2 – Another Slave Rebellion
The Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831 is arguably the most famous slave revolt in the South. Turner led a group of up to 70 slaves in an armed insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia. He is said to have experienced prophetic visions which told him to rise against slaveholders. Turner and his group began by killing his master before murdering a total of 50 people. The small scale of the uprising meant it was doomed to failure and a militia force arrived to subdue the rebels. Turner and approximately 55 slaves were executed including the revolt’s leader.
At one time, there was a school of thought that suggested that slaves were docile and had resigned themselves to a lifetime of servitude. Certainly, there must have been a severe psychological component in play. Some slaves were conditioned to believe they were ‘born’ to be slaves so they had no desire to fight against their masters. Slaveholders were routinely vicious in the way they dealt with ‘troublesome’ slaves. The thought of a failed rebellion and the horrendous consequences prevented slaves from launching and uprising before and during the Civil War.
However, it is utter nonsense to suggest that slaves in the United States were more servile than in other nations such as Haiti. According to historian Herbert Aptheker in American Negro Slave Revolts, there were as many as 250 slave revolts in American history. Other historians have found evidence of over 300. Other notable uprisings include the Stono Rebellion of 1739, Gabriel’s Conspiracy in 1800 and the German Coast Uprising of 1811.
With so many rebellions prior to 1860, it begs the question: Why didn’t the slaves revolt during the Civil War when chaos reigned? According to Steven Hahn in The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom, slaves had a much greater understanding of the American political system than their white masters credited them for. They were more than a little suspicious of the ‘freedom’ that apparently waited for them in the North and Hahn suggests they deliberately waited to see what would happen in the Civil War. As it happens, slaves fought for the North in the war and thousands managed to flee from their plantations.
The North won the war so slaves no longer had to contemplate an uprising. But what if the South had emerged victorious? Previous revolts lacked manpower but perhaps the possibility of permanent servitude would result in large-scale movements. The newly formed CSA would have been on a knife edge because there was a total of 3.5 million slaves in a 10 million population. There would doubtless be a large number of slaves willing to take the risk of dying for their freedom. Add in the likelihood of increased assistance from Northern abolitionists and you can certainly make a case for a significant slave rebellion at some point in the post-Civil War era.
Some slaves gained military experience and weaponry from fighting in the Civil War. Even in the absence of a major uprising, it is probable that a guerilla force of some kind would have been formed. During the war, black units were noted for their bravery which is hardly surprising as they were men with nothing to lose and everything to gain. A guerilla force, especially one backed by Northern abolitionists, would have posed a significant threat to the Confederacy.