Chapter 4 No Moses to Lead It

 "The arrival among us of these hordes was like the oncoming of cities. There was no plan in this exodus, no Moses to lead it." "A blind terror stung them, and equally blind hope allured them, and to us they came." "[A] slave population…forsaking…the old plantation life, coming garbed in rags or in silks, with feet shod or bleeding, individually or in families and larger groups." "Often the slaves met prejudices against their color more bitter than any they had left behind." Chaplain John Eaton was describing the conditions of the formerly enslaved who made their way to the area around Grand Junction and La Grange, TN before Nov of 1862. Can you imagine how chaotic it must have been? Men women and children, many of them only half clothed -- sharing diseases with each other and with the troops they encountered. The situation was made worse for both groups because in the meantime Grant’s Army of the Tennessee occupied Memphis (next time, I promise) and had advanced into Holly Springs (where Ida Wells was only 4 months old) and he was closing in on Oxford. This expansion of operations drew even more enslaved Americans whose main intention beyond freedom, was to not go back to the old plantation system. To meet this challenge Grant appointed John Eaton to “take charge of the contrabands that come into camp in the vicinity of the post, organizing them into suitable companies for working, see that they are properly cared for, and set them to work picking, ginning and baling all cotton now out and ungathered in field.” Grant was HQ’d in La Grange and the main brigade was in Grand Junction. An ideal spot for the camps because of the RR and all the abandoned cotton and corn fields in that portion of W TN. There were three camps that I know of: Camp Shiloh, Camp Fiske, and Camp Dixie. The good news is that with the camps there was work for the women and children, cuz while they couldn’t do most of the work involved with the military camps, they could pick and gin cotton. The women could serve as laundresses, cooks, and nurses in the makeshift hospitals Eaton set up. But, do you remember when we talked about how the enslaved raided their enslavers’ houses and barns? Well, they didn’t get to keep all that. Most of the animals and wagons were confiscated and put to military use, the rest, including the farm tools were used “for the benefit” of the contrabands. As for the nature of the pay, they were given clothes and standard rations if available; and they earned 12½ cents per pound of cotton picked or ginned, and the only number I have for other jobs is fifty cents a day. Fair enough I guess, but the money wasn’t paid directly to them. It was: “expended judiciously for their benefit” in the form of food clothing and supplies. To make matters worse, Eaton experienced resistance from both Officers and Enlisted men. Eaton commented that he was lucky to find one man in a thousand willing to work in the camps, to do so drew hostility from the other soldiers. From the start, Gen Grant had to issue special orders that commanders would indeed cooperate with Chaplain Eaton. The existing buildings in and around Grand Junction were used as hospitals and lunchrooms and, to house as many of the contrabands as possible, but there weren’t nearly enough. It wasn’t long before the contrabands, by their own hands, replaced many of the makeshift tents and shacks with log cabins and frame houses. And still they were looked upon as stupid, lazy and as if they were somehow less than human. Never mind that, with the aid of the American Missionary Association, they held services under brush arbor churches, and organized congregations. And, as you might already assume they organized and eagerly attended the makeshift schools, the most notable is Lincoln Chapel which was started by Miss Lucinda Humphery of the AMA in Camp Shiloh. Unfortunately, this is all I know about Miss Humphery, but isn’t it extraordinary that she and her students lit candles to learn by, and their little light has grown into the beacon we call, Le Moyne-Owen College? Why do you think the hard work and eagerness to learn demonstrated by the formerly enslaved was not enough to change the racist attitudes of their Union protectors? Do you see any patterns emerging that persist even today? What are some signs of Hope contained in the narrative so far? And as always: Keep me honest. Point out my mistakes. Ask me the hard questions. Thank you again, remember the PC and see you in Memphis next time. Keep me Honest.

Chapter 3 Exodus

 Today we return to Fort Donelson and to the 200 enslaved Americans who remained there after Gen Buckner’s unconditional surrender. We know, from Chapter 2 that these men were considered property under the first Confiscation Act of 1861, and the question of what to do with them was easily answered. Gen Grant didn’t waste any time putting them to work improving the defenses of the fort and the surrounding area.

