PROLOGUE and#147;We DoneNowand#8221; Fort Sumter and#149; Gladness and Lamentation
Well before sunrise on Friday, April 12, 1861, George Gregory joined a group of his fellow slaves on the Charleston waterfront and gazed across the harbor at Fort Sumterand#8217;s dismal, hulking silhouette. Sumterand#8217;s commander, Major Robert Anderson, had been holding out since the previous December, refusing demand after demand that he turn the fort over to Secessionist South Carolina. Now his time was up. and#147;Abe Lincoln had sent the word that he going to send provisions to the fort,and#8221; recalled a local slave named Josh Miles, and and#147;the whole town of Charlestonand#8221; went down to see and#147;the first shot fired.and#8221; White Charlestonians darted around crying, and#147;Everybody get back! The fort will fire on the town and kill every person,and#8221; Gregory remembered. and#147;But nobody care, cause they figure if one going to be killed, they all going to be, and it donand#8217;t make a difference no-how. And just as the light commence making the sky red, and itand#8217;s light enough to see who that is standing by you and#151; BOOM! and#151; the first gun went off!and#8221; from the Secessionist batteries. and#147;The light from it shone in the sky, and made it redder! The war done commence,and#8221; and all around Gregory and#147;the folks shout, and some cry, and some sing.and#8221; That morning William H. Robinson was driving his master and a companion to Wilmington, North Carolina, when they heard the booming of cannons and#147;echoing down the Cape Fear riverand#8221; and across and#147;the broad bosom of the Atlantic.and#8221; Slapping his hands together with a curse, his master looked and#147;deathly paleand#8221; as he turned to his friend and said simply, and#147;Itand#8217;s come.and#8221; He hastily jotted a note and handed it to Robinson to take back to his mistress. But as was his habit with all his masterand#8217;s mail, Robinson stopped first at the cabin of a literate slave named Tom to hear it read aloud. and#147;We have fired on Fort Sumter,and#8221; it said. and#147;I may possibly be called away to help whip the Yankees; may be gone three days, but not longer than that.and#8221; Robinsonand#8217;s master went on to instruct his wife to tell their overseer and#147;to keep a very close watch on the Negroes, and see that thereand#8217;s no private talk among them,and#8221; and to give two local whites suspected of abolitionist tendencies and#147;no opportunity to talk with the Negroes.and#8221; Soon after the firing on Fort Sumter, Louis Hughes was waiting with his team outside a store in Pontotoc, Mississippi, when his owner emerged. and#147;What do you think?and#8221; blustered master Ed McGee, climbing into his carriage. and#147;Old Abraham Lincoln has called for 75,000 men to come to Washington immediately. Well, let them come,and#8221; he snarled, and#147;we will make a breakfast of them. I can whip a half dozen Yankees with my pocket knife.and#8221; Arriving home, McGee instituted daily pistol practice that required Hughes to run over and check the target after each of his masterand#8217;s rounds. and#147;He would sometimes miss the fence entirely, the ball going out into the woods beyond,and#8221; but when he managed to shoot within the bulland#8217;s eyeand#8217;s vicinity, he would exclaim, and#147;Ah! I would have got him that time,and#8221; by which he meant a Yankee soldier. It seemed to Hughes that and#147;there was something very ludicrous in this pistol practice of a man who boasted that he could whip half a dozen Yankees with a jackknife.and#8221;
When Sumter fell, recalled Sam Aleckson of South Carolina, and#147;in the big house there was gladness and rejoicing, while at the quarters there was groaning and lamentation.and#8221; His fellow slaves and#147;believed that as long as Major Anderson held Fort Sumter, their prospects were at least hopeful; but when Sumter fell, they felt that their hopes were all in vain.and#8221; and#147;We done now,and#8221; they kept repeating. But then an old slave named Ben stepped forward to declare that though the white folks could and#147;laugh now,and#8221; slaves should and#147;wait till by and by.and#8221; When a young slave eyewitness to Andersonand#8217;s surrender and#147;drew himself upand#8221; and imitated the major declaring to the Rebels that and#147;if I had food for my men, and ammunition, I be damned if I would let you come in those gates!and#8221; Benand#8217;s wife, Lucy, took heart. and#147;Amen! Bless the Lord!and#8221; she cried, and admonished her fellows to and#147;hope and pray.and#8221; Their master took Aleckson and Uncle Ben to Charleston, where they found whites and#147;going about the streets wearing blue cockades on the lapels of their coats. These were the and#145;minute men,and#8217; and the refrain was frequently heard, and#145;Blue cockade and rusty gun / Weand#8217;ll make those Yankees run like fun.and#8217;and#8221; One day young Aleckson overheard recruits saying and#147;they were on their way to the and#145;Front.and#8217;and#8221; and#147;Uncle Ben,and#8221; Aleckson asked, and#147;whereand#8217;s the and#145;frontand#8217;?and#8221; The old man and#147;made no immediate reply,and#8221; but eventually looked up at young Aleckson with a scowl. and#147;The front is the Devil,and#8221; he said, and returned to his chores.
