Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865 (49 page)

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Authors: Midori Takagi

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BOOK: Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865
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Page 142
Abernathy of the Mississippi Volunteers until the battalion went north, close to the enemy's camps. When the battalion picked up to move on, Caeser was nowhere to be found.
82
Wartime regulations not only failed to stem runaways, they also could not prevent activities that were seditious and even treasonous to the Confederate cause. One slave Richmonder, Allen, appears to have been unconcerned about the laws when he shouted in the streets that "Jefferson Davis [was] a rebel," and "no white man should be [my] master."
83
Another report indicates that groups of slave women openly taunted their mistresses by telling them that with the Federal victory at hand, "they will soon change conditions with them, and play upon pianos, and be ladies, while their mistresses will be compelled to cook and scrub.''
84
A more subtle commentary about the Confederate cause made by slave Richmonders occurred on the morning of President Davis's inauguration. As Mrs. Davis rode in her carriage alone to the Capitol for the ceremony, "four sedate Negroes in white gloves" suddenly appeared alongside and accompanied the procession as if they were pallbearers. Alarmed, Mrs. Davis asked the driver what was going on. "`This ma'am,' he said, `is the way we always does in Richmond for funeral and sich-like'"
85
Some slaves took even greater risks: two slave workers in the Confederate army helped lead deserters "through the military lines to the enemy." Their activities became known when General Robert E. Lee's unit caught them in the act. Lee was horrified at the lack of loyalty the deserters and bondmen displayed. Clearly this act was illegal, but was it not an act of treason as well, General Lee and Governor Letcher asked the Virginia attorney general. After some thought John Randolph Tucker replied, "I am of opinion [it] may be." But Confederate law required more than Tucker's opinion; according to the various ordinances, two witnesses were required to prove the slaves committed an act of treason. As a result, the two bondmen escaped death.
86
More damaging to the Confederate cause were the acts of treason that went undiscovered, such as spying and smuggling information. Documents produced after the war suggest a number of slave residents assisted Union troops by spying on Confederate officials. Elizabeth Van Lew, a local informant to General Benjamin F. Butler, apparently hired out several slave servants in Confederate president Jefferson Davis's home as spies. According to an article in the
Richmond Evening Journal,
"She [Van Lew] spied upon the Confederacy and all of its agents, both civil and military, installing her deputies in the household of President Davis as servants, and through them acquainting herself with his Cabinet conferences. The information thus obtained was put into cipher, and,
 
Page 143
concealed between an outer and inner sole of his shoe, was smuggled through the lines by a negro."
87
Perhaps the greatest blow to Confederate efforts to control the slave population, and the greatest testimony to the weakness of the earlier restrictions, was President Davis's proposal to save the Confederacy: to recruit and arm slave and free black residents. In return for their loyal service, Davis proposed, slaves would be given their freedom, a goal "which is so marked a characteristic of the negro." Davis further added that such a reward would provide a "double motive for a zealous discharge of duty."
88
In this 1864 address to the Confederate Congress, Davis made two issues clear: the future of the Confederacy and of slavery was tenuous, and the labor and loyalty of slave residents needed to be secured through methods other than coercion.
By late 1864 Davis saw no other recourse. The number of slave runaways from plantations, the war industries, and public defense work was steadily rising. During the previous year nearly every county in Virginia had reported high losses in slave labor.
89
In addition to losing laborers, Confederate ranks were rapidly thinning, and without fresh recruits, the cause was doomed. Replacements from the white population, however, were not forthcoming; fewer and fewer men heeded the call for volunteers. In response to Davis's call for the elderly and the young to defend the Confederacy, officials such as Governor Brown of Georgia refused to comply and called the policy "usurping and despotic."
90
The combination of these factors made recruiting slaves the only choice.
The proposal to arm slaves met with fierce resistance from the Confederate cabinet and Congress. The loudest arguments quickly highlighted the contradictions inherent in such an act. "If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong," Major General Howell Cobb wrote to Secretary of War James A. Seddon.
91
John Moncure Daniel, editor of the
Examiner,
reminded the president that rewarding slaves with their freedom was an abolitionist idea and that black residents were best off left as slaves.
92
The debate raged for months; but as the Confederacy suffered more political and military defeats, resistance softened. The deciding factor came when General Lee threw his support behind the measure. With the army now supporting slave recruitment, public opinion quickly changed.
93
In the spring of 1865, the Virginia General Assembly responded and set up the proper agencies to recruit slave and free black residents. According to the March 13 act, it was now legal for black residents to be "organized as soldiers . . . for the public defense during the present war . . . to bear arms . . . and carry ammunition as other soldiers in the army."
94
Although the Virginia act did not guarantee freedom to those
 
