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Civil War America
Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth
More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, scores of websites, articles, and organizations repeat claims that anywhere between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans fought willingly as soldiers in the Confederate army. But as Kevin M. Levin argues in this carefully researched book, such claims would have shocked anyone who served in the army during the war itself. Levin explains that imprecise contemporary accounts, poorly understood primary-source material, and other misrepresentations helped fuel the rise of the black Confederate myth. Moreover, Levin shows that belief in the existence of black Confederate soldiers largely originated in the 1970s, a period that witnessed both a significant shift in how Americans remembered the Civil War and a rising backlash against African Americans' gains in civil rights and other realms.
Levin also investigates the roles that African Americans actually performed in the Confederate army, including personal body servants and forced laborers. He demonstrates that regardless of the dangers these men faced in camp, on the march, and on the battlefield, their legal status remained unchanged. Even long after the guns fell silent, Confederate veterans and other writers remembered these men as former slaves and not as soldiers, an important reminder that how the war is remembered often runs counter to history.
Levin also investigates the roles that African Americans actually performed in the Confederate army, including personal body servants and forced laborers. He demonstrates that regardless of the dangers these men faced in camp, on the march, and on the battlefield, their legal status remained unchanged. Even long after the guns fell silent, Confederate veterans and other writers remembered these men as former slaves and not as soldiers, an important reminder that how the war is remembered often runs counter to history.
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First published September 9, 2019
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August 17, 2020
Can we just named UDC a terrorist organization already?
Wait, wait - here me out.
If you read anything about how the Civil War is remember and how the history of the War has been manipulated, at the heart of that manipulation is the UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy). From statues to textbooks, the UDC seems to be behind it all. In this book, you can even read about how they put a Confederate Vet marker on the grave of a former slaves, without telling his descendants who were understandably upset.
While there were Black men with the Confederate army, they were camp slaves (I am not going to use servants for reasons). In other words, they could be beaten, were expected to be in danger, and had little choice. Additionally, fleeing was an option but only if you did not want to see your family again.
Levin dissects the photo that graces the cover of his book, a photo that has been used (and still is used) to argue that Black people fought on the side of the South. He takes a good hard look at a the Native Guard from New Orleans, who did not fight for the South despite what some people say.
He may in some cases (like that of the Native Guard) be using technical terms and the pov of the time of the Civil War, but this is important and he makes a good case.
Also, as a secondary, he dismantles the whole states' right line of myth.
Wait, wait - here me out.
If you read anything about how the Civil War is remember and how the history of the War has been manipulated, at the heart of that manipulation is the UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy). From statues to textbooks, the UDC seems to be behind it all. In this book, you can even read about how they put a Confederate Vet marker on the grave of a former slaves, without telling his descendants who were understandably upset.
While there were Black men with the Confederate army, they were camp slaves (I am not going to use servants for reasons). In other words, they could be beaten, were expected to be in danger, and had little choice. Additionally, fleeing was an option but only if you did not want to see your family again.
Levin dissects the photo that graces the cover of his book, a photo that has been used (and still is used) to argue that Black people fought on the side of the South. He takes a good hard look at a the Native Guard from New Orleans, who did not fight for the South despite what some people say.
He may in some cases (like that of the Native Guard) be using technical terms and the pov of the time of the Civil War, but this is important and he makes a good case.
Also, as a secondary, he dismantles the whole states' right line of myth.
December 14, 2019
This is the non-fic about a myth, which concerns the US Civil war but reached even me in Ukraine. You as well possibly saw photos of armed blacks in South grey or black and white soldiers sitting side-by-side. Often the comment is that no further comments are needed, all southerners fought Yankees for freedom…
If one is interested in the US history most likely s/he heard about the mainstream historians reason for the civil war – slavery and its alternative – state rights. One of the arguments of state rights version is that if war was to end slavery why black troops fought on South’s side. The answer from this book – they didn’t except for extremely sporadic cases. The outlook of the South was that its glorious white male protectors defend it, while all the rest keep the country going.
There were quite a few slaves (and some free blacks) in Confederate camps, but they were servants not solders. The decision to try to make the solders out of them happened at the very last days of the war. Being a servant hasn’t protected from getting wounded or killed, but it was the same with civil doctors. And when “the Lost cause” was popularized at the end of the XIX century and Afro-Americans joined reunions of Confederate veterans they never did so as soldiers.
There is a story by Herodotus about Scythians, who were so long in a military campaign that their slaves took their places in their home. They tried to subdue the slaves, but could not gain an advantage. At last one of them said, “Men of Scythia, see what we are about! We are fighting our own slaves; they slay us, and we grow fewer; we slay them, and thereafter shall have fewer slaves. Now therefore my counsel is that we drop our spears and bows, and go to meet them each with his horsewhip in hand. As long as they saw us armed, they thought themselves to be our peers and the sons of our peers; let them see us with whips and no weapons of war, and they will perceive that they are our slaves; and taking this to heart they will not abide our attack.” The attitude in the South was almost the same:
In a letter to Secretary of War James Seddon, Cobb was adamant: “The moment you resort to negro soldiers your white soldiers will be lost to you. . . . The day you make soldiers of them is the beginning of the end of the revolution. If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong.” Cobb, however, was convinced that “they won’t make soldiers.” “As a class they are wanting in every qualification of a soldier.”
The book goes in great details about all major photos used as a proof of Black Confederates, who are depicted, their status, when and so on.
One interesting side note is that I’m still surprised by the US freedom. As many may know, there is a proxy war waged by Russia through so called “people republics” in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the territory initially occupied in 2014 were liberated and it is impossible to imagine their flags next to Ukrainian one on public buildings there. Or say Nazi flags on administrations where AfD got votes in Germany. Yes, the situation is different but nevertheless.
If one is interested in the US history most likely s/he heard about the mainstream historians reason for the civil war – slavery and its alternative – state rights. One of the arguments of state rights version is that if war was to end slavery why black troops fought on South’s side. The answer from this book – they didn’t except for extremely sporadic cases. The outlook of the South was that its glorious white male protectors defend it, while all the rest keep the country going.
There were quite a few slaves (and some free blacks) in Confederate camps, but they were servants not solders. The decision to try to make the solders out of them happened at the very last days of the war. Being a servant hasn’t protected from getting wounded or killed, but it was the same with civil doctors. And when “the Lost cause” was popularized at the end of the XIX century and Afro-Americans joined reunions of Confederate veterans they never did so as soldiers.
There is a story by Herodotus about Scythians, who were so long in a military campaign that their slaves took their places in their home. They tried to subdue the slaves, but could not gain an advantage. At last one of them said, “Men of Scythia, see what we are about! We are fighting our own slaves; they slay us, and we grow fewer; we slay them, and thereafter shall have fewer slaves. Now therefore my counsel is that we drop our spears and bows, and go to meet them each with his horsewhip in hand. As long as they saw us armed, they thought themselves to be our peers and the sons of our peers; let them see us with whips and no weapons of war, and they will perceive that they are our slaves; and taking this to heart they will not abide our attack.” The attitude in the South was almost the same:
In a letter to Secretary of War James Seddon, Cobb was adamant: “The moment you resort to negro soldiers your white soldiers will be lost to you. . . . The day you make soldiers of them is the beginning of the end of the revolution. If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong.” Cobb, however, was convinced that “they won’t make soldiers.” “As a class they are wanting in every qualification of a soldier.”