1 and#147;Before TheirTimeand#8221; Harbingers oofWar and#149; John Brown and#149; Mastersand#8217; Panic Abraham Lincoln
Now everything was stirred up for a long spell before the war to free us come on,and#8221; said TTTTTemple Wilson. For well over a decade, the nation had been roiling over the slavery issue. Though the Compromise of 1850 had reinforced the Fugitive Slave Act, which required Northerners to assist in returning escaped slaves to their masters, and despite various Northern statesand#8217; efforts to exclude them, thousands of escaped slaves continued to seek refuge above the Mason-Dixon Line. In 1854, the Republican Party was founded to campaign against the extension of slavery into free territories. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which held that the settlers living in the two territories could determine for themselves whether they would join the Union as free or slave states. The result was a savage war between proslavery and abolitionist and#233;migrand#233;s that would result in hundreds of deaths. A year later, several Northern states enacted laws forbidding state officials to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. In 1856, as slaves in seven Southern states revolted against their masters, abolitionist Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was almost caned to death for denouncing slavery on the floor of the Senate. The following year, the Supreme Court ruled that an escaped slave named Dred Scott remained his masterand#8217;s property and therefore could not sue for citizenship in the North. And all the while there had been the rising, accelerating drumbeat of Northern abolitionists on the one side and Southern apostles of disunion on the other.
As their masters waxed hysterical about Yankee agitation, many of their slaves sought prophecy in signs and omens. and#147;It was talked and threatened and all kinds of bad signs pointed to war,and#8221; said Temple Wilson, and#147;till at last they just knowed it was bound to come on.and#8221; and#147;I saw the elements all red as blood,and#8221; recalled Frank Patterson, and#147;and I saw after that a great comet; and they said there was gonna be a war.and#8221; Harriet Gresham of Florida recalled that and#147;there were hordes of ants, and everyone said this was an omen of war.and#8221; and#147;One night before the war come,and#8221; Dora Jacksonand#8217;s mother and#147;and some other women was washing clothes down at a creek, when all at once they look up at the sky, and they see guns and swordsand#8221; streak across the firmament and stack themselves together. and#147;They was so scared they run to the house and call old Master and tell him about it. He laughed at them and told them they was just imagining things, but it was just a few days before the war come, and they saw them guns just like they did in the sky.and#8221; In the winter of 1860 to 1861, Mississippi experienced the worst freeze and#147;that us had ever had,and#8221; recalled Liza Strickland. and#147;The limbs of the trees got so heavy with ice till they broke off. It sounded like guns firing.and#8221; Strickland knew and#147;right then and there that was a bad sign, and a war was sure coming, and when it did break out us werenand#8217;t surprised at all, and us had to stay scared to death for four long years.and#8221; Before the war and#147;I seen troubles in this land,and#8221; declared Lu Perkins of Texas. and#147;I seen a big black wave of hating going on over the land and the folks getting poorer and poorer and starving for the childrens and the old.and#8221; Perkins had a vision of and#147;new kinds of soldiers and folks fighting till blood run over the land,and#8221; starting in the and#147;far corner of the world and spread over the countryand#8221; and#151; the judgment, she said, and#147;for folks being mean and greedy.and#8221; One night she awoke and saw a and#147;blazing star dragging its long tail along the ground,and#8221; whereupon a white man ran out into the night crying, and#147;Judgment! Judgment is on us!and#8221;
In the east the first concrete sign that something momentous was at hand came in the fall of 1859 when a shard from the war for Kansas arced eastward. After leading murderous raids on proslavery encampments along the Missouri border, the abolitionist John Brown and a party of whites and freed blacks set out to spark a servile insurrection by attacking the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
