1865, Register of LR by the Memphis Subassistant Commissioner, Tennessee Book No. 126, pp. 1, 4, RG 105, NA; Capt. R.J. Hinton to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Pisk, September 8, 18, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Isaac Thompson to Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson, August 15, 1865, Unregistered LR by the Memphis Subassistant Commissioner, RG 105, NA, ^^John 'T, Jones to Brig. Gen, N. A.M. Dudley, Decem­ ber 8, 1865, Unregistered LR by the Memphis Subassistant Commissioner, RG 105, NA; Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Pisk to Maj. Gen. O liver 0. Howard, July 6, 1865, LS to the Commis­ sioner, Tennessee Book No. 15, p. 18, RG 105, NA.

^^Bills Diary, May 29-30, 1865; Memphis Argus, May 30, 1865; Cartmell Diary, April 3, June 8, 1865. Also see Matthews Diary, May 8, July 23, August 2 -3 , 1865; Barker Diary, June 17, July 10, 1865, January 10, 1866; /Q.'ii. Hall7, Threescore Years and Ten (Cincinnati, 1884), p. 227.

^^Cartmell Diary, June 10, 1865. 14 John S. Claybrooke to a brother, July n.d., 1865, Tennessee Secretary of State Papers, TSLA. 296 15 Rawick, éd., Anerican Slave, vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 128.

John W. Jones to Brig. Gen. N.A.M. Dudley, Decem­ ber 8, 1865, Unregistered LR by the Memphis Subassistant Commissioner, RG 105, NA; îvuH. Puckett to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Pisk, January 15, 1865, Reports of Outrages filed with the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Trowbridge, The South, p. 341; Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson to Capt. Ï).T. Clarke, July 21, 1865, Registered nK by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA, 1 7 '"Tennessee N arratives," in Rawick, ed. , American Slave, vol. 16, pp. 1, 21; Rawick, ed., op. cit., vol. 18, pp."%2, 183; Nashville Union, May 5, 1865; Cincinnati G azette, August 19, 1865; Brig. Gen. N,A.M, Dudley to ?, duly 21, 1865, LS by the Post of Tullahoma, vol. 58/64 DMT, p. 52, RG 393,

^®Margaret ? to a sister, March 5, 1865, Campbell Papers; W.orks Progress Administration, "Ohio Narratives," in Ræick, éd., American Slave, vol. 16, pp. 7-8; Ra&vick, ed., op. cit., vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 142; ibid., vol. 11, pt. 7, p. 147; Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 362; Armstrong, Old Massa*s People, pp. 320-321.

^^Rawick, e d ., American S la v e , v o l. 18, p. 250. PO Colored People of Lincoln County Petition, July 27, 1865, and Capt. R.J. Hinton to Capt. W.T. Clarke, September 18, 1865, Registered LR by the ^ st. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, KA; Dabney A ffadavit, August 12, 1865 , LR by the La Grange Superintendent, RG 105, N A. 21 Rav/ick, ed., American Slave, vol. 18, pp. 134-135, 138 . 22 Meriwether, Recollections, pp. 172-173» Also see Barker Diary, January 10, 1866; Gansler, Three Generations, Armstrong, Old Massa*s People, p. 321. ^^Morgan, How It Was, p. 163; Hal ton. Autobiography, p. 41. ^^_^all7, Three Score Years and Ten, p. 227; Memphis Bulletin, May 2, 31, 1865*

Cartmell Diary, August 7, 1865. -Also see Porter Diary, February 22, 1865. 26 N ash ville Union, May 6, November 14, 1865; Lebanon Register excerpt in (Franklin) Review, September 30, 297

1865» Also see Judge John A» Campbell’s charge to the Montgomery County Grand Jury in C la rk sv ille C h ron icle, Sep­ tember 22, 1865. 27 Memphis Argus, August 20, October 12, 14, 1865; Columbia Herald excerpt in Nashville Dispatch. September 15, 1865; Clarksville Chronicle, October 6, 1865; Nashville Unio n , September 20, December 19, 1865. 28 Parsons, Social System, p. 491. 29 Tennessee, Senate Oournal Appendix, 55th General Assembly, 1 Sess. (18^7-68), pp. 74-76; Tennessee Proceed­ ings, pp. 7, 51, and Tennessee Register, passim, Records of the Slave Claims Commission, RG 94, NA; Alexander, Recon­ struction. p. 50.

^^exander. Reconstruction. pp. 50-51; (Nashville) Republican Banner, November 24, 18^5; J.B. Mercer et a l , , "Proceedings of Union Depot (Shelby County) Meeting," November 25, 1865, and J. A. Fulton to Maj. Gen. O liver 0. Howard, October 11, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com, for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Cincinnati Gazette, August 5, 1365. A similar situation existed after emancipation in British Jamaica except that many freedmen there obtained small farms, causing a long term labor shortage. See Smith, "Emancipation," pp. 275-276.

^^artmell Diary, June-August, 1865; Porter Diary, March-September, 1865; B ills Diary, June-August, 1865; New York Anglo-AFriean. December 12, 1865;R egister o f Com­ plaints Adjudicated by the Memphis Provost Marshal of Freedmen, Tennessee Books Nos. 169-170, passim, RG 105, NA; Taylor, Negro in Tennessee, p, 148, 52 Col. John A. Henry to H,A, Barnard, August 7, 1865, Reports Relating to Freedmen's Homes and Hospitals, RG 105, NA; F. Ayer to M.E. Strieby, October 2, 1865, AMAr-Tenn. ; (Nashville) Republican Banner, October 6, 1865; Memphis Argus, August 25-25, 1865; Trowbridge, The South, p. 251; Cartmell Diary, July 17, 1865. The black popula­ tion s of Memphis, N a sh v ille, and Chattanooga dropped by 1870 below the 1865 figures in Table 2. Bee Taylor, Negro in Tennessee, p. 27.

N ash ville G azette. November 17, 1865; G allatin Examiner excerpt in Nashville Dispatch, November 14, 1865; Daingen Rhodes et a l. to Brig. Gen. C linton B. F isk , Decem­ ber 17, 1865, and J.H. Gregory to Brig. Gen. Clinton B, F isk , November 8, 1865, R egistered LR by the A sst. Com. fo r Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Law Court of Chattanooga, Civil 298

Record A, pt. 2, pp. 445 (October 10, 1865J, 476 (Octo­ ber 23, 1865j, Typescript copy at TSLA; Patton, Unionism, p. 131.

^^John Seage to Lt. J.T. Alden, January 17, 1866, John \i. Jones to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, January 24, 1866, and "List of Outrages," Reports of Outrages Filed with the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NT; William French to Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, September 14, 1865, and J.B. Mercer et a l., "Proceedings," November 23, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky, and Tenn., RG 105, HA; william G. Rutloge to Col. John A. Henry, September 1, 1865, unregistered LR by the Memphis Subassistant Commise sioner, RG 105, NA. 35 Table 5 is based upon all existing Bureau con­ tract files for 1865 (Dyer, Gibson, Fayette, Franklin, Hardeman, Madison, Robertson, Shelby, Tipton, and Lilson counties). Tennessee Sheet Contracts and Tennessee Books Nos. 102, 104, 214, RG 105, NAf Taylor, Negro in Tennessee, p. 150.

