C. B. Wilder Quotes
The masters will come … in the day time and with the help of some of the 99th carry off their fugitives and by and by smuggle them across the lines and the soldier will get his $20 or $50.
This quotation sheds light on an embarrassing aspect of corruption in the Union Army during the Civil War. Captain Wilder was as his official title denotes, the officer on his military base in charge of slaves who had escaped and crossed over the Union Lines. Escaped slaves were officially called “Contrabands.” He had over 10,000 in his charge. There had been an official order issued by the General of the Army that prohibited the military from returning slaves to their owners. See {619337}. However, the Southern owners of the escaped slaves would cross the Union lines, go onto the Union military base, identify their former slaves, at Fort Monroe, and bribe Union soldiers to in effect kidnap the former slaves and forcibly return them to their former masters. Then, often using bribery, the masters would smuggle their former slaves back across the lines and return to their plantation where the escapees were physically punished and put back to work. While some Union military commanders would not allow this, others thought the action just and was a good way for the men to pick up some extra money. The photo was taken in the Captain’s district showing the runaway slaves in work details for the army.
C. B. Wilder, Mid 19th Century, U. S. Army Captain, Superintendent of Contrabands, Fort Monroe, Virginia, Testimony before the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, May 9, 1863
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There was little thought of emancipating slaves or their value to the South by the senior officers of the Union Army at the beginning of the war. The Secretary of War however changed that. See {629184}.
Although escaped slaves could not fight for the North, they could be very useful on road building and other military engineering projects needing labor. Every time a slave escaped, it diminished the military engineering labor of the Confederates by one but added to that of the Union. Pinkerton and others however engaged many escaped slaves who volunteered for an incredibly dangerous mission. They returned back to the Southern lines into the slave work gangs, and organized slave escapes of groups of Blacks. In addition, many of them, by observing and overhearing the Confederate soldiers gained information regarding supply and troop levels and movements, and this they brought back to the Union officers. Those that were caught were executed as spies. Escaped slaves were espionage and covert operations agents before they were allowed to be soldiers.
There was little thought of emancipating slaves or their value to the South by the senior officers of the Union Army at the beginning of the war. The Secretary of War changed that. See {629183}for a typical Union General’s view at the beginning of the war.
After the civil war there was a concerted effort to shape American opinion away from the notion that the Civil War has mainly about slavery which we now know was a false notion. Slavery was the only significant issue for both sides. This quotation is cited by many who argue that the prospect of the end of slavery was tantamount to economic confiscation and impoverishment for the slave owning minority and hence it drove them to rebellion. Also, Davis and others argue that the value of the slaves was so great that there was no possible economic way to compensate the slave owners for emancipation at fair market value which was why that “compromise” never went anywhere.
This quotation is often given by those who argue that Lincoln really did not care about the slavery issue. It is a terrific example of the limitations of quotations where there is artful rhetoric. Douglas, had in the 1st debate posed 7 “interrogatories” to Lincoln asking if he were pledged to certain positions regarding slavery. Douglas was trying to associate Lincoln with the most radical abolitionists in the land. By asking if Lincoln were pledged to the positions, Douglas thought that he had cornered Lincoln. For if Lincoln denied the pledges, he would appear to be backing off his anti slavery positions, and if Lincoln would not, then he would appear to support the most radical elements. Lincoln turned the rhetorical tables on his opponent. He first answered the question literally, emphasizing “pledged”. Just as Douglas thought he had forced Lincoln off his anti-slavery views, Lincoln stated what he would “like to see” as opposed to what he was pledged for. See {615826}.
This may be the first formal resolution against slavery in the Americas. This quotation shows the fact that not only did these Mennonites oppose slavery, and chastise those who bought slaves as much as the slave capturers, but they argued that the slaves had a perfect right to armed struggle to free themselves—the greatest fear of slaveholders in America. The term “negers” was not a word of disrespect but was derived from the low German spoken by the Mennonites.
This is an incredibly important political and historical quotation. One of the leading white ministers of Boston, advises all Blacks (and implicitly whites as well) not to cooperate with the Boston Police. Under the Dred Scott and other legal doctrines, the law enforcement mechanism of even Northern, anti Slavery states, would arrest and hold those suspected of being runaway slaves. This included many ex slaves but also many freemen who were then enslaved by the system. Law enforcement was no better than the slave owners and the slave catchers as far as the welfare of Blacks was concerned. The result has been a hostility to and an antipathy to law enforcement in the North who – even in the view of many whites like Parker were not worthy of trust and cooperation. After slavery, law enforcement supported and enforced the Jim Crow discriminatory laws. The resentment and distrust remains.
This is an important quotation because it shows that slavery was the principle reason that the South succeeded and began their rebellion. In the early 20th century, there was a movement to make the Confederacy and the rebellion more noble by promoting the idea that the Civil War was fought by the South for more lofty reasons such as States Rights, Original Construction, different economic philosophies and the like. This was a more noble cause then the right to deny other human beings their rights, to own other human beings who they could beat, torture, sexually use and even murder them was a pretty selfish and demeaning reason to have started a rebellion that would then cost more Americans their lives than any other American conflict. The succession documents and others of the Southern States and the Confederacy make it clear that slavery was THE issue and fleeting references to any of the others were only made to complain about the potential effect on abolition and the refusal of the abolitionist states to cease aiding and protecting fugitive slaves.
This clause was superseded by the 13th Amendment {621373}. More and more abolitionists were refusing on ethical and moral grounds to return fugitive slaves. Some states actually passed laws forbidding the return of fugitive slaves and freeing them the second they set foot in the state. Some objected arguing that the law must be enforced and the Constitution obeyed. They had a point, so the solution was to change the Constitution which is what was done in 1865.
Parker and other escaped slaves in Christiana fought off slave catchers and killed the slave owner leading them. Charged with treason, he escaped to Canada with his family and lived there the rest of his life. While not a polished writer, after he himself had escaped and went to Christiana and leaned to read and write. He wrote this narrative of his life as a slave—one of the few written works we have from slaves.
Essentially, the case of moral hazard was made against paying the slave owners. Lincoln took a pragmatic approach. However, not only was Northern opposition too strong for this proposal, but the Southern slave holders would never agree to selling their slaves. What Lincoln and most “pragmatic” Northerners did not realize is that even if the slave owners would get a fair market price for the slaves, they would be left with land and no way to work it. Their families would have no servants. They might have to work themselves like Northern farmers did, and their entire standard and style of living would be destroyed. Their sons were not well educated as many Northern young men were and were brought up to be gentlemen, politicians, and occasional soldiers—not work with their hands. They could not compete. And the slaveholders were right as the whole history of Reconstruction and backwardness demonstrated for more than 100 years.
