When Confederate troops began slipping west and north of the Union army for their June 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania, no one worried more about the prospect of Robert E. Lee’s men arriving in Gettysburg , Pennsylvania, than the hundreds of black refugees who had sought shelter in the region. Gettysburg was only a dozen miles north of the line dividing the free and slave states, and Gettysburg along with towns to the west like Chambersburg and Greencastle were the first free towns people escaping slavery arrived in.1
Nearly 2,000 blacks lived in the area, many of whom were born free in the North. While blacks had lived in Gettysburg for almost as long as whites, the first African Americans were brought there as slaves.2
Soon after they themselves gained freedom, Gettysburg’s blacks organized stops on the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves fleeing north to Canada. Some escapees stayed. The area’s black population grew quickly enough that some local whites circulated a petition in 1860 stating “that the rapid growth of the free Negro population within a brief period is not only a burden to the petitioners, by increasing demands on their poor fund, but owing to the indolence and dissipation of the Negroes they have filled the prisons and increased the taxes to an enormous extent.” 3
With war, the migration increased, particularly after the January 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation declared escaping slaves “forever free.” Although free, the former slaves were distained by many of their white neighbors. While some white Pennsylvanians took great risks to protect blacks from the Confederates, others were amused by the fear that gripped the African American community.4
In mid-June of 1863, Confederate cavalryman Albert Jenkins led his troopers into Chambersburg and soon his men were “scouring the fields for negroes. Many were caught and some, freed and slave, were bound and sent under guard South. Some escaped and some were captured from their guards by citizens of Greencastle” and freed, according to one resident. Another recalled that the Confederates kidnapped “all of [the people of color] they could find even little children” for sale in the slave market in Richmond. Cavalrymen threatened to burn the houses of whites sheltering escaped slaves. One farmer reported seeing four wagon loads of black women and children being shipped south.5
Re-enslavement of blacks after Confederate capture of Harpers Ferry, 1862.
Historian David G. Smith estimates that “several hundred” blacks were captured by Confederates and sent South. Most of these were refugees who had fled slavery but who gained only temporary freedom when they left the Confederacy and came to the United States.6
The reasons why a busy army in the midst of a major invasion would capture slaves when it seemingly should have been preparing for battle were threefold. First, slaves were valuable commodities. Blacks shipped south could fetch as much as $40,000 in modern U.S. dollars. Second, many Confederates viewed escaped slaves as thieves who had stolen themselves from their white “owners.” They had a strong impulse to punish the blacks. Third, in order to undermine the Emancipation Proclamation, the Confederate government had endorsed a policy of kidnapping blacks to demonstrate to slaves that they would not be securely free if they ran away to the Union lines.7
According to historian David Smith, not all Confederates could carry out the re-enslavement and forced return migration. A letter written by Confederate Colonel William Christian says that “We took a lot of Negroes yesterday [June 27]. I was offered my choice, but…my humanity revolted at taking the poor devils.” He said he turned loose those he could. Christian was not typical, however. One Confederate wrote home talking about soldiers “capturing negroes and horses.” Another soldier said that after Lee’s victory his men would return to the town of Greencastle to “take off every neager.” Civilian slavehunters also followed Lee’s army, hoping to capitalize on the opportunity to reenslave. According to Smith, virtually every major unit of the invading army was involved in the recapture of former slaves. Divisional and Corps commanders were involved in sanctioning the captures.8
If we think of the United States and the Confederacy as two countries, then Gettysburg was practically a border town. Its proximity to slave territory made it both a refuge and a trap for blacks hoping to immigrate to freedom.
National Park Service Rangers on Gettysburg’s African American Community
Note: The feature illustration is from Harper’s Weekly Nov. 1862 showing the capture of Blacks by Confederate troops at Harper’s Ferry.
Sources:
1. Race and Retaliations: The Capture of African Americans during the Gettysburg Campaign by David G. Smith found in Virginia’s Civil War ed. by Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown published by University of Virginia Press p. 138-140.
2. THE EFFECT OF THE CONFEDERATE INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA ON GETTYSBURG’S AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY by Peter C. Vermilyea http://www.gdg.org/gettysburg%20magazine/gburgafrican.html.
3. THE EFFECT OF THE CONFEDERATE INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA ON GETTYSBURG’S AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY by Peter C. Vermilyea http://www.gdg.org/gettysburg%20magazine/gburgafrican.html.
4. Gettysburg: The Last Invasion by Allen C. Guelzo published by Knopf (2013)
5. Gettysburg: The Last Invasion by Allen C. Guelzo published by Knopf (2013) Kindle loc. 1711-1720; Reminiscences of the War by Jacob Hoke published by Foltz (1884) p. 38.
6. Race and Retaliations: The Capture of African Americans during the Gettysburg Campaign by David G. Smith found in Virginia’s Civil War ed. by Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown published by University of Virginia Press P. 138.
7. Race and Retaliations: The Capture of African Americans during the Gettysburg Campaign by David G. Smith found in Virginia’s Civil War ed. by Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown published by University of Virginia Press p. 138-140.
8. Race and Retaliations: The Capture of African Americans during the Gettysburg Campaign by David G. Smith found in Virginia’s Civil War ed. by Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown published by University of Virginia Press p. 137, 139, 143, 146-147.
This was originally published as part of The Immigrants’ Civil War on June 12, 2013
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