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.