Reading the American Past: Printed Page 286
DOCUMENT 15–2
A Former Slave's War Aims
Slaves and most free African Americans did not share Lincoln's constitutional reservations about emancipation. Many sought to fight in uniform to help obtain their freedom, as the following document reveals. This letter from a former slave was picked up by a policeman on a street in New Orleans in early September 1863 and turned over to military authorities, who preserved it. Both parts of the letter are in the same handwriting. (The spelling and punctuation have been faithfully reproduced from the original; if you find a passage puzzling, try reading it aloud. Note in particular that “the” should usually be read as “they.”)
Statement from an Anonymous Former Slave
New Orleans, 1863
the president Shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and navy of the united States and of the militia of the Several States when called into the actual Service of the united States
Let See if Slavery was any value . . . the number of Slaves in the Southern States estimated 3,500,000 and the were worth $1200,000,000 in gold which would be a bout $1800,000,000 in Green Backs Eighteen hundred million Dollars the Collored population is not educated but what Great responciblity has been placeed on them the have been Steam boat pilots ingenears and Black Smiths Coopers Carpenters Shoe makers Drivers on plantations Sugar makers porters on Steam boats and at hotels Dineing Servant Porters in Commision houses Grocery Stores Public weighers Carrige Drivers preachers of the Gospel the best Soldiers the united States Can Raise but the tel lies Sometimes and So dos all negro traders the get Drunk and lawiers and merchants Generals and Governors and all Clases the black men has wives and Sweet harts jest like the white men Some white men has Collored wives and Sweet hearts god made all it is not a City rule for Collored people to ride in the white peoples cars but the bed togeather God mad all the must all Die
it is retten that a man can not Serve two master But it Seems that the Collored population has got two a rebel master and a union master the both want our Servises one wants us to make Cotton and Sugar And the Sell it and keep the money the union masters wants us to fight the battles under white officers and the injoy both money and the union black Soldiers And white officers will not play togeathe much longer the Constitution is if any man rebells against those united States his property Shall be confescated and Slaves declared and henceforth Set free forever when theire is a insurection or rebllion against these united States the Constitution gives the president of the united States full power to arm as many soldiers of African decent as he deems nescesisary to Surpress the Rebellion and officers Should be black or white According to their abillitys the Collored man Should guard Stations Garison forts and mand vessels according to his Compasitys
A well regulated militia being necessary to the cecurity of a free State the right of the people to keep and Bear arms Shall not be infringed
we are to Support the Constitution but no religious test Shall ever be required as a qualification to Any office or public trust under the united States the excitement of the wars is mostly keep up from the Churches the Say god is fighting the battle but it is the people But the will find that god fought our battle once the way to have peace is to distroy the enemy As long as theire is a Slave their will be rebles Against the Government of the united States So we must look out our white officers may be union men but Slave holders at heart the Are allways on hand when theire is money but Look out for them in the battle feild liberty is what we want and nothing Shorter
our Southern friend tells that the are fighting for negros and will have them our union friends Says the are not fighting to free the negroes we are fighting for the union and free navigation of the Mississippi river very well let the white fight for what the want and we negroes fight for what we want there are three things to fight for and two races of people divided into three Classes one wants negro Slaves the other the union the other Liberty So liberty must take the day nothing Shorter we are the Blackest and the bravest race the president Says there is a wide Difference Between the black Race and the white race But we Say that white corn and yellow will mix by the taussels but the black and white Race must mix by the roots as the are so well mixed and has no tausels — freedom and liberty is the word with the Collered people
We the people of the united States in order to form a more perfect union Establish justice insure domestick tranquillity provide for the common defence promote the general wellfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the united States of America