Jared Maurice Arterand#8217;s master had departed for work as the arsenaland#8217;s inspector of arms when Arter heard that Brown and a party of freedmen had galloped and#147;through the county on the previous night, taken into custody a number of the leading citizens, captured Harpers Ferry and the arsenal, and barricaded himself and his men in the engine-house,and#8221; where they were and#147;holding the captured citizens as prisoners.and#8221; Arter recalled that and#147;all the day long, groups of men on horseback, armed with revolvers, shot guns, and rifles, could be seen going towards Harpers Ferry, the scene of excitement.and#8221; But these vigilantes and#147;accomplished nothing,and#8221; and it would take Colonel Robert E. Lee and a squadron of marines to dislodge Brown and his comrades. Leeand#8217;s young slave Jim Parke recalled sitting on his masterand#8217;s broad veranda at Arlington when a soldier rode up. and#147;Been driving his horse hard,and#8221; Parke recalled. and#147;The Colonel come to the door, and took some papers, and read them. He look right solemn-like.and#8221; Parkeand#8217;s sister overheard Lee telling his wife to and#147;spread the word among the servantsand#8221; that he and#147;had to go catch John Brown and all his men.and#8221; and#147;The soldiers marched right in front of our house,and#8221; recalled Frank Smith of Virginia, and#147;right by the front gate, when they was going to Harpers Ferry to kill Old John Brown.and#8221; Two days after his raid commenced, Brown was captured and eventually condemned to death. According to Hillary Watson, Brown declared that though and#147;you Southern people can hang me,and#8221; the cause he was dying for was and#147;going to win, and thereand#8217;ll soon be a man here for every strand Iand#8217;ve got on my head, fighting to free the slaves.and#8221; and#147;The excitement ran so high and fear was so greatand#8221; that Brownand#8217;s Northern supporters and#147;might attempt to rescue him, that few persons except strong men were permitted to witness the execution.and#8221; But nine-year-old Arter and#147;stood beside my mother, holding to her apron, and saw hanged four of Brownand#8217;s menand#8221; in a scene Arter remembered as and#147;very war-like.and#8221; John Brownand#8217;s failure fortified many slavesand#8217; belief that only God, not man, could free them, and in His own good time. Pharaoh Chesney concluded that Brownand#8217;s and#147;fanaticismand#8221; made him and#147;a victim to an ill-timed movement,and#8221; and that abolition and#147;suffered more from such abortive steps than from the combined arguments of the pro-slavery men.and#8221; Frank Smith believed simply that Brown and#147;was killing white folksand#8221; and freeing slaves and#147;before their time.and#8221; and#147;What God says has got to come, comes,and#8221; said Jerry Eubanks of Mississippi. and#147;This is written in the Bible.and#8221; White people might regard Emancipation as the work of man, and#147;but colored people looks cross years at everything. God did it all.and#8221; and#147;According to what was issued out in the Bible,and#8221; Charlie Aarons testified, and#147;there was a time for slavery, people had to be punished for their sin, and then there was a time for it not to be.and#8221;
and#147;It was impossible to keep the news of John Brownand#8217;s attack on Harpers Ferry from spreading,and#8221; recalled George Albright of Mississippi. A literate slave named Sam Hall remembered the thrill of fear that passed through his masterand#8217;s community in North Carolina. and#147;It was suspicioned by the whitesand#8221; that their slaves and#147;planned to organize an uprisingand#8221; and had chosen Hall to command them; and Hall did not know and#147;at what moment I might be led out by the whites and hanged.and#8221; The attack on Harpers Ferry and#147;threw a scare into the slave owners,and#8221; Albright remembered. and#147;One day not long after the arrest of Brown, a boy in a nearby orchard shot off a pop gun, and my mistress ran in terror to the house, screaming that the insurrectionists were coming.and#8221; As their fathers had done after Nat Turnerand#8217;s abortive slave rebellion thirty years before, masters cracked down on their slaves in John Brownand#8217;s wake. Suddenly they enforced to the letter longstanding but hitherto loosely observed laws against black assemblies, literacy, gun ownership, and alcohol consumption. and#147;Some of the slaveholders would double the proportion of work,and#8221; recalledWilliam Henry Towns. and#147;They just whipped the slaves so much to keep them cowed down, and cause they might have fought for freedom much sooner.and#8221; A slave from Paris, Tennessee, said that as a young boy he did not realize he was a slave until just before the war, when local whites and#147;cut Darkiesand#8217; heads off in a riotand#8221; and and#147;put their faces up like a sign board.and#8221;
Brownand#8217;s raid may have failed to spark a slave uprising, but in the fall of 1860 many Southern whites regarded the election of and#147;Black Republicanand#8221; Abraham Lincoln as an even graver threat to slavery. and#147;I think it has come to a pretty pass, that old Lincoln,and#8221; Mattie Jacksonand#8217;s mistress harrumphed, and#147;with his long legs, an old rail splitterand#8221; intended to put black people and#147;on an equality with the whites.and#8221; Before she would see her children on such a footing, she said, and#147;she had rather see them dead.and#8221; In their recollections, a number of former slaves would claim to have laid eyes on Lincoln before the war. Some may well have encountered not the Abraham Lincoln but his cousin and contemporary of the same name, or perhaps an English immigrant named William Ellaby Lincoln, a somewhat unbalanced Oberlin College theological student who roamed the South before the CivilWar, preaching against the sins of slavery.