Page 144
who volunteered (a concession to the dissenters), there was little doubt in the minds of the Confederate Congress, President Davis, and a good number of Richmond residents black and white that service in the military would be rewarded with freedom papers.
95
Even before the act had been passed, officials such as Secretary of State Benjamin were prepared to tell black Richmonders, "Go and fight you are free!"
96
Enough slave and free black Richmonders joined the Confederate army to create two companies. No doubt a few slave recruits saw that they had nothing to lose; if the Union army won, they would be free, and if the Confederacy won, they would be free. Sallie Putnam, who was living in Richmond during the war, described the atmosphere: "Recruiting offices were opened in Richmond, and soon a goodly number of sable patriots appeared on the streets, clad in the grey uniform of the Confederate soldier. Their dress-parades on the Capitol Square attracted large crowds of all colors to witness them, and infused a spirit of enthusiasm among those of their own race."
97
The sight of black troops former slaves dressed in the familiar gray uniform, marching in unison, and drilling with guns in the capital probably did not delight white residents and slave owners as much as it did black residents.
At any rate, these new Richmond recruits did not get a chance to prove themselves, nor did they have to earn their freedom. In fact, they never got to see a battle because just as they were ready to take their positions on the field, the war ended. On Sunday morning April 2 while President Davis sat at St. Paul's Church deep in prayer, he was suddenly called to attend a meeting. After a little while other government officials who were also sitting in the pews were called away. The handwriting was on the wall: General Grant's army was on its way, "on to Richmond." The next twenty-four hours were filled with confusion, terror, and then massive, uncontrolled fires. The city council quickly met and decreed that all spirits and liquor be destroyed. Simultaneously, a military order was passed to burn the major tobacco warehouses and the arsenal. Explosions accompanied the fleeing soldiers and government officials who filled the last trains pulling out of the city. On the morning of April 4, as the fires continued to rage and starving city residents helped themselves to the food supplies abandoned by the Confederate army, the first of the Federal troops arrived with official confirmation of what most Richmonders, black and white, already knew: slavery was finally over.
98
 
Page 145
Epilogue
When the Union troops entered Richmond, they found a city burning on both sides of the main boulevards and the "air . . . filled with sparks, mingled in places with exploding shells from the rebel ordnance stores." But the dangers presented by the fire and explosions did not keep hundreds of black Richmonders from shouting and dancing in the streets while welcoming the Federal soldiers with gifts of tobacco.
1
This was a day never to be forgotten in Richmond history, and one that was to become an important holiday within the newly freed black community. To underscore the importance of that day, black Richmonders celebrated the first anniversary of their freedom with a parade and rally. One newspaper described the festivities this way:
An immense cavalcade of black horsemen led the van, preceded by a dusky son of Ham tooting on a worn-out bugle . . . then came a Patriarch with a stick, with a gourd on the top of it, all covered over with ribands; this individual was decorated in an apron of black and gold, and a gold stripe down his legs . . . . after the band there march a long string of unsentimental, unbleached, some with aprons, some with rosettes, and some with sashes. There were two banners in the line, one of which, composed of silk and bullion, was of commendable appearance; the other seemed to be but a piece of white domestic streaked all over with red letters. . . .
 
Page 146
[The parade] finally climaxed with a parcel of field hands in jeans walking in squads, without commander, uniform, or decorum.
2
Two thousand black residents participated in the parade and were later joined by an additional fifteen thousand observers when the group reached the Capitol. Although the parade may have seemed a bit ragtag as the newspaper disparagingly noted in comparison to the Confederate military parades of earlier years, the event held great significance for black Richmonders and no doubt instilled in them a great deal of pride. Each sash, scarf, and stripe reflected the strength and hard work of the ex-slaves in their transition from slavery to freedom. As historian Peter Rachleff notes, these were no ordinary garments but the "ceremonial garb" and "symbols" of the secret societies of which each marcher was a member.
3
These societies included the Union Liberties Protective Society, the Humble Christian Benevolents of the Chesterfield Coal Pits, and possibly the Stevedores' Society, and the Independent Order of the Messiah.
Although many, if not most, of these societies did not form until the months following the end of the war, they played a huge role in helping the recently freed black city residents fight for their rights, find jobs, increase wages, improve working conditions, and accumulate funds. Their appearance probably seemed sudden to Richmonders of that time. But within the larger context of black Richmond history particularly in the antebellum era the emergence of these societies after the war was a natural continuation of events during slavery. The societies were possible because of the political and financial skills that urban slave men and women developed through living and working in the city. These new organizations were merely the latest outgrowth of community efforts that had helped Richmond slaves build an independent church, negotiate contracts and working conditions, petition for, purchase, or "steal" their freedom, provide for their families, develop political alliances, and maintain their humanity and dignity in the face of bondage. Not surprisingly, the black residents who led these organizations had been respected members of the slave community and were prized for their artisanal skills, their power within the church, and their financial success.
In this brief work I have tried to sketch an image of slavery in Richmond that conveys the struggles that urban slaves faced, the strengths they drew upon, and their steady growth as a community. Although it will never be possible to fully understand the lives of enslaved black Richmonders, I have tried to balance the presentation of historical events with human stories: the anger and misery of Michael Valentine

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