Simple enough, but here’s another question we still haven’t addressed: Why did they stay? Why didn’t they, like a number of others, follow Lt Col Forrest out of the fort when they had the chance? And, come to think about it, a better question might be: Why did some of the enslaved Americans choose to follow their enslavers? Usually Historians avoid answering these types of open ended questions, because there isn’t one good answer. It is however, useful to explore this question, even if all we end up with is more questions. • How many of those men had to worry about what would happen to their families if they didn’t stay with the Confederates and eventually return to their enslavers? • How many saw an opportunity to go look for family members and other loved ones who had been sold away? • How many decided that their best bet was to just head north until they got to a free state? • How many chose to return to their enslavers on the promise that they would be freed after the war, if they served faithfully? We’re just getting started, and Freedom’s march is already getting complicated, and we haven’t even started talking about the millions of enslaved Americans who did not fit the legal definition of Contraband, property used to aid the Confederate forces. Over the next few months, as the Union Army moved southward toward the important railroad city of Corinth, MS, a pattern that would persist for the next three years emerged. The white people who lived in the affected areas would evacuate to the South, and leave the enslaved people behind. The enslaved people left the life they knew. Young and old, men women and children; only a trickle at first, the healthy and the sick, THEY came in greater numbers, especially after President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September. THEY came out of Middle and West Tennessee. THEY came out of North Mississippi. THEY came from as far away as Decatur Alabama. Those who could, raided their enslavers’ manor houses, kitchens, and barns, and loaded up wagons and pack animals, most escaped the slave quarters with little more than the clothes on their backs; ignoring the danger and the harsh penalties of recapture. They only knew, just knew, their best hope of any lasting freedom lay behind Union lines. The question of what to do with this mass exodus of enslaved remained, what to do with them but evolved into a question of what to do for them. Next time, we’re going to talk about Chaplain John Eaton and the contraband camps he established. Questions: • Why is it important to emphasize that it was the enslaved Americans who left their enslaver, rather than the idea that it was the Union Army who freed them? • What part did the Union Army play in the emancipation of the enslaved Americans discussed in this and the previous video? Challenge: Fact check me. Help keep me honest.

Chapter 2 Slow Road To Freedom

We’re going to leave those 200 enslaved Americans stranded at Fort Donelson for just a little while, so we can gain some insight into the questions we left hanging: Who were the enslaved Americans left at Fort Donelson? Why did they stay? What was their legal status? What do they have to do with freedom in Memphis? To help answer those questions, we’re going back in time to April of 1861, to a place called Fortress Monroe, VA. In May of 1861, about six weeks after the war began, Fortress Monroe was commanded by Gen Benjamin Butler. He was more lawyer and politician than he was a soldier, and he was a pro-slavery Northern Democrat. These ironic and perhaps conflicting qualities, made him (IMHO) an effective garrison commander. The story goes, as Butler was about the business of exerting his authority in and around the small town of Hampton just outside of the fortress, three enslaved Americans; Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory, showed up at one of the Union camps outside the fortress to turn themselves over to the US government. Their enslaver, one Col Charles King Mallory (notice anything about the last names?) sent a representative to Butler to reclaim his “property.” His claim was based on the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Long story short, Butler said (and I’m paraphrasing); No…because first of all you claim that Virginia is no longer a member of the Union, so that law doesn’t apply. Secondly, you are using these men to aid the Confederacy. That makes them “Contraband of War.” Now, go away. By the end of July, three contrabands had grown to over 900, mostly put work maintaining the fortress and surrounding camps. In addition, these so called contrabands began to develop their own villages, complete with houses, small farms and even small businesses, and the trend was not confined to Fortress Monroe, Port Royal for example. It wasn’t until August of 1861 that Congress passed and Lincoln signed the First Confiscation Act, which authorized the military to seize Confederate property used for the purposes of war. Two points concerning that are important to remember: • The contrabands were considered “property under the protection of the U S Military.” • The act only applied to enslaved Americans who were employed by the Confederate military Bigger Picture During the first year of the war, President Abraham Lincoln was reluctant to make slavery, much less emancipation, a war issue. He resisted the practice of relieving the Confederacy of their human property, and insisted that the sole aim of the war was to preserve the Union. Even as late as August of 1862 (after he revealed an early draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet) Lincoln refused to definitively admit that abolition in the South should be a primary aim of the war. In a letter to Horace Greeley, he wrote: "If I could save the union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." In the face of Lincoln’s equivocations and reluctance the Northern Black journalists, Frederick Douglass being the most prominent among them, took issue with his reluctance. Douglass wrote: "We wage war against slaveholding rebels and yet protect…the motive… We strike at the effect, and leave the cause unharmed." But for all the rhetoric and heated debate, it was the enslaved Americans themselves that made slavery and abolition a key issue of the war. THEY left their enslavers, and flocked to the Union lines up and down the East Coast. They formed communities, and brought in the crops for their own good. And it was THEY who made the Northern politicians and the Union military commanders take notice of both the challenges and opportunities THEY represented. With that, I throw the questions back to you: • Who were the enslaved Americans left at Fort Donelson? • Why did they stay? • What was their legal status? • What do they have to do with freedom in Memphis?

