Been in the Storm So Long (128 page)

12.
WPA,
Negro in Virginia
, 266.

13.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, XVII: Fla. Narr., 103. See also XIV: N.C. Narr. (Part 1), 97–98. For a description of a plantation near Huntsville, Alabama, where both slaves and the master disclaimed any knowledge of emancipation, see Franklin (ed.),
Diary of James T. Ayers
, 26–29. The Emancipation Proclamation, formally declared on January 1, 1863, applied only to those states (or portions thereof) “this day in rebellion against the United States.” The loyal border slave states (Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware) and Tennessee were thereby excluded from its provisions, along with thirteen Federal-occupied parishes in Louisiana (including New Orleans), forty-eight counties in West Virginia, and seven counties in Virginia which were “for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.” Wherever Union troops were in command, however, slaves generally assumed they were free.

14.
Grace B. Elmore, Ms. Diary, entry for March 4, 1865, Univ. of North Carolina;
New York Times
, Dec. 30, 1861;
Christian Recorder
, May 6, 1865.

15.
New York Times
, June 2, 1863; Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, II: S. C. Narr. (Part 2), 329–30; Jones (ed.),
When Sherman Came
, 235–36.

16.
“Look to the Future,”
Louisiana Democrat
(Alexandria), June 3, 1863, quoted in Whittington (ed.), “Concerning the Loyalty of Slaves in North Louisiana in 1863,” 489–90.

17.
Whittington (ed.), “Concerning the Loyalty of Slaves in North Louisiana in 1863,” 494, 500, 501; Rainwater (ed.), “Letters of James Lusk Alcorn,” 201, 202.

18.
New York Times
, April 14, 1864.

19.
Jervey and Ravenel,
Two Diaries
, 41; Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, XIV: N.C. Narr. (Part 1), 97; Blassingame (ed.),
Slave Testimony
, 541; Scarborough,
The Overseer
, 149. See also Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, XV: N.C. Narr. (Part 2), 310–11.

20.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, VII: Okla. Narr., 95–96.

21.
Ibid
, XII: Ga. Narr. (Part 1), 248. See also VI: Ala. Narr., 225.

22.
Ibid.
, XVII: Fla. Narr., 103; VII: Miss. Narr., 81; XIII: Ga. Narr. (Part 3), 64. See also III: S.C. Narr. (Part 3), 136; V: Texas Narr. (Part 3), 204; WPA,
Negro in Virginia
, 208.

23.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, XII: Ga. Narr. (Part 1), 262. See also VI: Ala. Narr., 239–40.

24.
New York Times
, March 30, April 4, 1865;
New York Tribune
, April 4, 1865; Williamson,
After Slavery
, 47–48. For other post-emancipation celebrations, see
New York Times
, Jan. 3, 1864 (Norfolk), Jan. 23 and Aug. 1 (Savannah), July 12 (Louisville), 14 (Raleigh), 1865;
New York Tribune
, Jan. 13 (Key West), July 8 (Mobile), 12 (Raleigh and Columbia), 1865.

25.
Rollin,
Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany
, 193–95; Williamson,
After Slavery
, 43–49.

26.
Chesnut,
Diary from Dixie
, 520–21; Trowbridge,
The South
, 291; Andrews,
War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl
, 308. For similar reactions, see D. E. H. Smith (ed.),
Mason Smith Family Letters
, 232; LeConte,
When the World Ended
, 85–86.

27.
Myers (ed.),
Children of Pride
, 1273–74.

28.
Smedes,
Memorials of a Southern Planter
, 216–17; Ella Gertrude (Clanton)
Thomas, Ms. Journal, entry for May 8, 1865, Duke Univ.; Williamson,
After Slavery
, 34.

29.
Avary,
Dixie after the War
, 152; Haviland,
A Woman’s Life-Work
, 256; Burge,
Diary
, 112–113.

30.
Grace B. Elmore, Ms. Diary, entry for May 24, 30, 1865, Univ. of North Carolina; Emma E. Holmes, Ms. Diary, entry for End of May, June 15, Aug. 25, 1865, Univ. of South Carolina.

31.
Ravenel,
Private Journal
, 231, 232, 238, 239–40.

32.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, V: Texas Narr. (Part 4), 133; Williamson,
After Slavery
, 33.

33.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, XII: Ga. Narr. (Part 2), 326; IV: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 264, (Part 2), 168.

34.
Ibid.
, IX: Ark. Narr. (Part 3), 115, 29; VII: Okla. Narr., 114; V: Texas Narr. (Part 4), 22; Macrae,
Americans at Home
, 211.

35.
Mrs. Laura E. Buttolph to Mrs. Mary Jones, June 30, 1865, in Myers (ed.)
Children of Pride
, 1279. See also Burge,
Diary
, 113.