^^U.S. Statutes, vol. XIII, p. 508; Brig. Gen. C linton B. Fisk to Maj. Gen. O liver Ü. Howard, July 27, August 27, 1665, LS to the Commissioner, Tennessee Book No. 15, pp. 17, 38, RG 105, NA; Gerteis, Contraband, pp. 187-188.

^"^La Wanda Cox, "The Promise of Land fo r the Freed­ men," M ississippi Valley Historical Review, XLV (December, 1958), pp. 417-418, 422-426; Gerteis, Contraband, p. 185.

^^Gerteis, Contraband, pp. 188-191; Nashville Press, and Times, October 18, 1865; Freedmen's Bulletin, II ^December, 18653, pp. 8-9; John Seage to Brig. Gen. Clinton B, Fisk, October 3, 1665, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. fo r Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, Nn. 39 C linton B, Fisk to Joxin M. Schultz, December 15, 1865, LS by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., Tennessee Book No. 7, p. 295, RG 105, NA.

^^Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction, pp. 387-389.

^^Tennessee, Code (Meigs and Cooper, 1858), secs. 539, 2625, 2725-2730, 3308; England, "Free Negro in Tennessee," pp. 198.

'^^"Southern" L etter in Memphis Argus, May 14, 1865; Nashville Dispatch, May 30, 1865; James A. Rogers to L illia m G. Erov/nlow, May 15, 1865, W illiam G. Brownlovi 299

Gubernatorial Papers, TSLA; Alfred Beardon to J,G. Carrigan, October 2], 1865, Petitions to the General Assembly for 1865-66, TSLA; Tennessee, House Journal, 1865-67 General Assembly, 1 Sess,, p. 135 (May 8, 18^5j; ibid, Adjourned Sess,, op. 224 (December 5, 18653, 239-240 (December 12, 18653. (N ash ville) Republican Banner, November 1, 18, 1865; La^f Court of Chattanooga, Civil Record A, pt. 2, p. 460 (October 20, 18653» Col. John A. Henry to Maj, Gen, George Stoneman, December 5 , 1865, LS by the K noxville Sub­ assistant Commissioner, Tennessee Book No. 118, p. Ill, RG 105, Capt, Charles E. McDougall to Brt, Maj, Gen, R.i'/. Johnson, July 26, 1865, LR by the D is tr ic t of Middle Tennessee, RG 105, NA. 44 Capt, A,B. Lucas to Maj. John A. Cochrane, Novem­ ber 10, 1865, Unregistered LR by the Chattanooga Superin­ tendent, RG 105, NA; Nashville Dispatch, December 14, 1865; Capt, James C. Babbitt to Capt. W.T. Clarke, October 23, 31, 1865, David Boyd to Capt. W.T. Clarke, October 5? 1865, and John M. Arnent to Clinton B. Pisk, July 27, 1865, Regis­ tered LR by the A sst. Com. fo r Ky, and Tenn., RG 105, NA; George Brown to .;illiam G. Brownlow, November 13, 1865, Brownlow Gubernatorial Papers.

Tennessee, Reports from Public Officers and Institutions, 185 9-60, p. 237; Tennessee, Senate Journal Appendix, 1865-67 General Assembly, 1 Sess., 3rd fold-out sheet inbetween pp. 112-113»

Nashville Press and Times, July 24, 1865; House Executive Documents, 39 Cong,, 1 Sess., No. 70, pp. 46, 49, 180; Taylor, Ne^ro in Tennessee, pp. 16-19. 47 Gutman, Black Pam ily, pp. 140-143; House Execu­ tive Documents, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No, 70, p. 181; Taylor, Negro in Tennessee, chaps. 9, 11; P. Tyer to M..E. Strieby, October 2, 1865, Ad ArTenn.; Freedmen's Bulletin, II (Janu­ ary, 18663, p. 35; Matthews Diary, June 25, August 20, 1865.

^^Nashville Press and Times, May 27, September 2, 1865; B erlin , Slaves without M asters, p. 384; William. G. Brownlow to James Andrews, July 28, 1865, in N a sh ville Dispatch. July 30, 1865; Tennessee, Senate Journal, 1865-67 General Assembly, 1 Sess., p. 22 (April 6, i8'6’^);'"\\ingfield, e d ., "Younger Diary," pp. 70 (June 5 , 18653, 71 (Decem- ber 31, 18653. 49 Nashville Dispatch, May 30, July 23, 1865; Mem­ phis Argus, September 26, 1865; Bolivar Bulletin excerpt in 300

Nashville Union, September 15, 1865; Fayetteville Observer, December 21, 1865.

Seven Schools were burned in 1865 as compared to three fires betvfeen 1862-64. Joel 3. Smith to Clinton 3. F isk , November 12, 1865; R egistered LR by ü sst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn-, RG 105, Nii; Nashville Press and Times, Septem­ ber 9, 1365; S.M. Means to John Ogden, October 14, 1865, and 8,P. Anderson to John Ogden,,October 3, 1865, AMA-ïenn.ç R.J. Creswell to Clinton B. Fisk, December 12, 1865, and "List of Outrages," Reports of Outrages Filed with the T&sst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA; Lt, E.J. Van Tuyl to ?, September 12, 1865, LR by the District of Middle Tennessee, RG 393, NA. 51 Knoxville Jhig and Rebel Ventilator, August 23, September 27, 1865; Cleveland Banner, October 21, 1865; N a sh v ille D isp a tch . November 12, December 2, 1865; Clarks- ville Chronicle, iiugust 19, 1865. 52 J.F. Hillary Skinner, After the Storm (2 vols,, London, 1866), vol. I, p. 25; Nashville Dispatch, Septem­ ber 17, 1865; Trowbridge, The South, p. 239; Memphis Argus, September 26, 1865; Capt. 0.\, Van Akin to C linton 3. F isk , July 31, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn. , RG 105, NA.

Anthony Carter to Clinton 3. F isk , October 12, 1865, and Jerry S. Galbraith to Clinton 3. Fisk, October 5, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn,, RG 105, NA; New York Anglo-African, September 3, 1865; Mem­ phis Argus. May 25 , 1865; {'Jonesboro) East Tennessee Flag, November 10, 1865; (Nashville^ Colored Tennessean, August 12, 1865. nA Col. Henry Corbin to Clinton B. Fisk, October 16, 1865: and %illiam French to Clinton 3. Fisk, September 8, 1865, Registered LR by the Asst. Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA Brt. Maj. Gen. John E. Smith to Brt. Brig. Gen. A.J. Alexander, November 9, 1865, LS by the District of ’west Tennessee, vol. 1 DViT, p. 175, RG 393, NA; "List of Outrages," Reports of Outrages Filed with the Asst, Com. for Ky. and Tenn., RG 105, NA Lt. Samuel Evans to Brig. Gen. K. A.M. Dudley, October 10, 1865, Unregistered LR by the Memphis Subassistant Commissioner, RG 105, NA. CRITIC Æi ESS iff ON MAJOR SOURCES

Relatively fevj historians have studied iknerican

slavery during the Civil %ar. Bell I. Wiley, Southern

Negroes 1861-1865 (Nev/ Haven, Conn., 1938) is a first-rate

pioneering work on the subject. Leon E. Litwack, 'Tree at

L ast," in Tamara K. Hare van, ed. , Anonymous Americans:

Explorations in Nineteenth Century Social History (Engle­

wood Cliffs, N.J., 1971)updates hiley's classic. Benjamin

Quarles, The Negro in the Civil Ear (Boston, 1953) and

Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan. Roll: The world the

Slaves Made (New York, 1974) contain brief surveys of the

subject within broader frameworks.

