Southern Opposition to the Slave Trade

With the short-lived exception of Georgia and South Carolina, no Southern colony or State was ever a willing participant in the slave trade, which traffic most Southerners viewed with abhorrence. The English Crown was the leader in the trade throughout the Eighteenth Century, it having been declared by Parliament in 1749 "to be very advantageous to Great Britain, and necessary for supplying the plantations and colonies thereunto belonging with a sufficient number of negroes at reasonable rates." On the other hand, the colonial legislature of Virginia attempted on several occasions to stem the importation of Africans only to be consistently overruled by King George III, who refused to assent to any law "by which the importation of slaves should be in any respect prohibited or obstructed."

The slave deck of the bark "Wildfire"

One of the charges leveled against George III by Thomas Jefferson in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence was that he had "prostituted his negative [veto] for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit, or to restrain, this execrable commerce" and that he, during Great Britain's war with the American colonies, was attempting to incite the slaves "to rise in arms against us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another." Not long after declaring her independence, the fledgling State of Virginia, under the governorship of Patrick Henry, became "the first political community in the civilized modern world" to legislate against the slave trade. In the Act For Preventing the Farther Importation of Slaves of 5 October 1778, it was declared that "no slave or slaves shall hereafter be imported into this Commonwealth by sea or land, nor shall any slaves so imported be bought or sold by any person whatsoever." The penalty provided for violation of this law was the forfeiture of "one thousand pounds for every slave so imported," and "five hundred pounds for every slave so bought or sold." It was further provided that "every slave imported into this Commonwealth, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, shall, upon such importation, become free." continued...

Why Is Heritage Defense Important?

Immediately following the events of the War for Southern Independence, the Southern States (the former States of the Confederacy) went into a period of Reconstruction, which is commonly said to have lasted until 1876. This is because that is the time when the actual federal troops were removed from the Southern States. Prior to that time, the Southern States were imposed to martial law, and a rule by the federal army.

During the period of time that the South was under direct Reconstruction (with the actual presence of federal troops), the Southern people were subjected to heavy abuses in the Northern-controlled Congress. In addition to confiscatory taxation rates, which fully benefited Northern interests at the expense of the Southern people, there were also strict rules concerning former Confederate high-ranking officials. Those who were in the Confederate government could no longer serve in elected positions, nor could they even vote.

Meanwhile, during this same time period, there were restrictions on depictions of the Confederacy. For instance, it was routine that men wearing Confederate army jackets were arrested. Also, flags used by the Confederacy were expressly forbidden. This was all a heavy-handed attempt by the Northern-controlled government to replace the Southern people’s devotion to the Confederacy (and the causes for which they fought) with a new reverence for the symbols of the United States (the very government that these people had chosen to separate themselves from).

While the federal troops were there, constant venom was spewed by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner (among others of their ilk) against the Southern people. These people had an unhidden hatred for the South and their customs, and could not understand why the Southern people held so hard onto what they believed in—including their devotion to the Confederacy, its symbols and flags, and its former leaders. Stevens and the other radical Republican leaders in Congress raged at the fact that the Southern people would give up their heritage, no matter how oppressive the federal government’s Reconstruction programs were on them. continued...

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. - James Madison

Ousting the Carpetbagger From South Carolina
by Henry T. Thompson
originally published in 1927
paperback; 194 pages

South Carolina had been stigmatized by her enemies as "the nest wherein was hatched the snake of Secession," and it was the purpose of congressional Reconstruction to mete out retribution upon her people and to ensure the ascendency of the radical Republican party. Thus, at the point of the bayonet, was evolved a condition which is without parallel in all history -- the very best and noblest citizens of the State were subjugated to a position of inferiority to their former slaves. This book is a history of the political revolution of 1876 in which South Carolinians, led by General Wade Hampton and his Redshirts, united to throw off the oppressive yoke of "Carpetbag" government and Negro domination. order

The bicentennial observance of the birth of Confederate President Jefferson F. Davis will take place throughout this year, with the highlight being the reopening of Beauvoir, his final home, in Gulfport, Miss., on June 3. The magnificent Southern shrine, which survived a pre-emptive strike by Hurricane Camille in 1969, was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The cost of the restoration is expected to exceed $4.1 million for the house alone; the total restoration will run about $20 million, and donations are still being accepted. The reopening ceremonies will feature a keynote address by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. more...

The Sons of Confederate Veterans have declared 2008, the "Year of Jefferson Davis." Remembrance events will include the re-opening of "Beauvoir" on Jefferson Davis' 200th birthday---June 3, 2008. This was Davis' last home that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum will be rebuilt and re-open about two years after the house. Beauvoir is located on the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast. See more at: www.beauvoir.org more...

In the midst of the Civil War centennial in 1962, the South Carolina legislature voted the Confederate flag up to the dome of the Statehouse, adding to a long list of indelicately handled commemorations across the nation highlighting racial divides and old resentments. With about three and a half years until the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, state history buffs are gearing up for the bevy of historic milestones from 2011 to 2015 tied to the bloody four-year conflict. more...

1828: C.S. Brigadier General James Johnston Pettigrew is born in Tyrrell County, North Carolina.

1862: John Hunt Morgan leads a Confederate raid into Kentucky.

1863: The Confederate Army at Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders.

1864: The Battle of Helena begins in Arkansas.

1868: The reconstructed "State of North Carolina" ratifies the so-called Fourteenth Amendment.

Much has been made by modern historians of the fact that an estimated 186,000 Blacks fought under the United States flag against the South. However, we are seldom, if ever, told the reason for this. According to the William Whiting, "All the property of rebels [is] forfeited to the treasury of the country," and "slave property [is] subject to the same liability as other property to be appropriated for war purposes" (The War Powers of the President [Boston: John L. Shorey, 1862], pages 28, 107). Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, elaborated on this premise in a dispatch to Brigadier-General Rufus Saxton on 25 August 1862: "The population of African descent that cultivate the lands and perform the labor of the rebels constitute a large share of their military strength, and enable the white masters to fill the rebel armies and wage a cruel and murderous war against the people of the Northern States. By reducing the laboring strength of the rebels their military power will be reduced" (Official Records of the War of the Rebellion: Armies, Series I, Volume XIV, pages 377-378). Consequently, the invading Northern army began to seize Southern slaves and conscript them into service to the United States, often against their will. In a 26 February 1864 dispatch from Huntsville, Alabama, General John A. Logan wrote that "a major of colored troops is here with his party capturing negroes, with or without their consent.... [T]hey are being conscripted" (ibid., Series I, Volume XXXII, Part II, page 477). On 1 September 1864, Captain Frederick Martin reported from New Berne, North Carolina, "The negroes will not go voluntarily, so I am obliged to force them.... I expect to get a large lot to-morrow" (ibid., Series I, Volume XLII, Part II, pages 653-654). General Rufus A. Saxton reported, "Men have been seized and forced to enlist who had large families of young children dependent upon them for support and fine crops of cotton and corn nearly ready for harvest, without an opportunity of making provision for the one or securing the other." On at least one occasion, "three boys, one only fourteen years of age, were seized in a field where they were at work and sent to a regiment serving in a distant part of the department without the knowledge of their parents...." (ibid., Series III, Volume IV, page 1028). It was also reported that, "On some plantations the wailing and screaming were loud and the women threw themselves in despair on the ground. On some plantations the people took to the woods and were hunted up by the soldiers.... I doubt if the recruiting service in this country has ever been attended with such scenes before" (ibid., Series III, Volume II, page 57).

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