Slave Resistance Quotes
This letter was signed by a local white Priest and two other leading planters. This quotation gives us a marvelous feeling for what occurred when parts of the South was occupied by the Union Army shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Minor and his fellows just did not “get it.” The concept of freedom of the slaves was intellectually so foreign to them, that they wanted the Union Army to “compel” the freed slaves to work. They were horrified that slaves went wherever they wanted, and they were most outraged when former slaves who had enlisted in the Army, would “visit” their old plantation setting such a terrible example. The letter gives us a perspective on how difficult it was to change the mental set of Southern Whites and why Reconstruction was so difficult. The year of the letter is somewhat uncertain as the original letter appears to be dated 1862 but the writing is not clear and that date does not comport with the history of the era and we believe 1863 was the correct year. The photograph is of the first official colored troops mustered into the Union Army. They were called the Louisiana Native Guards and contained the ex slaves who went over to the Union side just before the time this slave owner complained. These ex slaves, in uniform, and with arms would sometimes visit the plantations where they and been enslaved, thrilling the remaining slaves and infuriating owners like Minor.
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.
The issue is whether Kansas would enter the Union as a slave state of a free state. If a free state, the free states would be able to block further slavery. If Kansas were to become a slave state, the slave states would have a sufficient majority to make all future expansion hospitable to slavery. The slavery forces started sending men and families into Kansas so that they could vote; the abolitionists did the same. Both sides armed and a war began with each faction trying to kill or drive the other faction out of Kansas before the vote. See {612516} for the anti-slavery perspective.
Holland was trying to write a justification of the particularly barbarous and cruel methods of punishing Negro Slaves. These not only included the whippings, but also crucifixion and burning at the stake. To justify these, Holland gave the above example of what had occurred which in his view justified the “law enforcement” techniques that the South used to “protect” its citizens. Holland sent a copy of this essay to James Madison in the hopes that there might be a change of pubic opinion, not only in the Northern states but even in Virginia which looked upon the other Southern States as backward and barbarian. Apparently, Madison did not think enough of the pamphlet of Holland to even write an acknowledgment and/or that you.
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 Southern rebellion more noble by promoting the idea that the Civil War was fought by the South for more lofty reasons than greed and slavery 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.