The book goes in great details about all major photos used as a proof of Black Confederates, who are depicted, their status, when and so on.
One interesting side note is that I’m still surprised by the US freedom. As many may know, there is a proxy war waged by Russia through so called “people republics” in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the territory initially occupied in 2014 were liberated and it is impossible to imagine their flags next to Ukrainian one on public buildings there. Or say Nazi flags on administrations where AfD got votes in Germany. Yes, the situation is different but nevertheless.
August 20, 2020
It’s difficult to truly understand how deep the scars of the Civil War reach into our national psyche. So far in fact, that like most familial trauma, we choose to ignore them. However, with Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth, Kevin Levin digs into the scar tissue attempting to root out one of the remaining abnormalities of our collective trauma.
It feels strange and admittedly nerdy to call SFBC a wild ride throughout but it’s true. Thoroughly researched and well written, I was thoroughly engaged throughout the book. Searching for Black Confederates never lagged for me. I attribute this to the relatively short length (241 pages!? that’s a light read in this genre! bring it!) as well as the never ending push by Mr. Levin to not only make his point but prove it. Again and again he provides not opinion but facts supported with research by himself and other reputable scholars. In idiom form... he shows his math.
His position comes out early and often, and it’s unapologetic in its clarity. Levin’s criticism comes hardest upon the faulty analytical process of the perpetrators of the Black Confederate Soldier myth. While it is clear that African-Americans could be found throughout the Confederate war effort, this book is concerned with the question: did Blacks actively fight for the Confederacy of their own free will?
His most effective argument isn’t that Lost Cause believers, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and other neo-Confederates are Wrong, but rather that the historical record never supports their analysis. Levin prepares their position for assault by regularly giving credit to what the SCV and their supporters get right in their sources but then pointing at where the analysis is flawed and unsupported. Shoddy research, collective group think, and a willingness to ignore the very words written by the Confederate leaders neo-Confederates claim to admire lead to many perpetuating the myth of the black confederate soldier. In attempting to remain relevant the 21st century, the lovers of the Lost Cause have undercut the roots of the spirit of their beloved Confederacy.
[tl;dr: read this book! start a conversation of how the ACW effects us today; especially in race relations... there’s no evidence for the Black Confederate soldier... and this work will be an absolute trigger for neo-confederates.]
It feels strange and admittedly nerdy to call SFBC a wild ride throughout but it’s true. Thoroughly researched and well written, I was thoroughly engaged throughout the book. Searching for Black Confederates never lagged for me. I attribute this to the relatively short length (241 pages!? that’s a light read in this genre! bring it!) as well as the never ending push by Mr. Levin to not only make his point but prove it. Again and again he provides not opinion but facts supported with research by himself and other reputable scholars. In idiom form... he shows his math.
His position comes out early and often, and it’s unapologetic in its clarity. Levin’s criticism comes hardest upon the faulty analytical process of the perpetrators of the Black Confederate Soldier myth. While it is clear that African-Americans could be found throughout the Confederate war effort, this book is concerned with the question: did Blacks actively fight for the Confederacy of their own free will?
His most effective argument isn’t that Lost Cause believers, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and other neo-Confederates are Wrong, but rather that the historical record never supports their analysis. Levin prepares their position for assault by regularly giving credit to what the SCV and their supporters get right in their sources but then pointing at where the analysis is flawed and unsupported. Shoddy research, collective group think, and a willingness to ignore the very words written by the Confederate leaders neo-Confederates claim to admire lead to many perpetuating the myth of the black confederate soldier. In attempting to remain relevant the 21st century, the lovers of the Lost Cause have undercut the roots of the spirit of their beloved Confederacy.
[tl;dr: read this book! start a conversation of how the ACW effects us today; especially in race relations... there’s no evidence for the Black Confederate soldier... and this work will be an absolute trigger for neo-confederates.]
July 26, 2021
One of the most persistent and pernicious myths promoted by neo-Confederates and proponents of the Lost Cause interpretation of the American Civil War, the Black Confederate myth comes under exacting scrutiny in Kevin M. Levin's brief, compelling Searching for the Black Confederates.
Tracing the myth from its roots in the romanticised portrayals of the relationship between masters and the slaves who accompanied them into the war, Levin reveals how the Sons of Confederate Veterans further distorted historical memory by exaggerating and fabricating black involvement in the Confederate cause following the success of Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family and Ken Burns' The American Civil War. The success of Burns and Haley's work, as well as the TV dramatisation of Roots, re-oriented slavery as the primary cause of the American Civil War. "States' rights" interpretations were on the way out after decades of predominance.
Levin explains how the SCV and other Confederate groups responded by rewriting the history of enslaved men such as Silas Chandler and others who served as body servants to enlisted whites. No longer was the photo of Silas and Sgt. Andrew Martin Chandler the picture of a man and his slave but that of a black and a white soldier united in defence of the South against Northern invaders. Claims that tens of thousands of blacks voluntarily joined the Confederate war effort as soldiers were concocted out of thin air. Monuments erected out of sympathy for the Confederacy that promoted the devoted slave motif were no longer sufficient for these rewriters of history. The slaves in these idealised tributes became, like their real-life counterparts, soldiers. As Levin shows, promoters of Black Confederate tales cared little when evidence flatly contradicted them.
Levin follows the phenomenon into the internet age, which has seen the proliferation of Black Confederate narratives -- aided by mislabelling and digital manipulation of photographs of black Union troops -- that sell falsehoods to web users who often don't have the knowledge and familiarity with Civil War history to unpack the lies. Presented with evidence that former slaves applied for, and often received, pensions from southern states for their Civil War service, amateur historians could be forgiven for believing that they're seeing proof that blacks functioned as enlisted soldiers during the war. Levin ably shows that, with rare exceptions, these applicants acknowledged their roles as enslaved men, and that their receipt of financial aid was part of an effort by white southern society to reward former slaves who were sufficiently accepting of the racial hierarchy of the Jim Crow era.
Searching for Black Confederates isn't a mere polemic, however. One aspect of the book I greatly enjoyed was Levin's exploration of the relationships that did exist between Confederate soldiers and the slaves who accompanied them. It would be convenient for an author challenging neo-Confederate wishful thinking to disregard evidence of loyal slaves who in many cases played a crucial role in returning their dead masters' bodies home, or who neglected opportunities to escape as the Union began to overwhelm their Confederate opponents and Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. Levin, to his credit, presents such stories as evidence of the complicated nature of the master/slave relationships during a time of conflict. Naturally he scoffs at the notion that such stories validate claims of benevolent slaveholders and happy slaves popularised in post-Civil War media. Instead, he emphasises the psychological and logistical challenges that slaves faced when choosing whether to stay or flee.
