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The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Confederate negro enlistments. (search)
f public feeling on the subject. At first everybody was extremely hostile to such a movement, and the soldiers particularly. But three or four circumstances combined to make a rapid change in the public sentiment. In the first place, by an act of the Confederate Congress, approved February 17th, 1864, there were some thirty thousand or forty thousand slaves drafted into the army as cooks, teamsters, trainsmen and the like, and the soldiers found that they not only got along very well with Cuffee, but that he saved them no end of work and trouble, was handy, amiable, liked the service well enough, and was not without a spirit of adventure. Some of the negro teamsters did a little amateur fighting now and then, and they showed themselves very skilful in plundering a battle-field. Slavery, too, was on its last legs as October rolled by. The enemy had possession of more than half the Confederate territory, and wherever they marched they set the negroes free. Slaves had lost their
Thomas C. DeLeon, Four years in Rebel capitals: an inside view of life in the southern confederacy, from birth to death., Chapter 8: New Orleans, the Crescent city. (search)
Chapter 8: New Orleans, the Crescent city. Location and commercial importance old methods of business relations of planter and factor a typical brokerage House secure reliance on European recognition and the kingship of cotton yellow Jack and his treatment French town and American hotels of the day home society and the Heathen social Customs Creole women's taste Cuffee and cant early regiments and crack companies judges of wine a champion diner. At a first glimpse, New Orleans of those days was anything but a picturesque city. Built upon marshy flats, below the level of the river and protected from inundation by the Levee, her antique and weathered houses seemed to cower and cluster together as though in fear. But for a long time, The Crescent city had been at the head of commercial importance-and the desideratum of direct trade had been more nearly filled by her enterprising merchants than all others in the South. The very great majority of the wealthy
Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Debates of Lincoln and Douglas: Carefully Prepared by the Reporters of Each Party at the times of their Delivery., Speech of Senator Douglas, delivered July 17, 1858, at Springfield, III (Mr. Lincoln was not present.) (search)
hen change the Constitution again, and allow negroes to vote and hold office, and will make them eligible to the Legislature, so that thereafter they can have the right men for U. S. Senators, He will allow them to vote to elect the Legislature, the Judges, and the Governor, and will make them eligible to the office of Judge or Governor, or to the Legislature. He will put them on an equality with the white man. What then? Of course, after making them eligible to the judiciary, when he gets Cuffee elevated to the bench, he certainly will not refuse his judge the privilege of marrying any woman he may select! I submit to you whether these are not the legitimate consequences of his doctrine? If it be true, as he says, that by the Declaration of Independence and by Divine law, the negro is created the equal of the white man; if it be true that the Dred Scott decision is unjust and wrong, because it deprives the negro of citizenship and equality with the white man, then does it, not fol
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 21: Emancipation proclamation. (search)
t for them, and into these the abandoned flock in droves. Others live in tents, and others in the open commons of the town. There is already great mortality among them, and an Alexandria physician told me that the small-pox had already broken out, and would undoubtedly make great ravages in their midst as soon as the cold weather sets in. There is little or no occupation for these contrabands. They are, in nine cases out of ten, lazy, good-for-nothing vagabonds, who seem impressed with the idea that it is the duty of the Government to provide for them. It is certain that Cuffee finds small favor in the eyes of the troops who are now there, particularly since the issue of the emancipation decree. Every day negroes are unmercifully beaten by white soldiers, and consider themselves lucky to get off with whole bones. Well-dressed darkies are the special aversion of the volunteers, and woe be unto them if they show themselves in fine feathers on King Street. （Alexandria, Va.