The only monographic case studies are W illie Lee

Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experi­ ment (Indianapolis, Ind., 1964) and C. Reter Ripley, Slaves

and Ereedmen in Civil War Louisiana (Baton Rouge, La.,

1976). Rose's superbly written account deals with the unique case of the South Carolina Sea Islands where the entire master class fled upon the Eederals' approach, aban­ doning most of their slaves. Her analysis of the Northern reformers’ motivations and plans is particularly acute.

Ripley’s book, the more significant of the two, discusses a

301 302 larger and more typical case. Ripley and this writer agree

that white racial prejudice was the central factor limiting

wartime social change, but this writer does not feel 'that

prejudice generally took the form of anti-black cooperation

between Northern and Southern whites, unlike this writer,

Ripley holds that blacks made no significant gains from

emancipation, i-’eter Kolchin, First Freedom:__The Responses

of Alabama's Blacks to Emancipation and Reconstruction

flestport, Conn., 1972), a study of postwar race relations

in a state where the war barely touched slavery, male es the

same conclusions on black assertiveness and social gains

that this writer does.

Caleb Perry Patterson, The Negro in Tennessee,

1790-1865 (Austin, Tex., 1922), a long essay, does not

include the war years despite its title. Chase C. Kooney,

Slavery in Tennessee (Bloomington, Ind., 1957), which is

also limited to the antebellum period, lacks depth except

for its legal and economic chapters. Lobby L. Lovett, "The

Negro's Civil kar in Tennessee, " Journal of Negro History, aLI (January, 1976), pp. 56-50, treats little more than the military record of the state's black regiments.

Primary sources illustrate the variety of ways in which the war affected relations between masters and slaves.

The L. Virginia French Diary (Tennessee State Library and

Archives, Nashville, Tenn.), John N. Waddell Diary (Library

of Congress, Washington, B.C.), and Harding-Jackson Papers 303 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Caro­

lina Library, Chapel Hill, N.C.) detail relationships

between secessionist masters and loyal slaves, unfortu­

nately passages in the french Diary are sometimes choppy

and obscure. Lucid and intensely personal accounts of

slave disloyalty appear in the Robert H. Cartmell Diary and

the Sarah Ain (Bailey) Hennedy Papers at the Tennessee

State Library and Archives, the John Houston B ills and

Nimrod Porter Diaries in the Southern Historical Collection

at the university of North Carolina University Library, and

Sarah Ridley Trimble, ed., "Behind the Lines in Riddle Ten­

nessee, 1863-65: The Journal of Bettie Ridley Blackmore,"

Tennessee Historical Quarterly, XII (i.larch, 1953), pp. 48-

80.

A number of Tennessee slaves left accounts of their v/artime experiences. Louis Hughes, Thirty fears a Slave: Prom Bondage to freedom (Milwaukee, n is., 1897) is very

in s ig h tfu l, but Hughes spent most of the war outside the

state. Isaac Lane, Autobiography (Nashville, 1916; is not very revealing probably because of his public prominence as

a bishop of the Colored wethodist Lpiscopal Church.

George P. Rawick, e d ., The American Slave; A Composite

Autobiography (19 vols., Westport, Conn., 1972) is an invaluable collection of ex-slave interviews sponsored by the works Progress Administration and by Pisk University during the 1930s. The user must keep in mind that the 304

interview ees cornmunicated th e ir memories verb ally in the

folksy and idiomatic style of the v/orkingclass. These nar­

ratives should not be read as literally as one would read a

memoir which a middle or upper class individual deliber­

ately prepared fo r the printed media. Crland Kay Armstrong,

Old K assa's People: The Old S laves T e ll Their Stor?/

(Indianapolis, Ind., 19310 supplements the Ra^rick collec­ tio n .

The major study of the federal army's contraband

p o lic ie s i s Louis S. G erteis, from Contraband to Freedman:

Federal Policy tc^vard Southern Blacks, 1861-1865 (Westport,

Conn., 19730. Although Gerteis perceptively analyzes Fed­

eral economic programs, his conclusions are imbalanced by

the insufficient attention given to social programs.

Dudley Taylor Cornish, The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the

Union Army, 1861-1865 (New York, 1956) ably surveys one

important aspect of the army's relationship with Southern b lack s.

The writings and records of Federal military per­

sonnel constitute the largest single pool of primary source material on slavery’s wartime demise. Many pertinent offi­

cial documents were published in U.S. War Department, The

Vi ar of the Rebellion; AComnilation of the Official

Records of the Union and Confederate Irmies (131 vols., Washington, 1880-1901). A number of other useful documents

apnear in three collections at the National Archives. 305 îhe Records of the United States Continental Com­ mands, 1821-1920, offer a wealth of information on Federal policies and problems. The set includes nearly complete files of materials from all levels of the occupation hier­

archy (posts, districts, departments, and Military Division of the Mississippi^ and from the directors of black recruitment in Tennessee.

-Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas' cen tral ro le in directing Federal contraband policy in the Mississippi Val­ le y makes the Records of the O ffice of Adjutant General important. Thomas’ correspondence includes a set of Colo­ nel Reuben Delavan Mussey's weekly reports on contraband affairs in Middle Tennessee. The testimony files of the

American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, which the V/ar

Department established to study contrabands' problems, con­ ta in s very frank statem ents of opinion by John Eaton,

Andrew Johnson, and George L. Stearns. This record group also includes regimental records of the black units and letterb o o k s kept by U illia m T. Sherman.

The Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands contains much Bureau documentation of slavery's final end in 1865 and a few Freedmen's Department records concerning wartime programs for contrabands. Aiddi- tional materials from the Department of the Tennessee

Freedmen's Department can be found in the U.S. Bureau of

R efugees, Freedmen and Abandoned lands Orders and C irculars 306

Collection at the liemphis and Shelby County Library, Mem­

p h is, Tennessee. The same Freedmen’s Department had a num­

ber of its reports publshed as pamphlets. The most infor­

mative of these are John Eaton, Renort of the General

Superintendent of Freedmen, Department of the Tennessee and

State of Arkansas, for 1864 (Memphis, 18665) and Joseph

Vi.arren, ed.. Extracts from Reports of Superintendents of

Ereedmen (2 s e r ie s , Vicksburg, m is s ., 1864). The most important autobiography by a soldier vrho

served in Tennessee is John Eaton, Grant, Lincoln, and the

Ereedmen; Reminiscences of the Civil W;ar (New York, 1907).