There's also an interesting look at black men who achieved minor fame during the 20th century as regulars of Civil War conventions promoting an image of former slaves who remained devoted to their masters and their cause in the years following the end of the war. Like present-day African Americans who find acceptance with the SCV by perpetuating Black Confederate mythology and framing the secessionist movement as a rebellion against big government, these "happy slaves" projected an image acceptable to guardians of southern honour who weren't particularly concerned with accuracy. What exactly motivated men like Jefferson Shields and Steve Perry to present themselves in this way isn't fully clear, but it's fascinating to read about them.
For a book of roughly 200 pages, Searching for Black Confederates packs a punch as an enquiry into the changing nature of civil war memory and the necessity for vigilance against historical distortion. No sooner had Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox than political and racial motivations began to influence the way the American Civil War was remembered. This continues today, with controversy accompanying the removal of Confederate monuments and battle flags from various public places. Whether its a statue of Lee or a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, every totem to the Confederate cause has its defenders, who wish to look upon American history through rose-tinted glasses. The myth of Black Confederates is an example of this thinking. Fortunately, authors like Kevin Levin are working diligently to correct the record.
Tracing the myth from its roots in the romanticised portrayals of the relationship between masters and the slaves who accompanied them into the war, Levin reveals how the Sons of Confederate Veterans further distorted historical memory by exaggerating and fabricating black involvement in the Confederate cause following the success of Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family and Ken Burns' The American Civil War. The success of Burns and Haley's work, as well as the TV dramatisation of Roots, re-oriented slavery as the primary cause of the American Civil War. "States' rights" interpretations were on the way out after decades of predominance.
Levin explains how the SCV and other Confederate groups responded by rewriting the history of enslaved men such as Silas Chandler and others who served as body servants to enlisted whites. No longer was the photo of Silas and Sgt. Andrew Martin Chandler the picture of a man and his slave but that of a black and a white soldier united in defence of the South against Northern invaders. Claims that tens of thousands of blacks voluntarily joined the Confederate war effort as soldiers were concocted out of thin air. Monuments erected out of sympathy for the Confederacy that promoted the devoted slave motif were no longer sufficient for these rewriters of history. The slaves in these idealised tributes became, like their real-life counterparts, soldiers. As Levin shows, promoters of Black Confederate tales cared little when evidence flatly contradicted them.
Levin follows the phenomenon into the internet age, which has seen the proliferation of Black Confederate narratives -- aided by mislabelling and digital manipulation of photographs of black Union troops -- that sell falsehoods to web users who often don't have the knowledge and familiarity with Civil War history to unpack the lies. Presented with evidence that former slaves applied for, and often received, pensions from southern states for their Civil War service, amateur historians could be forgiven for believing that they're seeing proof that blacks functioned as enlisted soldiers during the war. Levin ably shows that, with rare exceptions, these applicants acknowledged their roles as enslaved men, and that their receipt of financial aid was part of an effort by white southern society to reward former slaves who were sufficiently accepting of the racial hierarchy of the Jim Crow era.
Searching for Black Confederates isn't a mere polemic, however. One aspect of the book I greatly enjoyed was Levin's exploration of the relationships that did exist between Confederate soldiers and the slaves who accompanied them. It would be convenient for an author challenging neo-Confederate wishful thinking to disregard evidence of loyal slaves who in many cases played a crucial role in returning their dead masters' bodies home, or who neglected opportunities to escape as the Union began to overwhelm their Confederate opponents and Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. Levin, to his credit, presents such stories as evidence of the complicated nature of the master/slave relationships during a time of conflict. Naturally he scoffs at the notion that such stories validate claims of benevolent slaveholders and happy slaves popularised in post-Civil War media. Instead, he emphasises the psychological and logistical challenges that slaves faced when choosing whether to stay or flee.
There's also an interesting look at black men who achieved minor fame during the 20th century as regulars of Civil War conventions promoting an image of former slaves who remained devoted to their masters and their cause in the years following the end of the war. Like present-day African Americans who find acceptance with the SCV by perpetuating Black Confederate mythology and framing the secessionist movement as a rebellion against big government, these "happy slaves" projected an image acceptable to guardians of southern honour who weren't particularly concerned with accuracy. What exactly motivated men like Jefferson Shields and Steve Perry to present themselves in this way isn't fully clear, but it's fascinating to read about them.
For a book of roughly 200 pages, Searching for Black Confederates packs a punch as an enquiry into the changing nature of civil war memory and the necessity for vigilance against historical distortion. No sooner had Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox than political and racial motivations began to influence the way the American Civil War was remembered. This continues today, with controversy accompanying the removal of Confederate monuments and battle flags from various public places. Whether its a statue of Lee or a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, every totem to the Confederate cause has its defenders, who wish to look upon American history through rose-tinted glasses. The myth of Black Confederates is an example of this thinking. Fortunately, authors like Kevin Levin are working diligently to correct the record.
September 18, 2019
I have come to the conclusion that a little history in the wrong hands is a very dangerous thing. That is no more true than in the myth of the Black Confederate Soldier. In Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth, author and historian Kevin M Levin debunks this myth using both secondary and contemporaneous sources. As Levin shows, this myth actually began in the 1970s in response to the gains of the Civil Rights movement. It was part of the attempt to 'deracialize' the Civil War to 'prove' that the war was not fought over slavery but states rights. As the myth developed, it entered the education system so that it became widely disseminated 'history'. Levin looks at all the 'evidence' used to back up its claims, some of them direct and deliberate falsehoods but some, like a photograph of a Black man sitting beside a white man, both in Confederate uniforms, are, as he shows, misunderstandings of what the particular documentation signifies. Searching for Black Confederates is well-researched and well-documented and, unlike too many history books, interesting and accessible and I recommend it highly.
In Searching for Black Confederates, Levin shows how small bits of history taken out of context can become dangerous 'truths' especially in a world where the Internet functions on memes and one can easily find any 'facts' to back up biases. This is particularly dangerous when it is used, as in the case of the myth of the Black Confederate, to dismiss the horrors of slavery, one of the worst human rights violations ever committed.
Thanks to Netgalley and University of North Carolina Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
In Searching for Black Confederates, Levin shows how small bits of history taken out of context can become dangerous 'truths' especially in a world where the Internet functions on memes and one can easily find any 'facts' to back up biases. This is particularly dangerous when it is used, as in the case of the myth of the Black Confederate, to dismiss the horrors of slavery, one of the worst human rights violations ever committed.
Thanks to Netgalley and University of North Carolina Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
September 23, 2019
The author strives to debunk the most persistent myth about the Civil War; black Confederate soldiers. He asserts that there were none, and anyone claiming the opposite is using the myth to further their own agenda. I found the book to be very engaging, and easy to read. Each chapter focused on a different aspect of black Confederate soldiers, and the book overall was very enjoyable. Also, it wasn't a massive tome like so many newly released Civil War themed books seem to be.
