Employment of Negroes in the Army: September 3, 1863

This knotty subject is exciting comment in nearly all of the newspapers in the confederacy, (says the Selma Mississippian,) and thoughtful men throughout the country are giving it their serious attention.  It seems to us there should be no difficulty in its solution.  We must either employ the negroes ourselves or the enemy will employ them against us.  While the enemy retains so much of our territory, they are, in the present avocation and status, a dangerous element, a source of weakness.  They are no longer negative characters, but subjects of volition as other people.  They must be taught to know that this is peculiarly the country of the black man—that in no other is the climate and soil so well adapted to his nature and capacity.  He must further be taught that it is his duty as well as the white man’s, to defend his home with arms, if need be.

We are aware that there are persons who shudder at the bare [idea] of placing arms in the hands of negroes, and who are not willing to trust them under any circumstances.—The negro, however, is proverbial for his faithfulness under kind treatment.  He is an affectionate, grateful being, and we are persuaded that the tears of such persons are groundless.

There are in the slaveholding States four millions of negroes, and out of this number at least six hundred thousand able-bodied men capable of bearing arms can be found.  Lincoln proposes to free and arm them against us.  There are already 50,000 of them in arms in the federal ranks.  Lincoln’s plan has worked well so far, and if not checkmated, will most assuredly be carried out.  The Confederate Government must adopt a counter policy.  It must thwart the enemy in this gigantic scheme, at all hazards, and if nothing else will do it—if the negroes cannot be made effective and trustworthy to the Southern cause in no other way, we solemnly believe it is the duty of this Government to forestall Lincoln and proceed at once to take steps for the emancipation or liberation of the negroes itself.  Let them be declared free, placed in the ranks, and told to fight for their homes and country.

We are fully sensible of the grave importance of the question, but the inexorable logic of events has forced it upon us.  We must deal with it, then, not with fear and trembling—not as timid, time serving men—but with a boldness, a promptness and a determination which the exigency requires, and which should over characterize the action of a people resolved to sacrifice everything for liberty.  It is true, that such a step would revolutionize our whole industrial system—that it would, to a great extent, impoverish the country and be a dire calamity to both the negro [and] the white race of this and the Old World; but better this than the loss of the negroes, the country and liberty.

If Lincoln succeeds in arming our slaves against us, he will also succeed in making them our masters.  He will reverse the social order of things in the South.  Whereas, if he is checkmated in times, our liberties will remain intact; the land will be ours, and the industrial system of the country will still [be] controlled by Southern men.

Such action on the part of our Government would place our people in a purer and better light before the world.  It would disabuse the European mind of a grave error in regard to the cause of our separation.  It would prove to them that there were higher and holier motives which actuated our people than the mere love of property.  It would show that although slavery is one of the principles that we started out to fight for, yet it falls far short of being the chief one; that for the sake of our liberty were are capable of any personal sacrifice; that we regard the emancipation of slaves and the consequent loss of property as an evil infinitely less than the subjugation and enslavement of ourselves; that it is not a war exclusively for the privilege of holding negroes in bondage.  It would prove to our own soldiers, three-fourths of whom never owned a negro, that it is not “the rich man’s war and the poor man’s fight;” but a war for the most sacred of all principles, for the dearest of all rights—the right to govern ourselves.  It would show them that the rich man who owned slaves was not willing to jeopardize the precious liberty of the country by his eagerness to hold on to his slaves, but that he was ready to give them up and sacrifice his interest in them whenever the cause demanded it.  It would lend a new impetus, a new enthusiasm, a new and powerful strength to the cause, and place our success beyond a peradventure.  It would at once remove all the odium which attaches to us on account of slavery, and bring us speedy recognition, and, if necessary, intervention.

We sincerely trust that the Southern people will be found willing to make any and every sacrifice which the establishment of our independence may require.  Let it never be said that to preserve slavery we were willing to wear the chains of bondage ourselves—that the very avarice which prompted us to hold on to the negro for the sake of the money invested in him, riveted upon us shackles more galling and bitter than ever a people yet endured.  Let not slavery prove a barrier to our independence.  If it is found in the way—if it proves an insurmountable obstacle to the achievement of our liberty and separate nationality, away with it!  Let it perish!—We must make up our minds to one solemn duty—the first duty of the patriot—and that is to save ourselves from the rapacious North WHATEVER THE COST.

SOURCE: “Employment of Negroes in the Army,” The Clarke County Democrat, Grove Hill, Alabama, Thursday, September 3, 1863, p. 2

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This post, originally posted on March 26, 2020, was recently "unpublished" by Blogger for violating Blogger's Community Guidelines which states: "Note that when applying the policies below, we may make exceptions based on artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific considerations or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content," and when reported, the "content is reviewed by our team to verify it violates those Community Guidelines." 

I categorize this blog as a documentary editing project, intended for the education of its readers. As such, with the notable exception of book reviews, my voice is kept entirely off this blog. As the old familiar saying states, "Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it." Another more modern view has surfaced in recent years which states "history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes."

Letters, diaries, official reports & correspondence, newspaper articles and biographies found on this blog, are for the vast majority in the public domain, or if not are used under the "fair use" clause of United States copyright law and are fully documented as to origin or source of the content. These posts appear as exact to their original form as I can get and are the words and thoughts of those who lived through the fiery trial that was the American Civil War.

I have read and reviewed the community guidelines and reread this post in their entireties and failed to see what community guidelines were broken which led to this post being unpublished. Therefor I am republishing this article in its original form, unedited and with no changes. 

— Jim Miller, December 24, 2022.