Eaton details the evolution of Federal contraband policy in

Jest Tennessee and his leading role in it. Robert Cowden,

À Brief Sketch of the Organization and Services of the

Fifty-Ninth Regiment of United States Colored Infantry

(Dayton, u h ., 1883); Thomas J. Morgan, Rem iniscences of

Service with Colored Troops in the Army of the Cumberland.

1863-1865 (Providence, H .I., 1885); and Henry Romeyn, With

Colored Troops in the Army of the Cumberland ( n .p ., 1904) insightfully comment on black military service.

The records of Northern civilian reformers are not nearly as plentiful as those of the soldiers. Most of the civilian writings are in the form of letters to freedmen's

aid societies. The correspondence files of only one of these organizations exists today: the American Missionary

Archives in the Amistad Research Center, Dillard university, 307 I'ievr Orleans, Louisiana. The archives contain all letters

published in the i>ssociation*s journal, .American iuissionary,

and much more. Correspondence to the other societies can

only be found in their journals or reports. The halter T.

Carpenter Diary (Ohio Historical Center, Columbus, ohio)

and Senate Executive Document, No. 28 (38th Congress, 1st

Session j record tv/o inspections of the Middle Tennessee

contrabands' living conditions by perceptive Northern phi­

lanthropists. Elvira J. Powers, Hospital Pencilings:

Being a Diary (Boston, 1866) shows much interest in contra­

bands' activities and attitudes. 1.1. LI cG ran ah an, ed.,

Historical Sketch of the Freedmen's missions of the United

Presbyterian Church, 1862-1904 (Knoxville, 1904) contains

both primary and secondary accounts of that denomination's

projects in Tennessee. The most detailed narrative of wartime politics in

Tennessee is Clifton R. Hall, àidrew Johnson: Military

Governor of Tennessee (Princeton, N.J., 1916). James L.elch

Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction in 'Tennessee 1860-1869

(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1934) adds little to Hall's coverage of

the v/ar years. James 1 a lte r .Fertig, The Secession and

Reconstruction of Tennessee (Chicago, 1898) is too old and

too thin to be of any use. John H. DeBerry, "Confederate

Tennessee" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of

Kentucky, 1941) strangely ignores the subject of slavery.

The major primary sources on behind-the-scenes unionist 308

politics are the ihidrew Johnson Papers (Library of Con­

gress) and the David Campbell Papers (Duke University

Library, Durham, L.G.).

Tennessee's wartime newspapers stressed politics

but also included information on most other aspects of

slavery's deterioration. Besides the news stories and

editorials, useful information was gleaned from advertise­

ment columns, court reports, municipal government reports,

and published military orders. The Tennessee State Library

and Archives has made a major attempt to microfilm all existing copies of Tennessee newspapers.

Soon after Andrew Johnson arrived in Nashville as military Governor, he hired a Kentucky Democrat, S.C. mercer, to start a unionist organ, mercer edited the Nash­ ville Union until late 1863, when Johnson cut off his sal­

ary probably because mercer was progressively becoming a radical on racial issues. The Union remained affiliated with the Union Tarty through 1865 but followed erratic editorial policies. In February, 1854, Mercer began pub­ lishing the radical Nashville Times and True Union. The

Conservatives had two organs in the capital; the Nashville

Tress edited by Edwin Paschal during most of i t s ex isten ce and the Nashville Pisnatch which rarely printed editorials during the war. In Hay of 1865 Mercer's financial backers deviously bought control of the Press, fired Paschal, and merged the two papers. The r e su ltin g N ash ville Press and 309 Times fell under üercer's editorship.

The ttiemphis Bulletin, v'hich had reluctantly capitu­

lated to secessionism after fort Sumter, acquired proslav­

ery unionist editors shortly after federal occupation began.

In early 1863 John B. Bingham, the paper's previous editor,

regained control and turned it into- an emancipationist

organ. There are very few extant wartime issues of the

city's Conservative mouthpiece, the Memphis Argus.

William G. Brownlow's Knoxville Whig had upheld unionism until supressed by Confederate authorities in October of

1861. After Federal lib e r a tio n of K noxville Brownlow

revived the paper as the Knoxville \Ihig and Rebel Ventila­

tor. In the face of the whig's tremendous popularity and highly vituperative style, the East Tennessee Conservatives

chose not to print a competitor during the war. The only

out of state paper which frequently printed Tennessee news was the Cincinnati Gazette, a radical Republican organ.

One Northern black newspaper, the (Cincinnati] Colored Cit­ izen . would have been an invaluable source except that only a single wartime issue exists today.

Since the subjects of social structure, conflict, and change lay at the heart of this study, the author pro­ fitably consulted several sociological works. Talcott farsons. The Social System (Ne?; York, 1951) and Ralf

Bahrendorf, Class and Glass Conflict in Industrial Society

(2na ed., Stanford, Cal., 1959] present opposite views on 5 1 0

the nature of class systems. Parsons holds that they are

based on the integration of values and Interests, while

ûahrendorf believes that they are founded upon conflict.

Both of these structural orientations can be observed

within slavery, and the tension between the two played a

crucial role in the institution's wartime deterioration.

Lewis A, Coser, The Functions of Social Conflict (New York,

1956) and Continuities in the Study of Social Conflict (New

York, 1967) offer some insights on the consequences of a

conflict situation, but he often generalizes from too small

an empirical base. Sociological studies of social change,

such a s L ilb e r t L. hoore. S ocial Change (2nd e d ., Lnglewood

Cliffs, N.J., 1965), are written on too general of a plane

to be o f any use to th is study, nrnold Anthony S io , "The

Legal and Social Structures of Slavery in the United

States" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1958) buries a perceptive institutional analysis

of slavery under a very dry writing style. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manuscript Materials

A, Aaistad Research Center, Dillard University, Nevr Orleans, La.

American Missionary Association Archives

B. Clarksville Bublic Library, Clarksville, Tenn,

John Nick Barker Diary

C, Duke U niversity Library, Durham, N.C.

David Campbell Papers

D. Joint University Library, Nashville, Tenn.

wait on Pamily Papers (microfilm copy]

5. Lawson-McGhee Public Library, K n oxville, Tenn.

Thomas Amis Rogers Nelson Papers

Shields Pamily Papers

P. Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 'Jashington, D.C.

• Ulysses S. Grant Papers

Andrew Johnson Papers

AbraJiara Lincoln Papers, Robert Todd Lincoln Collec­ tio n

ïiillia ra T. Sherman Papers

John N. V/addell Diary

G, Memphis and Shelby County Public Library, Memphis, Tenn.

311 312

U.S. Bureau of Refugees, i'reedmen and Abandoned lands Orders and Circulars Collection p. Ohio Historical Center, Columbus, Oh.

Walter T. Carpenter Diary James S. Negley V ertical R ile M aterial

I. Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina Library, Chapel H ill, N.C;

John Houston B ills Diary

Henry Craft Diary (ty p escrip t)

Belle Edmondson Diary (typescript)

Harding-Jackson Papers

Nimrod Porter Diary

Panny %ood Diary

J. Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tenn.