March 25, 2022
Published in August of 2019 by The University of North Carolina Press.
As the title states, one of the most common myths of the "the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery" crowd is that thousands and thousands of African-Americans served in organized units in the Confederate Army.
To be fair to the mistaken people that advocate for this position, there were African-American people traveling with the Confederate Army. They were not there as volunteers - they were there as body servants to their masters. There were also a great number of slaves that were commandeered by the Confederate government to dig ditches and fortifications, much like horses were taken to pull wagons and replace cavalry mounts. They were there as property - as tools, but not as soldiers.
Is it conceivable that some of those slaves picked up a gun in the midst of a fight and fired it in anger? Certainly. I am absolutely certain that it happened. But, was that the plan? No, that is simply what happened in the chaos of battle. It was literally against the law for African Americans to join the military in the Confederacy. The Confederate reactions to the creation of African American units in the Union Army was revulsion, panic and fear that the North was trying to incite a slave rebellion by arming former slaves. There was a lot of denial that African Americans would even make decent soldiers - it was frequently commented that they were too docile to make decent soldiers. Why would they say that if the Confederacy had "thousands" of African American soldiers?
Clearly, there weren't.
I would compare it to...
Read more at: https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2020...
As the title states, one of the most common myths of the "the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery" crowd is that thousands and thousands of African-Americans served in organized units in the Confederate Army.
To be fair to the mistaken people that advocate for this position, there were African-American people traveling with the Confederate Army. They were not there as volunteers - they were there as body servants to their masters. There were also a great number of slaves that were commandeered by the Confederate government to dig ditches and fortifications, much like horses were taken to pull wagons and replace cavalry mounts. They were there as property - as tools, but not as soldiers.
Is it conceivable that some of those slaves picked up a gun in the midst of a fight and fired it in anger? Certainly. I am absolutely certain that it happened. But, was that the plan? No, that is simply what happened in the chaos of battle. It was literally against the law for African Americans to join the military in the Confederacy. The Confederate reactions to the creation of African American units in the Union Army was revulsion, panic and fear that the North was trying to incite a slave rebellion by arming former slaves. There was a lot of denial that African Americans would even make decent soldiers - it was frequently commented that they were too docile to make decent soldiers. Why would they say that if the Confederacy had "thousands" of African American soldiers?
Clearly, there weren't.
I would compare it to...
Read more at: https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2020...
November 28, 2022
I’ve grown weary and significantly less tolerant (if I was ever tolerant) of people advocating for the Lost Cause.
For the uninitiated, around the time of reconstruction toward the end of the 19th century, believers of the Lost Cause asserted the the Civil War was not fought over slavery but rather “states rights”. Monuments went up all over the country (primarily in the South) celebrating the Confederacy and the myth of the loyal and contented slave proliferated.
If people choose to suspend all belief and credibility while ignoring the mountains of documents and statements from Confederate leaders explicitly stating that the war was about slavery (Vice President Alexander Stephens called the superiority of whites over blacks the ‘cornerstone’ of the Confederacy) that is I suppose their prerogative. That they would be better served believing in more plausible things, such as unicorns or leprechauns is not for me to judge.
That is until these delusional fantasies infiltrate public discourse and classrooms.
It is at that point that as tedious and self explanatory as it may be, those of us still adhering to facts and reality must continue to push back on these dangerous mistruths.
Which is why “Searching for Black Confederates” is such an important book.
The author takes one particular trope from the Lost Cause, that of black Confederate soliders who willingly fought the North out of loyalty to the South and their masters and well and truly eviscerates it.
This myth of the black Confederate soldier gained traction in the 1970s with various Confederate organizations increasingly losing the battle for public opinion to increased scholarship, seminal television events such as the miniseries Roots, and recognition that slavery was at the heart of the war.
With the rise of the Internet and changing racial attitudes, this myth has become prominent once again as a kind of shield against those seeking to accurately portray the role of slavery in the Civil War as well as perhaps, to assuage their own guilt about a shameful period in our history.
How could racial animus be the cause of the war after all if the South had black regiments, some claiming even before the North did!
That black soldiers were not officially sanctioned by the Confederacy until a month before the end of the war doesn’t seem to trouble those who cling to this fantasy, with some claiming in spite of impassioned written records of Confederate government officials and white soldiers being adamantly opposed to it, that in spite of that, it happened ‘unofficially’. While we have ample historical record that a large number of people were opposed to black soldiers, for the argument that there were as many as 60,000, we have merely speculation, websites with misleading and often falsified information, and the occasional doctored photo.
We even have one ‘historian’ claiming that the thousands of blacks forced to join their masters as servants at the front were in fact not really slaves at all but more like today’s version of what we would consider an “executive assistant”. Needless to say, as the author rightly points out, this historian fails to point out an example of an executive assistant who is legally owned by their superior.
These justifications, evasions, and distortions of history are so ridiculous in the face of the evidence (some who claim that blacks receiving pensions after the war as ‘soldiers’ ignore that the paperwork clearly designates that it is a pension reserved exclusively for those who ‘loyally served their master’) that tempted as we might be to ignore them as we might a crazy man to talks into his hairdryer, we cannot.
We need books such as this one to remind us that once the last living witness to a historical moment dies, the battle for that history truly begins. Often even long before that.
For the uninitiated, around the time of reconstruction toward the end of the 19th century, believers of the Lost Cause asserted the the Civil War was not fought over slavery but rather “states rights”. Monuments went up all over the country (primarily in the South) celebrating the Confederacy and the myth of the loyal and contented slave proliferated.
If people choose to suspend all belief and credibility while ignoring the mountains of documents and statements from Confederate leaders explicitly stating that the war was about slavery (Vice President Alexander Stephens called the superiority of whites over blacks the ‘cornerstone’ of the Confederacy) that is I suppose their prerogative. That they would be better served believing in more plausible things, such as unicorns or leprechauns is not for me to judge.
That is until these delusional fantasies infiltrate public discourse and classrooms.
It is at that point that as tedious and self explanatory as it may be, those of us still adhering to facts and reality must continue to push back on these dangerous mistruths.
Which is why “Searching for Black Confederates” is such an important book.
The author takes one particular trope from the Lost Cause, that of black Confederate soliders who willingly fought the North out of loyalty to the South and their masters and well and truly eviscerates it.
This myth of the black Confederate soldier gained traction in the 1970s with various Confederate organizations increasingly losing the battle for public opinion to increased scholarship, seminal television events such as the miniseries Roots, and recognition that slavery was at the heart of the war.
With the rise of the Internet and changing racial attitudes, this myth has become prominent once again as a kind of shield against those seeking to accurately portray the role of slavery in the Civil War as well as perhaps, to assuage their own guilt about a shameful period in our history.
How could racial animus be the cause of the war after all if the South had black regiments, some claiming even before the North did!
