"There were a lot of Black Confederates."


Someone said, "If the Confederacy was inherently racist, there wouldn't be so many Black Confederates."

Where This Comes Up

Conversations about whether or not the war was about slavery, or conversations about whether slavery was racialized. 

When This Started

There are a few places. One scholar argues this myth picked up steam in the 1970s.  I look at it as the natural outcropping of the "Happy Negro" stereotype we see in films like Gone With the Wind, especially when we see Big Sam marching off to dig breastworks for the Confederacy.

NB: The novel the film is based on was published more than 50 years after the Civil War; it was never a firsthand account

What Part is True

There were free people of color who were part of Confederate militias. Famously, the 1st Louisiana Native Guard was a Confederate militia and even included officers of color, years before the Union did.

Confederate armies recruited enslaved people to do a lot of the manual labor of the the war to free up white men to fight.

For a brief moment at the end of the War, the Confederates promised freedom to enslaved people who fought for the Confederacy.

Why It's Complicated

  • The 1st Louisiana disbanded when the Union Army appeared in New Orleans. Many of them joined the 1st Louisiana on the Union side.
  • The Governor of Louisiana briefly disbanded the 1st Louisiana when the state passed a law only allowed white men to serve in the militia (he reformed the militia briefly thereafter).
  • The 1st Louisiana were Creole men. Though there is no debate that Black culture is integral to Creole culture, 19th century Creole identity was inherently mixed race.
  • When Confederate armies hired enslaved people, they paid the enslavers. Enslaved people were relegated to manual labor and servant jobs. 
  • There are little, if any, records of any Black men bearing arms as a Confederate.
  • Lee argued for Black men to become soldiers in the final months of the War. When the CSA finally agreed, they only allowed free men of color to join. Fewer they 70 total appear to have served. They did not have uniforms and did no see action.
  • Black men in the CSA were not even allowed to carry rifles until March of 1865. Lee surrendered in April.

Who Talked About It

"I think that the proposition to make soldiers of our slaves is the most pernicious idea that has been suggested since the war began. It is to me a source of deep mortification and regret to see the name of that good and great man and soldier, General R. E. Lee, given as authority for such a policy. My first hour of despondency will be the one in which that policy shall be adopted. You cannot make soldiers of slaves, nor slaves of soldiers. The moment you resort to negro soldiers your white soldiers will be lost to you; and one secret of the favor with which the proposition is received in portions of the Army is the hope that when negroes go into the Army they will be permitted to retire."
Major General Howell Cobb, 8 January 1865

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