Confederate Negro

by James H. Brewer

A work in the social history of American industry.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822302047
• ISBN13: 9780822302049
• Release Date: January 1969
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An excellent research tool. Needs to be reprinted!

Chapter One: 'Negro Mobilization' "It would appear that Virginia was not faced with a serious breakdown of its holding power over the Negro noncombatants until the closing says of the war. Flight into Union lines, however, or seizure by Union troops, though seemingly less extensive than in other parts of the Confederacy, was a cause of concern. In countless ways, the war came closer to the Virginia Negro than to other Negroes with the South. Both of the war governors, John Letcher ad William Smith, encouraged and supported Negro mobilization and war measures whereby the labor of Negroes contributed to the ability of the Confederacy to keep an army in the field. The Virginia Negro resided in what was not only the industrial heart of the South but also the major battle ground of the Civil war. Armed conflict greatly increased the technological and military demand for his brawn and his skills. Virginia's coal mines, ironworks, lead-smelting works, nitriaries, harness shops, arsenals, naval yards, and machine shops offer unique examples of the state's efforts to match Negro manpower to the need for increased production. The many diversified needs of the war involved the Virginia Negro in correspondingly wide variety of tasks-procurement operations, processing of minerals, fabrication of the weapons of war, transportation of war materials by land and by river, and construction of fortifications and defensive works. Probably no other southern sate offers a better example of the premium placed upon Negro manpower." (p.-15-16) Chapter Two: 'Quartermaster and Commissary Noncombatants': "Both the Quartermaster and Commissary departments were conscious of the logistical importance of Negro manpower, and they competed effectively with other departments for their services. As they competed effectively with other departments for their services. As they needs to increase the war output multiplied rapidly, both the Virginia and the Confederate Government made provisions for placing the black noncombatants at their disposal of the services of supply though military hire, impressment, and conscription. From February 1864 to March 1865 the Bureau of Conscription detailed 341 Negroes to the quartermasters scattered throughout Virginia. As in any undertaking which involves large numbers of persons, the Negros who met the needs of supply will forever remain anonymous to posterity, Yet thousands and thousands of Negroes played a vital pert in feeding, supplying, and sustaining Confederate combat forces in Virginia." (p.30) Chapter Three: 'Naval Ordinance Works': "In retrospect, the mountain blast furnaces, as they belched smoke and fire into the sky, dominated the industrial scene of the Valley. Industrial Negro labor was an indispensable factor as the Tredegar Iron Works wrestled to fulfill vital war contracts with the various bureaus of the War Department. The realistic war practices of this industrial plant were based, from the very outset of th