That black soldiers were not officially sanctioned by the Confederacy until a month before the end of the war doesn’t seem to trouble those who cling to this fantasy, with some claiming in spite of impassioned written records of Confederate government officials and white soldiers being adamantly opposed to it, that in spite of that, it happened ‘unofficially’. While we have ample historical record that a large number of people were opposed to black soldiers, for the argument that there were as many as 60,000, we have merely speculation, websites with misleading and often falsified information, and the occasional doctored photo.
We even have one ‘historian’ claiming that the thousands of blacks forced to join their masters as servants at the front were in fact not really slaves at all but more like today’s version of what we would consider an “executive assistant”. Needless to say, as the author rightly points out, this historian fails to point out an example of an executive assistant who is legally owned by their superior.
These justifications, evasions, and distortions of history are so ridiculous in the face of the evidence (some who claim that blacks receiving pensions after the war as ‘soldiers’ ignore that the paperwork clearly designates that it is a pension reserved exclusively for those who ‘loyally served their master’) that tempted as we might be to ignore them as we might a crazy man to talks into his hairdryer, we cannot.
We need books such as this one to remind us that once the last living witness to a historical moment dies, the battle for that history truly begins. Often even long before that.
April 27, 2022
The civil war being such an inflated history topic it's nice to read something that isn't just about battles or military history but touches on something that is actively effecting us today in our political landscape and debunks a current commonly used lost cause argument.
Goes well into detail by building historical context of the antebellum and Jim crow south. It also explains well the reasons as to why this modern narrative was created and still actively used.
Great use of first hand accounts during the war to explain why enslaved people were not viewed as soldiers during the conflict(or really at any point where veterans of the war were active) and shows that this idea was invented directly to combat the conversation that the civil war truly was about slavery.
Goes well into detail by building historical context of the antebellum and Jim crow south. It also explains well the reasons as to why this modern narrative was created and still actively used.
Great use of first hand accounts during the war to explain why enslaved people were not viewed as soldiers during the conflict(or really at any point where veterans of the war were active) and shows that this idea was invented directly to combat the conversation that the civil war truly was about slavery.
May 11, 2023
In March 1865, just weeks before the fall of Richmond that was to be the last act ahead of Appomattox, curious onlookers gathered in that city’s Capitol Square to take in a sight not only never before seen but hardly ever even imagined: black men drilling in gray uniforms—a final desperate gasp by a Confederacy truly on life support. None were to ever see combat. Elsewhere, it is likely that a good number of the ragged white men marching with Robert E. Lee’s shrunken Army of Northern Virginia were aware of this recent development. News travels fast in the ranks, and after all it was pressure from General Lee himself that finally won over adamant resistance at the top to enlist black troops. We can suppose that many of Lee’s soldiers—who had over four years seen much blood and treasure spent to guard the principle that the most appropriate condition for African Americans was in human bondage—were quite surprised by this strange turn of events. But more than one hundred fifty years later, the ghosts of those same men would be astonished to learn that today’s “Lost Cause” celebrants of the Confederacy insist that legions of “Black Confederates” had marched alongside them throughout the struggle.
In Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth (2019), historian Kevin M. Levin brings thorough research and outstanding analytical skills to an engaging and very well-written study of how an entirely fictional, ahistorical notion not only found life, but also the oxygen to gain traction and somehow spawn an increasingly large if misguided audience. For those committed to history, Levin’s effort arrived not a moment too soon, as so many legitimate Civil War groups—on and off social networking—have come under assault by “Lost Cause” adherents who have weaponized debate with fantastical claims that lack evidence in the scholarship but are cleverly packaged and aggressively peddled to the uninformed. The aim is to sanitize history in an attempt to defend the Confederacy, shift the cause of secession from slavery to states’ rights, refashion their brand of slavery as benevolent, and reveal purported long suppressed “facts” allegedly erased by today’s “woke” mob eager to cast the south’s doomed quest to defend their liberty from northern aggression in a negative light. In this process, the concept of “Black Confederates” has turned into their most prominent and powerful meme, winning converts of not only the uninitiated but sometimes, unexpectedly, of those who should know better.
What has been dubbed the “Myth of the Lost Cause” was born of the smoldering ashes of the Confederacy. The south had been defeated; slavery not only outlawed but widely discredited. Many of the elite southern politicians who back in 1861 had proclaimed the Confederate States of America a “proud slave republic” after fostering secession because Lincoln’s Republicans would block their peculiar institution from the territories, now rewrote history to erase slavery as their chief grievance. Attention was instead refocused on “states’ rights,” which in prior decades had mostly served as euphemism for the right to own human beings as property. Still, the scholarly consensus has established that slavery was indeed the central cause of the war. As Gary Gallagher, one of today’s foremost Civil War historians, has urged: pay attention to what they said at the dawn of the war, not what they said when it was over. Of course, for those who promote the Lost Cause, it is just the opposite.
There are multiple prongs to the Lost Cause strategy. One holds slavery as a generally benign practice with deep roots to biblical times, along with a whiff of the popular antebellum trope that juxtaposed the enslaved with beleaguered New England mill workers, maintaining that the former lived better, more secure lives as property—and that they were content, even pleased, by their station in life. This theme was later exploited with much fanfare in the fiction and film of Gone with the Wind, with such memorable episodes as the enslaved Prissy screeching in terror that “De Yankees is comin!”—a cry that in real life would far more likely have been in celebration than distress.
But, as Levin reveals through careful research, the myth of black men in uniform fighting to defend the Confederacy did not emerge until the 1970s, as the actual treatment of African Americans—in slavery, in Jim Crow, as second-class citizens—became widely known to a much larger audience. This motivated Lost Cause proponents to not only further distance the southern cause from slavery, but to invent the idea that blacks actually laid down their lives to preserve it. In the internet age, this most conspicuously translated into memes featuring out-of-context photographs of black men clutching muskets and garbed in gray … the “Black Confederates” who bravely served to defend Dixie against marauding Yankees.
All of this seems counterintuitive, which is why it is remarkable that the belief not only caught on but has grown in popularity. In fact, some half million of the enslaved fled to Union lines over the course of the war. Two hundred thousand black men formed the ranks of the United States Colored Troops (USCT); ultimately a full ten percent of the Union Army was comprised of African Americans. If captured, blacks were returned to slavery or—all too frequently—murdered as they attempted to surrender at Fort Pillow, the Battle of the Crater, and elsewhere. That idea that African Americans would willingly fight for the Confederacy seems not only unlikely, but insane.
So what about those photographs of blacks in rebel uniforms? What is their provenance? To find out, Levin begins by exploring what life was like for white Confederates. In the process, he builds upon Colin Woodward’s brilliant 2014 study, Marching Masters: Slavery, Race, and the Confederate Army During the Civil War. Woodward challenged the popular assumption that while most rebels fought for southern independence, they remained largely agnostic about the politics of slavery, especially since only a minority were slaveowners themselves. Disputing this premise, Woodward argued that the peculiar institution was never some kind of abstract notion to the soldier in the ranks, since tens of thousands of blacks accompanied Confederate armies as “camp slaves” throughout the course of the war! (Many Civil War buffs are shocked to learn that Lee brought as many as six to ten thousand camp slaves with him on the Gettysburg campaign—this while indiscriminately scooping up any blacks encountered along the way, both fugitive and free.)