Robert H. Cartmell Diary

Confederate Civil Jar Veteran Questionaires

Cooper Pamily Papers

Jesse Cox Diary

W.R. Dyer Diary (microfim copy)

1. Virginia Prench Diary (typescript)

Samuel Henderson Diary (microfilm copy)

The Historical Records Transcription Unit. Division of Women's and Professional Projects. Works Progress Administration. "Civil War Records /from Tennessee/" (4 vols, of typescript)

Sarah Ann (Bailey) Kennedy Papers (xerox copies)

Joseph B. Killebrew. "Recollections of My Life: An Autobiography" (2 vols, of typescript)

George W ashington Matthews Diary 313 Samuel M illigan Memoir (m icrofilm copyj

Martha Luttrell Mitchell Memoir

Washington family Papers

II. i\rchival Materials

A. federal—National Archives, Washington, D.C.

1. Military Service Records

a. Appointment Commission Personnel Branch file s (officers vith regular army commissions]

Robert William Barnard file

Reuben Delavan Mussey F ile

b. Compiled Service Records Files (volunteer sol­ d ie rs)

William Brunt File

Ralph Hunt File

2. Records of the Office of Adjutant General (Record Group 94)

3. Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmep, and Abandoned Lands (Record Group 105)

4. Confederate Records (Record Group 109)

5. Records of the United States Army Continental Commands, 1821-1920 (Record Group 393)

6. Manuscript Census Returns

Eighth Census, Schedule 1 (Free Inhabitants) for Davidson, Knox, and Shelby counties

B, State—Tennessee State Library and Archives

1. Legislative Branch

a. Manuscript B ills, 34th General Assembly (1861- 62)

b. Petitions, 1865-67 General Assembly 314

2. Executive Branch

a. Gubernatorial Papers for Isham Harris and Vi,illia3 G. Brownlow

b. Secretary of State Papers

c. Tally Sheets of Elections for 1860-55

d. Colored Lien's Pension Applications

C. County—Tennessee State Library and Archives (all are on microfilm unless otherwise noted)

Bedford County Deed Book

Carroll County Deed Book

Coffee County Deed Books

Davidson County Deed Books

Dyer County Deed Books

G iles County Deed Books

Hamilton County Civil Record of the Law Court of Chattanooga (typescript)

Henry County Deed Book

Hickman County Deed Book

Knox County Deed Books

Lincoln County Deed Book

McMinn County Deed Books

Li ad is on County Deed Book

Marshall County Deed Books

Maury County C ircu it Court Minute Books

Maury County Court Minute Book

Maury County Deed Books

Monroe County Deed Books

Montgomery County Deed Books 315

Roane County Deed Books

Rutherford County Deed Books

Smith County Deed Books

S u lliv a n County Deed Books

Sumner County Deed Books

V/ayne County Deed Book

W illiamson County Deed Books

D. M unicipal—Memphis City Hall

Memphis Board of Mayor and Alderman Journal

I I I . Published Government Documents

Tennessee. Acts. 33rd General Assembly, 1st and 2nd Sxtra Session (I 8 6 I).

. Code (Meigs and Cooper, 1858).

. Constitution (1834).

. House Journal. 34th General Assembly (1861-62); Unnumbered 1865-^7 General Assembly.

______. Reports from Public Officers and Institutions Made to the General Assembly of 185 9-^0.

. Senate Journal. Unnumbered 1865-67 General Assembly.

U.S. Army. Department of the Tennessee. John Eaton. Report of the General Superintendent of Freedmen, Department of the Tennessee and State of Arkansas, for I 8 6 4 . Memphis, 1855.

U.S. Army. Department of the Tennessee. Joseph w.arren, ed. Extracts from Documents in the Office of the Gen­ eral Superintendent of Refugees and freedmen. Memphis, I 8 6 5 .

______. Extracts from Reports of Superintendents of freedmen. 2 series. Vicksburg, Miss., 1865.

______. final Report of freedmen Schools in the Depart­ ment L ately under the Supervision of Colonel John Eaton. Jr., 1864-^5. Vicksburg, Miss., 1865. 316 ______. Report and Extracts Relating to the Colored Schools in the Department of the Tennessee and S tate of Arkansas. i.Iemphis, 1864.

______. Reports Relating to Colored Schools in Missis­ sippi. Arkansas, and Western Tennessee. Memphis, Ï 8 6 5 T

U.S. irmy. Superintendents of freedmen for the State of Arkansas and the District of U.est Tennessee. Reports. Memphis, 1865.

U.S. üon,5 ress. Congressional Globe. 37th Congress (1861- 63v '

______.. Rouse Executive Documents. 39th Congress, 1st Session, Mo. 70.

______. House Committee Reports. 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Mo. 46,

______. Senate Executive Documents. 38th Congress, 2nd S ession , Ho. 28.

______. Senate Committee Reports. 38th Congress, 1st S ession , Ho. 6 3 .

______. The Statutes at Large. Treaties, and Proclama­ tions of the United States of America, vols. XII- XIII. Boston, 1 8 6 3 - 6 6 .

U.S. Department of the Interior. Census Office. Eighth Census of the United States, I860. 4 vols. Washington, 18^4-66.

U.S. iiavy Department. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. 31 vols. Washington, 1894-1927.

U.S. war Department. The W,ar of the Rebellion: A Compila­ tion of the Official Records of the Union and Con­ federate irmies. 131 vols. Washington, 1880-1901.

17. Ereedmen's Xid Society Publications

Association of Friends for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen. Report of the Board of Managers. Philadelphia, 1805.

The Freedmen*s B u lle tin . I - I I (1864-65). Organ of the Northwestern Freedmen's Aid Commission. 317 freedmen's Jj'rlend, I (1864-65)- Organ of the Association of Friends for the Aid and Flevation of the Freed­ men.

Friends* Association of Fhiladelphia and Its Vicinity for the Relief of Colored Freedmen. Statisti cs of the operation of the Executive Board. Philadelphia, 1864.

Home F v a n g e list, AV-XVII (1864-66). organ of the American Baptist Home Mission Society.

Indiana Freedmen*s Aid Commission. Report of the Board of Managers to the First vFinual Meeting. Indianapolis,

Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends. Minutes, 1864-65. Cincinnati, 1865.

Indiana Yearly Meeting's Bxecutive Committee for the Relief of Colored Freedmen. Report. Richmond, Ind., 1864.

Minutes of the Convention of Freedmen*s Commissions Held at Indianapolis. Indiana, July 14 to 20, 1864. Cincinnati, 1864.

National Freedman. I (1865). Organ of the National Freed­ man's Aid Society (New YorkJ.

Pennsylvania Freedmen*s Bulletin, I (1865). Organ of the Pennsylvania Freeedmen's Relief Association.

/Pennsylvania Freedmen*s Relief Association?. Report of the Proceedings of a Meeting Held at Concert Hall. P h ilad elp h ia, on November 3, 1863. P h ilad elp h ia, 1 8 ^ ------

Western Freedmen*s Aid Commission. Appeal in Behalf of the National Freedmen. Cincinnati, 1864.

______. Report, 1864. Cincinnati, 1864.

______. Second Annual Report. Cincinnati, 1865-

Yeatman, James F. A Report on the Condition of the Freed­ men of the Mississippi Presented to the Western Sanitary Commission. St. iouis, Mo. , 1864.