36.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, VIII: Ark. Narr. (Part 2), 128; XIII: Ga. Narr. (Part 4), 348–49. See also XII: Ga. Narr. (Part 2), 133; XIV: N.C. Narr. (Part 1), 60.

37.
Col. J. L. Haynes to Capt. B. F. Henry, July 8, 1865, Records of the Assistant Commissioners, Mississippi (Letters Received), Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (hereafter cited as Freedmen’s Bureau), National Archives, Washington, D.C. See also Wharton,
Negro in Mississippi
, 48, and Joe M. Richardson,
The Negro in the Reconstruction of Florida, 1866–1877
(Tallahassee, 1965), 13–14.

38.
39 Cong., 1 Sess., House Exec. Doc. 70,
Freedmen’s Bureau
(Washington, D.C., 1866), 9–10, 99, 154. For recollections of such meetings by ex-slaves, see Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, III: S.C. Narr. (Part 3), 178; VIII: Ark. Narr. (Part 1), 37–38; XIII: Ga. Narr. (Part 4), 34.

39.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, IV and V: Texas Narr. (Part 2), 45–46, (Part 3), 70; Ravenel,
Private Journal
, 213–14.

40.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, II: S.C Narr. (Part 1), 225; Macrae,
Americans at Home
, 209;
Black Republican
, April 29, 1865;
Christian Recorder
, Aug. 19, 1865. See also
Christian Recorder
, July 1, 1865; Dennett,
The South As It Is
, 26; Perdue et al. (eds.),
Weevils in the Wheat
, 94; Wharton,
Negro in Mississippi
, 47; Williamson,
After Slavery
, 33.

41.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, IV and V: Texas Narr. (Part 2), 179, (Part 3), 12, 78. For similar recollections, see IV: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 115, 164, (Part 2), 8, 248; VIII and IX: Ark. Narr. (Part 1), 334, (Part 3), 156. For the concern of Federal officials, see 39 Cong., 1 Sess.,
Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction
, Part IV, 37; House Exec. Doc. 70,
Freedmen’s Bureau
, 146; Senate Exec. Doc. 27,
Reports of the Assistant Commissioners of the Freedmen’s Bureau made since December 1, 1865
(Washington, D.C., 1866), 83.

42.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, VII: Okla. Narr., 293–94; E. Merton Coulter, “Slavery and Freedom in Athens, Georgia, 1860–66,” in Miller and Genovese (eds.),
Plantation, Town, and County
, 361;
Christian Recorder
, Aug. 19, 1865, Jan. 20, 1866; Dennett,
The South As It Is
, 121–22.

43.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, XIV: N.C. Narr. (Part 1), 60.

44.
WPA,
Negro in Virginia
, 209.

45.
Kathryn L. Morgan, “Caddy Buffers: Legends of a Middle Class Negro Family in Philadelphia,”
Keystone Folklore Quarterly
, XI (Summer 1966), 75.

46.
Washington,
Up from Slavery
, 20; Rawick (ed.),
American Slave, TV
and V: Texas Narr. (Part 2), 78, (Part 4), 82; XIII: Ga. Narr. (Part 3), 256, 85.

47.
Ibid.
, VII: Okla. Narr., 282; XVI: Tenn. Narr., 15.

48.
Ibid.
, III: S.C. Narr. (Part 4), 119; V: Texas Narr. (Part 4), 138; Blassingame (ed.),
Slave Testimony
, 586. Nearly all of the ex-slaves interviewed by the WPA had a vivid and often detailed recollection of the master’s announcement of freedom. See, e.g., Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, IV and V: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 82, 161–62, 208, (Part 2), 78, 199, (Part 3), 33, 36, 216, 234, (Part 4), 60, 124; VII: Okla. Narr., 150–51, 169; X: Ark. Narr. (Part 5), 18, (Part 6), 27; XII: Ga. Narr. (Part 1), 111; XV: N.C. Narr. (Part 2), 85–86; XVI: Tenn. Narr., 15.

49.
Ibid.
, IV and V: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 208, (Part 2), 78, (Part 3), 33; Francis W.
Dawson to [Joseph A. Reeks], June 13, 1865, F. W. Dawson Papers, Duke Univ.

50.
Ravenel,
Private Journal
, 219;
New Orleans Picayune
, as reprinted in
Semi-Weekly Louisianian
(New Orleans), June 18, 1871;
Loyal Georgian
(Augusta), March 17, 1866. See also Burge,
Diary
, 98.

51.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, VII: Okla. Narr., 299; IV: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 255; XIII: Ga. Narr. (Part 3), 256; VI: Ala. Narr., 41. See also XIV: N.C. Narr. (Part 1), 280–81.

52.
Ibid
., IV and V: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 122, (Part 3), 66; XV: N.C. Narr. (Part 2), 85–86.