But it was not the flesh-and-blood Lincoln former slaves conjured so much as a furtive abolitionist phantom swirling through Dixie, stirring up slaves and masters. Not long before the war began, Margret Hulm answered her masterand#8217;s door, and and#147;there stood a big man with a gray blanket around him for a cape. He had a string tied around his neck to hold it on. A part of it was turned down over the string like a ghost cape. He had on jeans pants and big mud boots and a big black hat: kind of like men wear now. He stayed all night. We treated him nice like we did everybody when they come to our house. We heard after he was gone that he was Abraham Lincoln, and he was a spy.and#8221; and#147;Lincoln came to North Carolina and ate breakfast with my master,and#8221; recalled Frank Patterson. As he pitched into his and#147;ham with cream gravy made out of sweet milk,and#8221; biscuits, poached eggs on toast, and#147;coffee and tea, and grits,and#8221; a presumably sated Lincoln nevertheless warned his host that if whites descended to and#147;conceiving children by slavesand#8221; and then buying and selling their and#147;own blood,and#8221; it would and#147;have to be stopped.and#8221; and#147;I knowed the time when Abraham Lincoln come to the plantation,and#8221; Alice Douglass insisted. and#147;He come through there on the train and stopped overnight once.and#8221; Some slaves and#147;shined his shoes, some cooked for him, and I waited on the table; I canand#8217;t forget that. We had chicken hash and batter cakes and dried venison that day. You be sure we knowed he was our friend, and we catched what he had to say.and#8221; She would and#147;never forget so long as I liveand#8221; his parting words to her master: and#147;If you free the people, Iand#8217;ll bring you back into the Union.and#8221; But if and#147;you donand#8217;t free your slaves,and#8221; he said, and#147;Iand#8217;ll whip you back into the Union.and#8221; Another story had it that Lincoln had turned against slavery after his wife witnessed the flogging of a pregnant slave in Richmond. and#147;Mrs. Lincoln was horrified at the situation and expressed herself as being so,and#8221; Irene Coates contended, and#147;saying that she was going to tell the Presidentand#8221; as soon as she returned to Washington. Richmond slaves claimed it was this incident that marked and#147;the beginning of the Presidentand#8217;s activities to end slavery.and#8221; Sarah Walker depicted Lincoln passing through Saline County, Missouri, and#147;investigating conditions of the slaves.and#8221; Lincolnand#8217;s and#147;height and dignity frightened the children, and they fled in hidingand#8221; until Walkerand#8217;s father and#147;assured them that Master Lincoln wouldnand#8217;t harm them,and#8221; and and#147;they left their places of refuge.and#8221; Lincoln stood and#147;in all dignity and charm,and#8221; she recollected, and#147;and yet you had the feeling he was saying all the time, and#145;I am no better than you are.and#8217;and#8221; and#147;My mother used to say that Lincoln went through the South as a beggar and found out everything. When he got back, he told the North how slavery was ruining the nation.and#8221; and#147;I believe I seeand#8217;d that man once,and#8221; said Henry Gibbs of Mississippi. Lincoln and#147;come to Marse Davidand#8217;s house, pretending to be crippled. Marse David had me show him the way off the place. When we was out of sight, that man put them crutches across his shoulder. I always have believed that man was Lincoln.and#8221; J. T. Tims of Arkansas was told that and#147;Abe Lincoln come down in this part of the countryand#8221; with and#147;his little gripand#8221; in his hand and asked a farmer for work. and#147;Wait till I go to dinner,and#8221; the farmer replied. and#147;Didnand#8217;t say, and#145;Come to dinner,and#8217;and#8221; said Tims, and#147;and didnand#8217;t say nothing about, and#145;Have dinner.and#8217; Just said, and#145;Wait till I go eat my dinner,and#8217;and#8221; as he might any poor white who came knocking at his door. For this discourtesy, Tims concluded, Lincoln would plunge the South into war.