V, Newspapers

Athens Post

(Boston) Liberator 318

Chattanooga Gazette

Chattanooga Rebel

Chicago tribune

(Cincinnati^) Colored Citizen

Cincinnati Gazette

Clarksville Chronicle

Clarksville Jeffersonian

Cleveland Banner

(Columbia) M aury B r.ess

fayetteville Observer

(franklin) Review

Gallatin Courier

(Greeneville) Banner

(Jonesboro) V.ast Tennessee flag

(Lewisburg) Southern Messenger

Knoxville Register

Knoxville Va. hi g (Whig and Rebel Ventilator after October, 18^5)

Memphis Aureal

Memphis Argus

Memphis Avalanche

Memphis Bulletin

(Nashville) Colored Tennessean

Nashville Disnatch

Nashville Gazette

Nashville Press

Nashville Press abd Times 319

(Nashville3 Republican Banner

Nashville Times and True ’union

Nashville union

New York M ^lo-M rican

(New York3 National .Antislavery Standard

New York Times

New York Tribune

(Philadelphia3 Christian Hecorder

Shelbyville News VI. Other Published Primary Sources

Abbott, Lyman. Reminiscences. New York, 1923

Abernethy, Byron R., ed. Private Elisha Stockwell, Jr. Sees the Civil 11 ar. Norman, Okla., 1938.

Alderson, William T. , ed. "The Civil War Reminiscences of John Johnson, 1361-1865." Tennessee Historical Quarterly, XIII (all issues, 1954), pp. 65-82, 156- 178, 244-276, 329-355; XIV (March, June), pp. 43-81, 142-176.

American Tract Society. The Freedmen's Primer or First Reader. Boston, I 8 6 4 .

Anderson, Charles A. "The True Story of Port Pillow." Confederate Veteran, III (November, 1895), pp. 822- 826. Barteau, C.R. A Brief Review. Hartsville, Tenn., 1861.

Beatty, John. The Citizen Soldier. Cincinnati, 1879.

Be jack, Lois D. , ed. "The Journal of a Civil v/ax ’Commando’—De Witt Clinton Port." West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, II (1948), pp. 5-32.

Bickham, W.D. R osecrans’ Campaign. C in cin n ati, 1863.

Blankenship, Leia McDowell, ed. Piddles in the Cumberlands. New York, 1945.

Blegen, Theodore C., ed. The Civil War Letters of Colonel 320 Hans Ghristan Heg. Northfield, Minn., 1936.

Bodnia, George, ed. "Bort Pillow Massacre; Observations of a Minnesotan. " Minnesota History, .1LÏÏI (Spring, 19739, pp. 18G-190.

Burton, 3.P. "Diary." Typescript by the H isto r ic a l Hecords Survey. Des Moines, la ., 1939.

Caldwell, May Winston. A Chapter from the Life of a Little Girl of the Confederacy. Nashville, n.d.

Chetlain, Augustus L. Recollections of Seventy Years. Galena, ill,, 1399.

Child, L. Maria, ed. The Freedmen's Book. Boston, 1865.

Coffin, Levi. Reminiscences. 3rd ed. Cincinnati, 1898,

Cowden, Robert. A Brief Sketch of the Organization and Services of the Fifty-Ninth Regiment of United States Colored Infantry. Dayton, Oh., 1883.

Dornblaser, ï ,F. Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dra­ goons in the War of 1861-65. Philadelphia, 1884.

Downs, Bdward C. The Great M eric an Scout and Spy, "Gen­ eral Bunker." 3rd ed. New York, 1870.

Eaton, John. Grant. L incoln and the Freedmen; Reminis- cences of the Civil War. New York, 1907.

^ itch , C^7. "Capture of Fort Pillow—Vindication of General Chalmers by a Federal Officer." Southern Historical Society Papers, VII (October, 1879), pp. 439-441. Fitch, John. Aonals of the Army of the Cumberland. Phil ad elphia, 1803.

Franklin, John Hope, ed. The Diary of James T. Avers; Civil War Recruiter. Springfibld, 111.,1947.

Graf, Leroy P. et al., eds. The Papers of Andrew Johnson. 4 vols, to date. Knoxville, 1967-.

/H a ll, C,Vk 7. Threescore Years and Ten. Cincinnati, 1884.

Hancock, Richard R. Hancock's Diary. Nashville, 1887.

/Hanson, G. 4^7- Minor Incidents of the Late War. Bartow, Fla. , 1887. 321 Herndon, Charles F. Some Comments Concerning the Civil Viar Letters of an Ohio Family. Fresno, Cal., 1959.

Hinman, \iilh u r F. The Story of the Sherman Brigade. Alliance, Ch., 1897.

H ovie, Li. A . D e Vio 1 f e , ed. Home L etters of General Sherman. Hew York, 1 9 0 9 .

Hughes, Louis. Thirty Years a Slave; From Bondage to Freedom. Milwaukee, Wise., 1897. iCirke, Fdmund /pseudonym for James Fobert Gilmore/. Down in Tennessee and Back by day of Richmond. Nev; York, 1865. Lane, Isaac. Hutobiograohy. Nashville, 1916.

Larson, James. Sergeant Larson. San Aitonio, Tex., 1935.

McGee, Benjamin F. n isto ry of the 72d Indiana Volunteer Infan try. Ed. by W illiam R. Jew ell. La F ayette, Ind. , 1882.

LicGuffey, Hilliam H. First Eclectic Reader. Cincinnati, 1844.

Maynard, Horace. To the Slaveholders of Tennessee, n.n. 1863. Meriwether, Elizabeth Avery. Recollections of 92 Years 1824-1916. Nashville, 1958.

Miller, Randall, ed. "Letters from Nashville, 1862, II: ‘Dear Master. ‘" Tennessee Historical Quarterly, XXXIII (Spring, 1974}, 85-92.

Mitchell, Enoch L ., ed. "Letters of a Confederate Surgeon in the Army of Tennessee to His Wife." Tennessee Historical Quarterly, IV (December, 1945"), up'. 341- 353; V (March, June, 1945), pp. 60-81, 142-181.

Moore, Frank, ed. Rebellion Record. 9 vols. Hew York, 1865. Morgan, J u lia Irby. How I t Vi^as: Four Years among the Rebels. Nashville, 1892.

Morgan, Thomas J. Reminiscences o f S ervice with Colored Troops in the Army of the Cumberland, 1863-65. Providence, R.I., 1885. 322

Napier, J.C. "Some Negro Members of the Tennessee Legisla­ ture during Reconstruction Period and after." Journal of Negro History, ¥ (January, 1920), pp. 113-118. National Convention of Colored Men. Proceedings. Boston, 1864 Palmer, John M. Personal Recollections; The Story of an Earnest Life. Cincinnati, 1901.

Powers, Elvira J. Hospital Pencilings: Being a Diary. Boston, 1856.

Rawick, George P ., ed. The American Slave; A Composite Autobiogr aphy . 19 vols. Pestport, Conn., 1972.

