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 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?