Levin skips the ideological debate at the heart of Woodward’s thesis while bringing focus to the omnipresence of the enslaved, whose role was entirely non-military, devoted instead to perform every kind of labor that would be part of the duties of soldiers on the other side. This included digging entrenchments, tending to sanitation, serving as teamsters, cooks, etc. Many were subject to impressment by the Confederate government to support the war effort, while others were the personal property of officers or enlisted men, body servants who accompanied their masters to the front. According to Levin, it turns out that some of the famous photographs of so-called Black Confederates were of these enslaved servants whom their owners dressed up for dramatic effect in the studio, decked out in a matching uniform with musket and sword—before even marching off to war. Once in camp, of course, these man would no longer be in costume: they were slaves, not soldiers.
After the war, legends persisted of loyal camp slaves who risked their lives under fire to tend to a wounded master or brought their bodies home for burial. While likely based upon actual events, the number of such occurrences was certainly overstated in Lost Cause lore that portrayed the enslaved as not only content to be chattel but even eager to assist those who held them as property. Also, as Reconstruction fell to Redemption, blacks in states of the former Confederacy who sought to enjoy rights guaranteed to them by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were routinely terrorized and frequently murdered. For African Americans who faced potentially hostile circumstances, championing their roles as loyal camp slaves, real or imagined, translated into a survival mechanism. Meanwhile, whites who desperately wanted to remember that which was contrived or exaggerated zealously hawked such tales, later came to embrace them, and then finally enshrined them as incontrovertible truth, celebrated for decades hence at reunions where former camp slaves dutifully made appearances to act the part.
Still later, there was an intersection of such celebrity with financial reward, when southern states began to offer pensions for veterans and some provision was made for the most meritorious camp slaves. But, at the end of the day, these men remained slaves, not soldiers. Nevertheless, more than a full century hence, many of these pensioners were transformed into Black Confederates. And some of them people the memes of a now resurgent Lost Cause often inextricably entwined with today’s right-wing politics.
It is certainly likely that handfuls of camp slaves may have, on rare occasions, taken up a weapon alongside their masters and fired at soldiers in blue charging their positions. Such reports exist, even if these cannot always be corroborated. In the scheme of things, these numbers are certainly miniscule. And, of course, in every conflict there are collaborators. But the idea that African Americans served as organized, uniformed forces fighting for the south not only lacks evidence but rationality.
Yet, how can we really know for certain? For that, we turn to a point Levin makes repeatedly in the narrative: there are simply no contemporaneous accounts of such a thing. It has elsewhere been estimated that soldiers in the Civil War, north and south, collectively wrote several million letters. Tens of thousands of these survive, and touch on just about every imaginable topic. Not a one refers Black Confederate troops in the field.
On the other hand, quite a few letters home reference the sometimes-brutal discipline inflicted upon disobedient camp slaves. In one, a Georgia Lieutenant informed his wife that he whipped his enslaved servant Joe “about four hundred lashes … I tore his back and legs all to pieces. I was mad enough to kill him.” Another officer actually did beat a recalcitrant slave to death [p26-27]. Such acts went unpunished, of course, and that they were so frankly and unremarkably reported in letters to loved ones speaks volumes about the routine cruelty of chattel slavery while also contradicting modern fantasies that black men would willingly fight for such an ignoble cause. The white ex-Confederates who later hailed the heroic and loyal camp slave no doubt willingly erased from memory the harsh beatings that could characterize camp life; the formerly enslaved who survived likely never forgot.
Searching for Black Confederates is as much about disproving their existence as it is about the reasons some insist against all evidence that they did. With feet placed firmly in the past as well as the present, Levin—who has both a talent for scholarship as well as a gifted pen—has written what is unquestionably the definitive treatment of this controversy, and along the way has made a significant contribution to the historiography. The next time somebody tries to sell you on “Black Confederates,” advise them to read this book first, and then get back to you!
I reviewed the Woodward book here: Review of: Marching Masters: Slavery, Race, and the Confederate Army During the Civil War, by Colin Edward Woodward
Latest book review & podcast review is live ... "Review of: Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth," by Kevin M. Levin – Regarp Book Blog https://regarp.com/2023/05/11/review-...
In Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth (2019), historian Kevin M. Levin brings thorough research and outstanding analytical skills to an engaging and very well-written study of how an entirely fictional, ahistorical notion not only found life, but also the oxygen to gain traction and somehow spawn an increasingly large if misguided audience. For those committed to history, Levin’s effort arrived not a moment too soon, as so many legitimate Civil War groups—on and off social networking—have come under assault by “Lost Cause” adherents who have weaponized debate with fantastical claims that lack evidence in the scholarship but are cleverly packaged and aggressively peddled to the uninformed. The aim is to sanitize history in an attempt to defend the Confederacy, shift the cause of secession from slavery to states’ rights, refashion their brand of slavery as benevolent, and reveal purported long suppressed “facts” allegedly erased by today’s “woke” mob eager to cast the south’s doomed quest to defend their liberty from northern aggression in a negative light. In this process, the concept of “Black Confederates” has turned into their most prominent and powerful meme, winning converts of not only the uninitiated but sometimes, unexpectedly, of those who should know better.
What has been dubbed the “Myth of the Lost Cause” was born of the smoldering ashes of the Confederacy. The south had been defeated; slavery not only outlawed but widely discredited. Many of the elite southern politicians who back in 1861 had proclaimed the Confederate States of America a “proud slave republic” after fostering secession because Lincoln’s Republicans would block their peculiar institution from the territories, now rewrote history to erase slavery as their chief grievance. Attention was instead refocused on “states’ rights,” which in prior decades had mostly served as euphemism for the right to own human beings as property. Still, the scholarly consensus has established that slavery was indeed the central cause of the war. As Gary Gallagher, one of today’s foremost Civil War historians, has urged: pay attention to what they said at the dawn of the war, not what they said when it was over. Of course, for those who promote the Lost Cause, it is just the opposite.
There are multiple prongs to the Lost Cause strategy. One holds slavery as a generally benign practice with deep roots to biblical times, along with a whiff of the popular antebellum trope that juxtaposed the enslaved with beleaguered New England mill workers, maintaining that the former lived better, more secure lives as property—and that they were content, even pleased, by their station in life. This theme was later exploited with much fanfare in the fiction and film of Gone with the Wind, with such memorable episodes as the enslaved Prissy screeching in terror that “De Yankees is comin!”—a cry that in real life would far more likely have been in celebration than distress.
But, as Levin reveals through careful research, the myth of black men in uniform fighting to defend the Confederacy did not emerge until the 1970s, as the actual treatment of African Americans—in slavery, in Jim Crow, as second-class citizens—became widely known to a much larger audience. This motivated Lost Cause proponents to not only further distance the southern cause from slavery, but to invent the idea that blacks actually laid down their lives to preserve it. In the internet age, this most conspicuously translated into memes featuring out-of-context photographs of black men clutching muskets and garbed in gray … the “Black Confederates” who bravely served to defend Dixie against marauding Yankees.