Rieger, Paul E., ed. Through One Man's Eyes: The Civil War Experiences of a Belmont County Volunteer. Mount Vernon, Ch., 1974.

Romeyn, Henry. With Colored Troops in the Army of the Cum­ berland. n.p., 1904.

Schroeder, Jr., A lberti., ed. "Writings of a Tennessee Unionist." Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Iv[ (September, December, 1950), pp. 244-272, 344-361.

Simon, John Y, et a l., eds. The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. ^ vols, to date. 1967-. Sipes, William 3. The Seventh Pennsylvania Veteran Volun­ teer Cavalry. Pottsville, Pa. , 1905.

Skinner, J.E. Hillary. After the Storm. 2 vols. London, 1866.

Stevenson, William B. Thirteen Months in the Rebel iiürmy. New York, 1862.

Temple, Oliver P. Notable Men of Tennessee from 1833 to 1875. New York, 1912. Throne, Mildred, ed. "The Civil War Diary of C.P. Boyd, Fifteenth Iowa Infantry." lovfa Journal of History. L (all issues, 1952), pp. 47-82, 155-184, 239-270, 345-378.

Trimble, Sarah Ridley, ed. "Behind_the Lines in Middle Tennessee, 1863-1865: The Journal of Bettie Ridley Blackmore. " Tennessee Historical Quarterly, XII (March, 1953), pp. 48-80. 323 Trowbridge, J.T. The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities, nartford, Conn., 13^6.

Upson, Theodore. Uith Sherman to the Sea, ed. by Oscar Üsburn w inter. Baton Rouge, L a., 1^43» walton, umily, Donelson. Rutobiography, n.p,, 1932.

U .ilkin, Mary, ed. "borne Tapers of the American Cotton Planters' Association, 1355-1866." Tennessee his­ torical Quarterly. VII (December, 1948) , p p . 335- 361; VIII (March, 1949), pp. 49-62.

williams, Ldward P. Extracts from Letters to ■'U.B.T. I lew York, 1903. hills, Charles L. Vrmy Life of an Illinois Soldier; Let­ ters and a Diary. Washington, 1906.

Wingfield, Marshall, ed. "The Diary of Williamson Younger (1817-18769." West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, No. 13 (l9 5 9 ), pp. 55-77. bright, Henry H, A History of the Sixth lows Infantry. Iowa City, la., 1923.

Uright, T.J. History of the Eighth Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. St. Joseph, Mo., 1880.

VII. Secondary Sources

Alexander, Thomas B. Political Reconstruction in Tennessee. Nashville, 1950.

Armstrong, urland Kay. Old Massa's People; The Old Slaves Tell Their Story. Indianapolis, Ind., 1931.

Bel3, Herman. Reconstructing the Union; Theory and Policy during the Civil War. Ithaca, N.Y,, 1969

Benedict, Michael Les. The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson. New York, 1973.

Berlin, Ira. Slaves without Masters; The free Negro in the Antebellum South. New York, 1974.

Blassingame, John W. Black New Orleans 1860-1880. Chicago, 1973.

______. The Slave Community; Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. New York, 1972. 324

Brewer, James H. The Confederate Negro; V irg in ia 's Craftsmen and M ilitary Laborers, 1861-1865. Durham, N.C. 7 T ‘3ÏÏ9^

Brown, W illiam W ells. The Ne^ro in the American R ebellion: His Heroism and Fidelity. Boston, 1867.

Cansler, Charles W, Three Generations: The Story of a Colored Family of East Tennessee, n.p., 1939.

Castel, JTLbert. "The fort Pillow Massacre: A Fresh exam­ ination of the Evidence." Civil War History, 17 (March, 1958), pp. 37-50.

Castel, Albert. "fort Pillow: Victory or Massacre." meric an History Illustrated, 11 (April, 1974), pp. 4-10, 46-48.

Catton, Bruce. Grant Moves South. Boston, I960.

Chanaing, Steven A. Crisis of fear: Secession in South Carolina. Hew York, 1970.

Church, Annette E. and Church, Roberta. The Robert R. Churches of Memphis: A Father and Son Who Achieved in Spite of Race. Ann Arbor, 1974.

Civil War Centennial Commission of Tennessee. Tennesseans in the Civil War. 2 vols. Nashville, l9o4.

Cornish, Dudley Taylor. The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865. Hew York, 1956.

Corwin, Arthur f. Snain and the Abolition of Slavery in Cuba, 1817-188^7 Austin, Tex., 1067.

Coulter, E. Merton. "Slavery and freedom in Athens, Georgia, 1860-66." Georgia Historical Quarterly, XLIX (September, 1965), pp. 264-293» ______. William G. Brownlov/: fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands. Chapel H ill, N.C., 1937.

Cox, La W, and a. "The Promise of Land for the freedmen. " M ississip p i Valley H isto r ic a l Review, XLV (December, 195877 pp. 413-440. Curry, Richard Orr. A House Divided: A Study of Statehood Politics and the Copperhead Movement in Lest Vir­ ginia. Pittsburg, 1964. 325 De Berry,- John H. "Confederate Tennessee. " unpublished' - Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kentucky, 1967.

Dew, Charles B. "Black Ironworkers and the Slave Insurrec­ tion Panic of 1856," Journal of Southern History. XIJ (August, 1975j, pp. 321-338. Donald, David- ed. .;hy the North Vi.on the Civil Par. Baton Rouge, La., I960.

Drago, Bdmund L. "How Sherman's Karch through Georgia Affected the Slaves." Georgia Historical Quarterly. LVII (Pall, 1973), pp. 361-375. Du Bois, P. Burgliardt. Black Reconstruction. New York, 1935. Bikins, Stanley il. Slavery: __A Problem in American I n s t i­ tutional and Intellectual Life. 2nd ed. Chicago, 1968:

Bngland, James Merton. "The Free Negro in Antebellum Ten­ nessee." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1941.

Bscott, Paul D. "The Context of Freedom: Georgia's Slaves during the C iv il Vîar." Georgia H isto r ic a l Quar­ te r ly , LVIII (Spring, 197417 pp. 79-104.

Everett, Donald S. "Demand of the New Orleans Free Colored Population for Political Equality, 1862-1865." Louisiana Historical Quarterly, ÂKKVIII (Imril, 1955), pp. 43-64. F e r tig , James h a lte r . The Secession and. Reconstruction of Tennessee. Chicago, 1898.

Fogel, Robert Uilliam, and Engerman, Stanley L. Time on the Cross. 2 vols. Boston, 1974.

Fredrickson, George M. The Black Imag;e in the American Mind: The Debate on iifro-American Character and Destiny, 1617-1914. New York, 1971. Fuller, T.0. History of the Negro Baptists of Tennessee. Memphis, 19367 Genovese, Eugene D. Roll, Jordan, Roll; The W.or1d the Slaves Made. New York, l9?4.

Gsrteis, Lewis S. From Contraband to Freedman: Federal 326

Policy toward Southern Blacks, 1861-1865» uestpcrt, Conn., 1973.

Govan, G ilbert ü. , and Livingood, James W. The Chattanooga Country 1540-1964; From Tomahawks to TVA. 2nd éd.. Chapel H ill, H.G., 1963.