Charles Congdon, Tribune Essays: Leading Articles Contributing to the New York Tribune from 1857 to 1863. (ed. Horace Greeley), The Slaveholding Utopia. (search)
at, in the tempest and torrent of the Rebellion, men are plotting for the establishment of something like a monarchy, and for an aristocracy founded upon wealth. The Whig in an exceedingly bilious way, reprehends these schemes against Democracy and Human White Equality, because it fears, as we fancy, that in the good time coming Editors will hardly be made Royal Dukes, and Printers hardly Baronets. The titles to this new nobility will be found in bills of the sale of Slaves; we may have Count Cuffee, or Sir Benjamin Barracoon, Prince Cotton-Pod, or the Marquis of Fine-Cut; but although these great people may condescend to take The Whig, and although a few of them may very punctually pay their yearly bills, and be highly gratified by reading his effusions, it will be hard for the Editor, in the new arrangement, to achieve so much as the simple Squirehood. He does well to protest in advance against a scheme which will just as much fix him in a lower social status as it will fix the Bl
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 2. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 280 (search)
ve attacked us, we always have beat--. . . Don't misunderstand — I mean, beat a retreat! . . . And the grass, I'll be sworn, has a poor chance to grow 'Neath our feet on the field, with our backs to the foe! Then bring me my horse! let me ride in the van,-- A position I always secure, if I can; For the enemy hardly can hit me, I find, While running away with an army behind, As over the ground like a whirlwind I go, With my feet to the field and my back to the foe! Sometimes I put Sambo, and Cuffee, and Clem., 'Twixt me and the Yankees, who shoot into them; But when at close quarters, with pistol and knife, I find it much safer to run for my life; So the dust from my horse-shoes I haughtily throw, As I dash from the field with my back to the foe! The Northmen, to catch me, will have to ride fast, Though I have a misgiving they'll do it at last; And it cannot be other than awkward, I fear, To find a great knot underneath my left ear, As up through the air like a rocket I go, With a beam
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 4. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 214 (search)
boat to notify them that the rebels were deserting the place. While questioning the black, some of the officers of the Alabama remarked that he should have brought them newspapers to let them know what was going on. I thought of dat, replied the contraband, and fetched a Charleston paper wid me. With this he put his hand in his bosom and brought forth a paper, and with the air of a man who was rendering an important service, handed it to the circle of inquirers. They grasped it eagerly, but one glance induced a general burst of laughter, to the profound astonishment of poor Cuffee, who, it seems, could not read, and imagining that one paper was as good as another, had brought one dated 1822. This South-Carolina relic was forwarded to Thomas B. Stillman, Esq., of this city, as one of the curiosities of the war. It is a little odd that this paper, which has floated so long down the stream of time, contains an article in favor of negro emancipation.--New-York Commercial Advertiser.
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 6. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 156 (search)
r when they claimed his hospitality, He virtually told them, “Go to----!” No, no--New-England wants the negroes freed, But the poor darkies will not clothe and feed. In several places there are “contrabands” In utter misery and destitution, Poor Cuffee! he now understands The blessings brought on him, by revolution. And honest white men, in our own and other lands, Lament his losses, when we lost the Constitution. Adown in Cairo there are sorry sights-- Negroes more wretched, even, than poor whites! The “old plantation!” How doth Cuffee mourn For home, and “massa;” and the jolly days, When he was “fat and saucy,” and could turn His back on want! He sang his simple lays-- Minstrel of nature! nor did he ever learn That he was all “down-trodden.” In the maze Of negro dance, with Dinah vis-a-vis, What monarch ever happier than he? For Africa's barbarians, once brought In middle passages o'er ocean's tide, Have left descendants, who have haply caught Some sparks of Ch
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855. (ed. Charles Brooks), Chapter 12: crimes and Punishments. (search)
edford chose to remain with their masters; and they were faithful unto death. List of slaves, and their owners' names. Worcester,owned byRev. E. Turell. PompeyDr. Simon Tufts. RoseCaptain Thomas Brooks. PompCaptain Thomas Brooks. PeterCaptain Francis Whitmore. LondonSimon Bradshaw. SelbyDeacon Benjamin Willis. PrinceBenjamin Hall. PunchWidow Brooks. FloraStephen Hall. RichardHugh Floyd. DinahCaptain Kent. CaesarMr. Brown. ScipioMr. Pool. PeterSquire Hall. NiceSquire Hall. CuffeeStephen Greenleaf. IsaacJoseph Tufts. AaronHenry Gardner. Chloe-------- Negro girlMr. Boylston. Negro womanDr. Brooks. Joseph, Plato, PhebeIsaac Royal. Peter, Abraham, CooperIsaac Royal. Stephy, George, HagarIsaac Royal. Mira, Nancy, BetseyIsaac Royal. We are indebted to a friend for the following: It may be interesting here to mention a circumstance illustrative of the general feeling of the town in those days with regard to slavery. In the spring of 1798 or ‘99, a foreigner n
Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Appendix F (search)
nd new States in all respects whatsoever. Mr. Davis: It was not long after this official opinion of the Attorney-General before the case arose on which the decision was made which has so agitated the country. Fortunate indeed was it for the public peace that land and religion had been decided—those questions on which men might reason had been the foundation of judicial decision—before that which drives all reason, it seems, from the mind of man, came to be presented the question whether Cuffee should be kept in his normal condition or not; the question whether the Congress of the United States could decide what might or might not be property in a Territory—the case being that of an officer of the army sent into a Territory to perform his public duty, having taken with him his negro slave. The court, however, in giving their decision in this case—or their opinion, if it suits gentlemen better—have gone into the question with such clearness, such precision, and such amplitude, t
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