All of this seems counterintuitive, which is why it is remarkable that the belief not only caught on but has grown in popularity. In fact, some half million of the enslaved fled to Union lines over the course of the war. Two hundred thousand black men formed the ranks of the United States Colored Troops (USCT); ultimately a full ten percent of the Union Army was comprised of African Americans. If captured, blacks were returned to slavery or—all too frequently—murdered as they attempted to surrender at Fort Pillow, the Battle of the Crater, and elsewhere. That idea that African Americans would willingly fight for the Confederacy seems not only unlikely, but insane.
So what about those photographs of blacks in rebel uniforms? What is their provenance? To find out, Levin begins by exploring what life was like for white Confederates. In the process, he builds upon Colin Woodward’s brilliant 2014 study, Marching Masters: Slavery, Race, and the Confederate Army During the Civil War. Woodward challenged the popular assumption that while most rebels fought for southern independence, they remained largely agnostic about the politics of slavery, especially since only a minority were slaveowners themselves. Disputing this premise, Woodward argued that the peculiar institution was never some kind of abstract notion to the soldier in the ranks, since tens of thousands of blacks accompanied Confederate armies as “camp slaves” throughout the course of the war! (Many Civil War buffs are shocked to learn that Lee brought as many as six to ten thousand camp slaves with him on the Gettysburg campaign—this while indiscriminately scooping up any blacks encountered along the way, both fugitive and free.)
Levin skips the ideological debate at the heart of Woodward’s thesis while bringing focus to the omnipresence of the enslaved, whose role was entirely non-military, devoted instead to perform every kind of labor that would be part of the duties of soldiers on the other side. This included digging entrenchments, tending to sanitation, serving as teamsters, cooks, etc. Many were subject to impressment by the Confederate government to support the war effort, while others were the personal property of officers or enlisted men, body servants who accompanied their masters to the front. According to Levin, it turns out that some of the famous photographs of so-called Black Confederates were of these enslaved servants whom their owners dressed up for dramatic effect in the studio, decked out in a matching uniform with musket and sword—before even marching off to war. Once in camp, of course, these man would no longer be in costume: they were slaves, not soldiers.
After the war, legends persisted of loyal camp slaves who risked their lives under fire to tend to a wounded master or brought their bodies home for burial. While likely based upon actual events, the number of such occurrences was certainly overstated in Lost Cause lore that portrayed the enslaved as not only content to be chattel but even eager to assist those who held them as property. Also, as Reconstruction fell to Redemption, blacks in states of the former Confederacy who sought to enjoy rights guaranteed to them by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were routinely terrorized and frequently murdered. For African Americans who faced potentially hostile circumstances, championing their roles as loyal camp slaves, real or imagined, translated into a survival mechanism. Meanwhile, whites who desperately wanted to remember that which was contrived or exaggerated zealously hawked such tales, later came to embrace them, and then finally enshrined them as incontrovertible truth, celebrated for decades hence at reunions where former camp slaves dutifully made appearances to act the part.
Still later, there was an intersection of such celebrity with financial reward, when southern states began to offer pensions for veterans and some provision was made for the most meritorious camp slaves. But, at the end of the day, these men remained slaves, not soldiers. Nevertheless, more than a full century hence, many of these pensioners were transformed into Black Confederates. And some of them people the memes of a now resurgent Lost Cause often inextricably entwined with today’s right-wing politics.
It is certainly likely that handfuls of camp slaves may have, on rare occasions, taken up a weapon alongside their masters and fired at soldiers in blue charging their positions. Such reports exist, even if these cannot always be corroborated. In the scheme of things, these numbers are certainly miniscule. And, of course, in every conflict there are collaborators. But the idea that African Americans served as organized, uniformed forces fighting for the south not only lacks evidence but rationality.
Yet, how can we really know for certain? For that, we turn to a point Levin makes repeatedly in the narrative: there are simply no contemporaneous accounts of such a thing. It has elsewhere been estimated that soldiers in the Civil War, north and south, collectively wrote several million letters. Tens of thousands of these survive, and touch on just about every imaginable topic. Not a one refers Black Confederate troops in the field.
On the other hand, quite a few letters home reference the sometimes-brutal discipline inflicted upon disobedient camp slaves. In one, a Georgia Lieutenant informed his wife that he whipped his enslaved servant Joe “about four hundred lashes … I tore his back and legs all to pieces. I was mad enough to kill him.” Another officer actually did beat a recalcitrant slave to death [p26-27]. Such acts went unpunished, of course, and that they were so frankly and unremarkably reported in letters to loved ones speaks volumes about the routine cruelty of chattel slavery while also contradicting modern fantasies that black men would willingly fight for such an ignoble cause. The white ex-Confederates who later hailed the heroic and loyal camp slave no doubt willingly erased from memory the harsh beatings that could characterize camp life; the formerly enslaved who survived likely never forgot.
Searching for Black Confederates is as much about disproving their existence as it is about the reasons some insist against all evidence that they did. With feet placed firmly in the past as well as the present, Levin—who has both a talent for scholarship as well as a gifted pen—has written what is unquestionably the definitive treatment of this controversy, and along the way has made a significant contribution to the historiography. The next time somebody tries to sell you on “Black Confederates,” advise them to read this book first, and then get back to you!
I reviewed the Woodward book here: Review of: Marching Masters: Slavery, Race, and the Confederate Army During the Civil War, by Colin Edward Woodward
Latest book review & podcast review is live ... "Review of: Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth," by Kevin M. Levin – Regarp Book Blog https://regarp.com/2023/05/11/review-...
November 19, 2019
Dr. Kevin Levin's latest contribution to the historic canon centers around spilling an awful lot of ink on debunking a risible premise: that tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands, of black troops served as enlisted, uniformed soldiers in the armies of the Confederate States of America. While this claim has never been made by any serious historian, it has circulated in certain circles and gained some traction thanks to faulty research and misidentified photographs, and Levin has taken it upon himself to correct this erroneous belief, despite the fact that it actually has very little currency outside of fringe circles.
At its core, Levin's work is predicated upon solid ground, as he writes extensively about the actual, and vitally important, roles played by enslaved persons in the Confederate army as sappers, teamsters, cooks, valets, and occasional scouts and guides. This aspect of the book, however, has already been covered extensively elsewhere, although the early chapters of Levin's work serve as a useful summation of this research.
The thrust of the work, however, hinges upon debunking the myth that there were regular, enlisted black soldiers, an assertion so patently false as to require, frankly, no reply; while Levin attempts to relate this myth to the larger issue of selective history and national and cultural mythmaking, he has opted to target very low hanging apples which can tell us very little about the nature of oranges. The much more interesting, and historically relevant, components of the work center around the "evidence" marshaled to support black Confederate soldiers - state Confederate pensions for blacks and the roles of blacks at Confederate veterans' memorial - but he is so busy tackling the easy questions that he has very little time to delve into the hard ones.