Green, W illiam xaercer. memoir o f _ÜRht Reverend James Hervey Otey, the First Bishop of Tennessee. Nevf York, 1885.

Gutman, Herbert G. The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925. Hew York, 1976. Haley, James T. A fro-American Encyclopedia: Thoughts, Joints, Sayings of the Race. Hashvil 1 e, 1896.

Hall, Clifton R. Andrew Johnson: Military Governor of Tennessee. Princeton, N.J., 1916.

Handlin, Oscar. The Unrooted: The Bnic Story of the Great Migrations That Hade the Anerican People. New York, 1951. Henry, Robert Selph. "First with the Most" Forrest. New York, 1944.

Hooper, Earnest.W. "Memphis, Tennessee: Federal Occupa­ tion and Reconstruction, 1862-1870. " Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of North Carolina, 1957. riuch, Ronald H. "Fort Pillow Massacre: The Aftermath of Paducah." Illinois State Historical Society Jour­ nal, LXVI (Spring, 1973)» pp. 62-70. Johnson, Allen, and Malone, Dumas, eds. Dictionary of Amer­ ican Biography. 22 vols. New York, 1926-1946.

Johnston, William Preston. The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnson. New York, 1878.

Jordan, John L. as There a Massacre at Fort Pillow ?" Tennessee Historical Quarterly, VI (June, 1947), pp. 99-133. Jordan, Thomas, and Pryor, J.P . The Campaigns of Lieuten­ ant General II.B. Forrest and of Forrest's Cavalry. New York, 1868.

Hoichin, Peter. First Freedom; The Responses of Alabama's Blacks to Emancipation and Reconstruction. 327 ./estportj Conn., 1972.

Litv/ack, Leon i'. "Free at Last,-' in Harevan, Tamara K. Anonymous Americans: Explorations in Nineteenth Century Social History. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1971. Lovett, Bobby L. "The Negro’s C ivil War in Tennessee, 1861-1865," Journal of Negro History, XLI (January, 19763, pp. 36-50.

Lytle, Lndrew Nelson. Bedford Eorrest and His Critter Company. New York, 1931.

iàcGranahan, R .I ., ed. -H isto r ic a l Sketch of the Ereedmen’s Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, 1862- 1904. Knoxville, 1904.

McKinney, Francis F. Education in Violence: The Life of George H. Thomas and the History of the iiray of the Gumberland. D etro it, 1961.

McPherson, James M. The Struggle for Equality; Abolition­ ists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruc­ tion. Princeton, N.J.,"1 9 6 4.

Maslowski, Peter. "'Treason Must Be Made Odious: ' Mili­ tary Occupation and Wartime Reconstruction in Nash­ ville, Tennessee, 1862-1865." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1972.

Mathes, J. Harvey. General Forrest. New York, 1902.

Mooney, Chase C. Slavery in Tennessee. Bloomington, Ind., 1957.

Noll, hrthur Howard. History of the /Episcopalian/ Church in the Diocese of Tennessee. New York, 1900.

Norton, Herman A. Tennessee Christians; A History of the C hristian Church (D iscip les of C h ristl in Tennessee. Nashville, 1971.

Parrish, William E. Missouri under Radical Rule 1865-1870. Columbia, Mo., 1965.

Partin, Robert Love. "The Secession Movement in Tennes­ see." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, George Peabody College, 1935.

Patterson, Caleb Perry. The Negro in Tennessee, 1790-1865. Austin, Tex., 1922. 328 Patton, James Yi; el ch. Unionism and Reconstruction in Ten­ nessee 1860-18^9. Chapel Hill, N.G., 1934.

Payne, Daniel A. History of the African Methodist Episco­ pal Church. Ed. by C.S. Smith. Nashville, 1891.

Phillips, Ulrich Donnell. American Negro Slavery: A Sur­ vey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime. New York, 1918.

Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. Chapel Hill, H.G., 1961.

______. The Negro in the Civil Jar. Boston, 1953.

Ripley, G. Peter. Slaves and Freedmen in Civil h.ar Louisi­ ana. Baton Rouge, La. , 1976.

Rose, L illie Lee. Rehearsal for Reconstruction; The Port Royal Experiment. Indianapolis, Ind., 19^4.

Schweninger, Loren. "The Eree-Slave Phenomenon: James P. Thomas and the Black Community in Ante-Bellum Nash­ ville." Civil V« ar History, AiCII (December, 1976), pp. 293-307. Sheppard, Eric Lilliam. Bedford Eorrest: The Confedera­ cy's Greatest Cavalryman. New York, 1930.

Simmons, <*illiam J. Men of Mark; Eminent, Progressive and Rising. Cleveland, Ch., 1887.

Smith, M.G. "Slavery and Emancipation in Two Societies." Social and Economic Studies, ill (December, 1959), pp. 239-290.

Stampp, Kenneth M. The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877. Nev; York, 1965.

______. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the i'nte- Bellum South. New York, 1956.

Starr, Stephen Z. Jennison's Jayhavkers: A Civil War Cav­ alry Regiment and Its Commander. Baton Rouge, La., 1973. Stearns, Prank Preston. The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns. Philadelphia, 1907.

Swint, Henry Lee. The Northern Teacher in the South 1862- 329

1 8 7 0 . Nashville, 1141.

ïaylor, -‘ilrutheus Ambush. The Negro in Tennessee. 1865- 1880. Washington, 1941.

Taylor, Joe Gray. "Slavery in Louisiana during the Civil War. " Louisiana history. VIII (Winter, 1967), pp. 27-33. Topiin, Robert Brent. The Abolition of Slavery in Brazil. New York, 1972.

Tucker, David M. Black Pastors and Leaders: Memphis, 1819-1972. Liemphis, 1975.

V. agandt, Charles Louis. The Mighty Revolution: Negro Emancipation in Maryland, 18o2-18ë4'. Baltimore, 1964. Viiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union. Indianapolis, Ind., 1951.

______. Southern Negroes 1861-1865. New Haven, Conn., 1938.

Williamson, Joel. After Slavery: The Negro in South Caro­ lina during Reconstruction, 1861-1877. Chapel Hill, N.G., 1965.

Wish, Harvey. "The Slave Insurrection Panic of 1856." Journal of Southern History, V (May, 1939), pp. 206-222.

Wooldridge, J ., ed. History of Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville, 1890.

i'/yeth, John Allan. Life of General Nathan Bedford E orrest. New York, 1899.

VIII. Sociological Studies

Closer, Lewis A. Continuities in the Study of Social Con­ flict. New York, 1967.

______;__. The Functions of Social Conflict. New York, 195^.

Dahrendorf, Half. Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford, Cal., 1959.

Brazier, E. i’ranklin. The Negro Family in the United States. Chicago, 1939. 330 I.'Ioore, Wilbert E. Anerican Negro Slavery and Abolition; A Sociological Study. New York, 1971.

______. Social Change. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1963. rarsons, I’alcott. The Social System. New York, 1951.

Sio, Arnold Anthony. "The Legal and Social Structures of Slavery in the United States." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, university of Illinois, 1958. APPhNDIX

Figure 3.—Tennessee during the Civil ï< ar

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