Chapter 1 Fort Donelson

#Juneteenthallyear, By the beginning of 1862, most of the war had been fought in the East, and the United States Army had yet to win a major battle. That changed in February of 1862 when General Halleck sent Gen Grant and Admiral Foote into West Tennessee to take the two forts protecting Nashville; Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. The decision to go into West Tennessee was part of the Union strategy to cut the Confederacy in half. Their main goal in this effort was control of the Mississippi River. Fort Henry was the easy part. Fort Donelson was a different matter, but after three days and an impressive escape by then Lt Col N B Forrest his cavalry battalion, the Confederate forces surrendered unconditionally, and about 13,000 Confederate soldiers were paroled and sent home. After the dust had settled there was a small group of about 200 enslaved Americans left behind. These 200 men represent the first link in a chain of events that would change Memphis forever. Over the next few videos we will address some questions posed by the presence of these 200 enslaved Americans.

Audition

#Juneteenthallyear

Everyone talks and writes about the need to teach History differently, but few of us do anything about it. Here, in the state of Tennessee, teachers are permitted to teach History as the school systems see fit, but there’s a caveat. If a student is uncomfortable with the curriculum, all they have to do is tell someone, and the State can defund the school or the entire school system. So, without actually outlawing the practice of teaching an honest history, the State has taken definite steps to keep it out of our schools.

(I wonder what would happen if a student reported his or her discomfort over the lack of discussions on race)

My question is this: Why does school have to be the only place where History is taught? The obvious answer is, it doesn’t, so I don’t teach it in school.

Here is a pre-test

Fill in the blanks:

__________ History

A. American

B. World

C. Ancient

D. Black

E. All of the above and then some

History of ________

A. Science

B. Mathematics

C. Economics

D. History

E. All of the above and then some

So, what should we teach? Should we teach what we’re told to teach, or should we teach what we’re told not to teach?

We should teach what we need to teach in order to foster a better understanding of here-we-are-now. Unfortunately, that’s what we’re warned not to teach.

Am I talking about Black History? American History? Reconstruction History? Confederate History? Southern History? Civil Rights History? Memphis History? The History of Racism? The History of Freedom?

All of the above and then some.

Juneteenth: An Honest History of Freedom In Memphis is my effort to educate Memphians and all Americans on the truth of what happened, and what is happening at the ever shifting lines between Black and White.

It is time for us, Memphians and all Americans (all of US) to own and embrace our past regardless of the emotional discomfort that will necessarily entail. Honest History will make us sad, it will frustrate us; we are going to be angry. The trick is to not get mad at each other. Anger is a motivational emotion; madness is a response we need to avoid.

As I understand Juneteenth, it should be a celebration of the deathblow the Emancipation Proclamation delivered to slavery as an institution. But beyond that, it should be a week long observance dedicated to reflection and conversation between and among the Black and White populations in order to define and redefine our definitions of Freedom, and to resolve to move forward.

So why #Juneteenthallyear?

Because reflection and conversation can only bear fruit if we share a common understanding of Juneteenth, beyond the paragraph Wikipedia must have stolen from hundreds, if not thousands, of High School essays.