The March 1862 Confiscation Act allowed the Union Army to free slaves who had been employed in the service of the Confederacy. In this article from a secessionist paper is reprinted the “Emancipation Paper” of a formerly enslaved African American named Jerry White. In the document you see several elements common to these freedom papers:
1. Statement of the identity of the individual. Until this paper was issued it is unlikely that Jerry White ever had any sort of government-issued id.
2. Statement that he was “formerly a slave.” This indicates both his previous status “slave” and that the status had been terminated.
3. Statement that he had been in “rebel service” at the direction of his master. The March 1862 Confiscation Act was not a full-blown Emancipation Act, it applied only to those slaves who had been used for the support of the rebellion. The paper describes Jerry White as “forever” emancipated because his owner had used him to assist in the “break up” of the government.
4. Confiscation made Jerry “Contraband of War,” theoretically allowing the Federal government to employ him as property. As you can see from the document, Curtis writes that since he is not needed to work for the government he is allowed to pass “northward” to freedom.
Daily dispatch
Monday, Sep 01, 1862
Richmond, VA
Vol: 23
Page: 2
The article under the Emancipation Paper gives the opinionated interpretation of what the document represents. As you can see from the tone, it anticipates a social revolution if things continue along these lines.
I want to look closely at a few of the things the Southern dispatch says are going on in Helena, Ark.
The article says that the “negroes manufacture all sorts of lies about having worked at Fort Pillow, and thus obtain passes to go North.” To a modern reader, this sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? It fits in with modern historiography that says that blacks were not passive objects who were freed by white Union soldiers. Here blacks are full participants in their own liberation! So, if the unsupported claim of the newspaper editor is correct, it argues against the underlying ideology of the Confederacy.
Let’s unpack the 19 words in that little sentence fragment:
1. Black people are aware of the Confiscation Act.
2. They are aware that there is the possibility of freedom if they go to the Union army.
3. They consider freedom to be a desirable state.
4. They understand that to be freed under the Confiscation Act they must meet the condition of having been employed in the service of the Confederacy.
5. They construct narratives that allow the army authorities to free them from slavery.
6. The want to obtain passes that allow them to leave Arkansas and “go North.”
If there was not a better refutation of much of the Southern slave owning ideology…