53.
Ibid.
, VIII: Ark. Narr. (Part 2), 14; IV and V: Texas Narr. (Part 2), 139, (Part 3), 192. See also II: S.C. Narr. (Part 1), 314; IV: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 110, 167; XII: Ga. Narr. (Part 1), 102; XVI: Ky. Narr., 108.

54.
Ravenel,
Private Journal
, 240; Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, VIII: Ark. Narr. (Part 2), 186; V: Texas Narr. (Part 3), 228. See also IV: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 71, 162; VIII: Ark. Narr. (Part 1), 349; XII: Ga. Narr. (Part 2), 236; Evans,
Ballots and Fence Rails
, 74–75; 39 Cong., 1 Sess.,
Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction
, Part II, 226; John William De Forest,
A Union Officer in the Reconstruction
(eds. James H. Croushore and David M. Potter; New Haven, 1948), 112–13; Perdue et al (eds.),
Weevils in the Wheat
, 3–4.

55.
Avary,
Dixie after the War
, 183–85.

56.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, XVII: Fla. Narr., 130.

57.
Ibid
., IV: Texas Narr. (Part 2), 6–8; XI: Mo. Narr., 313–16; III: S. C. Narr. (Part 3), 278; XII: Ga. Narr. (Part 2), 278. See also XVIII: Unwritten History, 62, and IV: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 142.

58.
Perdue et al. (eds.),
Weevils in the Wheat
, 294; Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, IV and V: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 52, (Part 3), 53, 261; X: Ark. Narr. (Part 6), 27A. See also XVI: Tenn. Narr., 15, and Botume,
First Days Amongst the Contrabands
, 59.

59.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, VII: Okla. Narr., 283; Heyward,
Seed from Madagascar
, 141.

60.
Josiah Gorgas, Ms. Journal, entry for June 15, 1865, Univ. of North Carolina.

61.
Genovese,
Roll, Jordan, Roll
, 79, 103;
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
, 48; Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, IV: Texas Narr. (Part 1), 296.

62.
Avary,
Dixie after the War
, 181; Chamberlain,
Old Days in Chapel Hill
, 130; A. A. Taylor,
The Negro in the Reconstruction of Virginia
(Washington, D.C., 1926), 73; Sidney Andrews,
The South since the War: As Shown by Fourteen Weeks of Travel and Observation in Georgia and the Carolinas
(Boston, 1866), 25; Emma E. Holmes, Ms. Diary, entry for June 15, 1865, Univ. of South Carolina; Myers (ed.),
Children of Pride
, 1278.

63.
Chesnut,
Diary from Dixie
, 532, 529. For the attempts of former slaveholding families to perform the house labor themselves, see below, Chapter 7.

64.
Trowbridge,
The South
, 187; Elias Horry Deas to Anne Deas, July 15, 1865, Deas Papers, Univ. of South Carolina.

65.
Myers (ed.),
Children of Pride
, 1294, 1296; Charles S. Johnson,
Shadow of the Plantation
(Chicago, 1934), 131; Trowbridge,
The South
, 155–56.

66.
Elias Horry Deas to Anne Deas, Aug. 12, 1865, Deas Papers, Univ. of South Carolina; Edward Lynch to Joseph Glover [c. June 1865], Glover-North Papers, Univ. of South Carolina.

67.
Botume,
First Days Amongst the Contrabands
, 233. For white families who preferred to retain their former slaves, see, e.g., Myers (ed.),
Children of Pride
, 1323;
Colored Tennessean
(Nashville), Oct. 14, 1865; WPA,
Negro in Virginia
, 221.

68.
New York Tribune
, Dec. 8, 1865; Edward Lynch to Joseph Glover [c. June 1865], Univ. of South Carolina. For a discussion of the insurrection panic of 1865, see below, Chapter 8.

69.
Higginson,
Army Life in a Black Regiment
, 249–50.

70.
Towne,
Letters and Diary
, 34–35; Nordhoff,
Freedmen of South Carolina
, 7.

71.
Eaton,
Grant, Lincoln, and the Freedmen
, 35; Ella Gertrude (Clanton) Thomas, Ms. Journal, entry for May 17, 1865, Duke Univ.; Colored People to the Governor of Mississippi, Dec. 3, 1865, Petition of the Freedmen of Claiborne County, Miss., filed in the Records of the Assistant Commissioners, Mississippi (Letters Received), Freedmen’s Bureau; Elizabeth
Keckley,
Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House
(New York, 1868), 73–74.

72.
Rawick (ed.),
American Slave
, II: S.C. Narr. (Part 1), 69; Edward Lynch to Joseph Glover [c. June 1865], Univ. of South Carolina; Spencer,
Last Ninety Days of the War in North Carolina
, 187; Chamberlain,
Old Days in Chapel Hill
, 123.