My Dear union masters and reble masters or friends How are we Slave Population to take hold of a musket under white officers which a great part of them has been in the reble army and the meet to hold a war Consels all to them Selves Dear Sir I heard a federal officer Say after the fall of Port hudson to a Collored Soldier we will not want any more negro Soldiers go home to your master i my Self went to a union lawyer on Some Buiness the first question are you free or Slave Before the fall of porthudson the white Preachers told us we were all free as any white man and in Less time than a month after you weare taking us up and puting in the lockups and Cotton presses giving us nothing to eat nor nothing Sleep on And haveing negro traders for recruting officers Drawing his Sword over us like we were dogs By those means you will Soon have the union north if any union man can deny this i will write no more i am for the union and liberty to all men or nothing Shorter treason against the united States Shall consist only in Levying ware against them or in adhering to theire enemies giving them aid and Comfort no person Shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimoney of two witnesses to the Same overt Act or Confession in open Court the Congress Shall Have power to declare punishment of treason but no attainder of treason Shall work Corruption of blood or forfeiture Except during the life of the person attained
Now let us see whether the Colored population will be turn back in to Slavery and the union lost or not on the 4” of last July it was Said to the colored population that the were all free and on the 4” of August locked up in Cotton presses like Horses or hogs By reble watchmen and Saying to us Gen banks Says you are All free why do you not go to him and get passes And one half of the recruiting officers is rebles taken the oath to get a living and would Sink the Government into ashes the Scrptures says the enemy must Suffer death before we can Have peace the fall of porthudson and vicksburg is nothing the rebles must fall or the union must fall Sure the Southern men Says the are not fighting for money the are fighting for negros the northern men Say the did not com South to free the negroes but to Save the union very well for that much what is the colored men fighting for if the makes us free we are happy to hear it And when we are free men and a people we will fight for our rights and liberty we care nothing about the union we heave been in it Slaves over two hundred And fifty years we have made the contry and So far Saved the union and if we heave to fight for our rights let us fight under Colored officers for we are the men that will kill the Enemies of the Government pleas let me continue
Art 173 [of Louisiana law] the Slave is entirely Subject to the will of his master Who may Correct and Chastise him though not with unusal Rigor nor So as to maim or mutilate him or to expose him to the danger of loss of life or to cause his death
Art 174 the Slave is incapable of making any kind of Contract Except those which relate to own emancipation
Art 175 All that a Slave possesses belongs to his master he Possesses nothing of his own excep his peculium that is to Say the Sum of money or movable estate which his master chooses He Should possess
Art 176 the can transmit nothing by Succession or otherwise but the Succession of free persons related to them which the would have Inherited had the been free may pass through them to such of their descendants as may have acquired their liberty before the Succession opened
A part of the Civil Code of louisiana the united States Shall guarantee to every State in this union a republican form of government and Shall protect each of them a gainst invaison and on Aplication of the legislature. or of the executive when the legislature. can not be convened against Domestic violence
now is the united states government and constitution free or a local Goverment if it is free let us colored population muster in to ams and garison forts guard Station and mand vessels and then we will know wheather we are free people or not then we will know wheather you want to make brest works of us or not or make us fools ornot I heard one of most Ables and distingush lawiers Say that the Colored population was all free and Had as much liberty in the union as he had in four or five days after I went to him to get him to atend Some buiness for me he Said to me Are you free or Slave Sir Said i am free By your own speeches was you born free no Sir Said i we have been made fools of from the time Butlers fleet landed hear but I have remained At my old Stand and will untill i See what i am dowing I know very well that the white union men cannot put down the rebeles for them that was not rebles Soon will be
i am Sory that I am not able to write good may the union forever Stand with peace and liberty to All good people
A Colored man
the president Shall be commander in chief of the Army and navy of the united States and of the miltia of the Several States when called Into actual Service of the united States
when the president ordered three hundred thousand Colored Soldiers to be mustered into the united States Army on the first Day of last April if So the rebles would have fell like the Surrender of vicksburg and porthudson.
Declare freedom at onc and give us Somting to fight for Black Soldiers Black officers and all white rebles will Soon run them in or out of the union
the writer was born in 18.18 feb 16”
one of the union Colored friends
From “Statements of a Colored Man [September 1863],” in Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867, Series 2, The Black Military Experience, eds. Ira Berlin, Joseph Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 153–57.
Questions for Reading and Discussion