Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South
Under policies instituted by the Confederacy, white Virginians and North Carolinians surrendered control over portions of their slave populations to state authorities, military officials, and the national government to defend their new nation. State and local officials cooperated with the Confederate War Department and Engineer Bureau, as well as individual generals, to ensure a supply of slave labor on fortifications. Using the implementation of this policy in the Upper South as a window into the workings of the Confederacy, Jaime Amanda Martinez provides a social and political history of slave impressment. She challenges the assumption that the conduct of the program, and the resistance it engendered, was an indication of weakness and highlights instead how the strong governments of the states contributed to the war effort.
According to Martinez, slave impressment, which mirrored Confederate governance as a whole, became increasingly centralized, demonstrating the efficacy of federalism within the CSA. She argues that the ability of local, state, and national governments to cooperate and enforce unpopular impressment laws indicates the overall strength of the Confederate government as it struggled to enforce its independence.
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Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South
Under policies instituted by the Confederacy, white Virginians and North Carolinians surrendered control over portions of their slave populations to state authorities, military officials, and the national government to defend their new nation. State and local officials cooperated with the Confederate War Department and Engineer Bureau, as well as individual generals, to ensure a supply of slave labor on fortifications. Using the implementation of this policy in the Upper South as a window into the workings of the Confederacy, Jaime Amanda Martinez provides a social and political history of slave impressment. She challenges the assumption that the conduct of the program, and the resistance it engendered, was an indication of weakness and highlights instead how the strong governments of the states contributed to the war effort.
According to Martinez, slave impressment, which mirrored Confederate governance as a whole, became increasingly centralized, demonstrating the efficacy of federalism within the CSA. She argues that the ability of local, state, and national governments to cooperate and enforce unpopular impressment laws indicates the overall strength of the Confederate government as it struggled to enforce its independence.
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Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South

Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South

by Jaime Amanda Martinez
Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South

Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South

by Jaime Amanda Martinez

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Overview

Under policies instituted by the Confederacy, white Virginians and North Carolinians surrendered control over portions of their slave populations to state authorities, military officials, and the national government to defend their new nation. State and local officials cooperated with the Confederate War Department and Engineer Bureau, as well as individual generals, to ensure a supply of slave labor on fortifications. Using the implementation of this policy in the Upper South as a window into the workings of the Confederacy, Jaime Amanda Martinez provides a social and political history of slave impressment. She challenges the assumption that the conduct of the program, and the resistance it engendered, was an indication of weakness and highlights instead how the strong governments of the states contributed to the war effort.
According to Martinez, slave impressment, which mirrored Confederate governance as a whole, became increasingly centralized, demonstrating the efficacy of federalism within the CSA. She argues that the ability of local, state, and national governments to cooperate and enforce unpopular impressment laws indicates the overall strength of the Confederate government as it struggled to enforce its independence.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781469610757
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date: 12/07/2013
Series: Civil War America
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 248
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Jaime Amanda Martinez is assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Table of Contents

Introduction Cornerstones and Construction Workers, Slave Labor and the Confederate War Effort 1

1 Hundreds Have Been Called: Slave Impressment at the Local and State Levels, 1861-1863 18

2 Throwing Up Breastworks: Slave Laborers under the Engineer Bureau 45

3 Provisions Are Needed Worse Than Fortifications: Slave Impressment and Confederate Agriculture 71

4 To Equalize the Burden: Slave Impressment and the Expanding Confederate State, 1863-1864 98

5 The President's Mishap: From Engineer Laborers to Potential Confederate Soldiers, 1864-1865 132

Epilogue Black Confederates?: Slave Impressment and Confederate Memory 159

Appendix Tables 165

Notes 187

Bibliography 213

Acknowledgments 226

Index 229

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Martinez challenges the standard critiques of slave impressment with fresh and substantial evidence. An original contribution to Civil War scholarship.—George Rable, University of Alabama

Martinez analyzes the relationship between slavery and the state, shows the interaction of the home front and battlefield conditions, and tells the stories of a variety of little-known actors, including planters, slaves, local officials, and Confederate bureaucrats. Her deeply researched and clearly written book will be an important contribution to the literature on slavery and the Civil War.—John Majewski, author of Modernizing a Slave Economy: The Economic Vision of the Confederate Nation

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