On the whole, I would consider Searching for Black Confederates an unfortunate waste of an interesting oppurtunity. While an improvement over his study of the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg, Levin's latest book fails to rise about easy jabs and pointless "gotcha" moments. Instead of fully confronting the larger and much more fraught issue of how we are to understand blacks as components of the Confederate Army, he he elected to tackle what is, essentially, a historical conspiracy theory. One might as well write a science textbook on the wetness of water.
At its core, Levin's work is predicated upon solid ground, as he writes extensively about the actual, and vitally important, roles played by enslaved persons in the Confederate army as sappers, teamsters, cooks, valets, and occasional scouts and guides. This aspect of the book, however, has already been covered extensively elsewhere, although the early chapters of Levin's work serve as a useful summation of this research.
The thrust of the work, however, hinges upon debunking the myth that there were regular, enlisted black soldiers, an assertion so patently false as to require, frankly, no reply; while Levin attempts to relate this myth to the larger issue of selective history and national and cultural mythmaking, he has opted to target very low hanging apples which can tell us very little about the nature of oranges. The much more interesting, and historically relevant, components of the work center around the "evidence" marshaled to support black Confederate soldiers - state Confederate pensions for blacks and the roles of blacks at Confederate veterans' memorial - but he is so busy tackling the easy questions that he has very little time to delve into the hard ones.
On the whole, I would consider Searching for Black Confederates an unfortunate waste of an interesting oppurtunity. While an improvement over his study of the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg, Levin's latest book fails to rise about easy jabs and pointless "gotcha" moments. Instead of fully confronting the larger and much more fraught issue of how we are to understand blacks as components of the Confederate Army, he he elected to tackle what is, essentially, a historical conspiracy theory. One might as well write a science textbook on the wetness of water.
September 13, 2019
***I was granted an ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***
The book, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth by Kevin Levin, challenges the myth that large numbers of African Americans served in the Confederate army and charts the myth’s development to the present day. Levin explains that for most of the Civil War, the Confederacy refused to allow black slaves to become soldiers in the army. It wasn’t until a couple a month before its defeat, when it was in dire straits, that the Confederate government allowed for black men to join their armies. Since their defeat, many in the south, including groups like the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy, have used the idea of enslaved blacks fighting as soldiers under the Confederate flag to back their Lost Cause narrative and divorce racism and white supremacy from the Confederate cause. This narrative made its way into textbooks, museums and even into National Parks until being challenged and put into context in current times. Levin does a great job of pointing out the errors in the way Lost Cause proponents use historical evidence to back their claims. From the mischaracterization of the black camp servants as soldiers, so-called photographic evidence of black Confederate soldiers, pension papers and narratives created after the war, Levin puts everything into its proper historical narrative allowing the reader to see how over time the truth became distorted. This is a great analysis of Black Confederate soldier narrative and will be an interesting read for anyone interested in the Civil War and its influence on American culture.
Rating: 4 stars. Would recommend to a friend.
The book, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth by Kevin Levin, challenges the myth that large numbers of African Americans served in the Confederate army and charts the myth’s development to the present day. Levin explains that for most of the Civil War, the Confederacy refused to allow black slaves to become soldiers in the army. It wasn’t until a couple a month before its defeat, when it was in dire straits, that the Confederate government allowed for black men to join their armies. Since their defeat, many in the south, including groups like the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy, have used the idea of enslaved blacks fighting as soldiers under the Confederate flag to back their Lost Cause narrative and divorce racism and white supremacy from the Confederate cause. This narrative made its way into textbooks, museums and even into National Parks until being challenged and put into context in current times. Levin does a great job of pointing out the errors in the way Lost Cause proponents use historical evidence to back their claims. From the mischaracterization of the black camp servants as soldiers, so-called photographic evidence of black Confederate soldiers, pension papers and narratives created after the war, Levin puts everything into its proper historical narrative allowing the reader to see how over time the truth became distorted. This is a great analysis of Black Confederate soldier narrative and will be an interesting read for anyone interested in the Civil War and its influence on American culture.
Rating: 4 stars. Would recommend to a friend.
June 25, 2020
Very interesting book on origins of the Black Confederate soldier narrative and it’s origins. The author begins with the civil war and how slaves are often brought to the battlefield and camps during the war. They were usually the personal manservant of a soldier and not treated as soldiers themselves. There were many stories of close bonds between master and slave but nothing about a slave being a soldier. Later it delves into the Lost Cause narrative and how white Southerners time ok good care of their slaves. In the late 19th and early 20th century black men who had been on the battlefield were allowed to collect pensions from the Sons of Confederate Veterans but as slaves, not soldiers. The author Kevin M. Levin takes us through the 20th century looking at White Southerners narrative of the civil war. Roots in the 70s was a jolt and another jolt was The Civil War PBS show by Ken Burns, a doctored photo and a man who claims his ancestors were Black Confederates begin to show up. Interesting read and ver short. Enjoyed it.
November 6, 2019
If the Lost Cause and the War of Northern Aggression were actual physical things, I would be happy to squeeze them to dust and shoot the particles into the sun.
But they are not things, they are ever-mutating concepts that are used to obscure actual history, and damnit, can we please just look at the record, learn from it, acknowledge our history, accept that immiseration, slavery, and other cruelties are part and parcel of our entire history, and then try to make things better? And maybe we could remember that while US history is unusual and truly exceptional in many ways, we are, in the end, pretty much like most of history's players: the current citizens of a country with a blood-drenched, shockingly violent and inequitable past.
And we don't study it nearly enough. This important book is essential reading to help mitigate that ignorance. When I was a kid, our history lessons were pro forma: brave new colonists, unfortunate native people, unpleasant enslavement of people shipped from Africa - then Lincoln, Civil War, Emancipation, no more slavery blah blah blah World War I. We never got very far with Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the end of the 19th century's sentimentalized spin on brothers fighting brothers, so sad, cue the violins, and build all the damn Confederate monuments, while black Americans were blocked at every effort to participate in the life of the country and were terrorized by increasingly violent campaigns to try to keep them unfree.
And then, in the 1970s, as this book describes, a new effort of obfuscation arose - the myth of the black Confederate soldiers, trying to convince us, again, that it wasn't so bad, that the bonds between slave and master were so heartfelt and strong that African American slaves not only accompanied their masters to the battlefield, but willingly put on uniforms and took up arms to help their owners preserve their shared and beloved way of life.
No. Not so much. Of course there were African Americans at and around the battles. They were slaves. Not only did they wait on their masters, cooking, cleaning, laundering, providing them with amusement and entertainment, they were also pressed into the labor of building and digging and hauling, of collecting the dead, of doing whatever slaves were commanded to do.
It's probably better to stop reading my diatribe and just go read the book, and see if it makes you feel all diatribe-y too. And read the other reviews; many of them are far more enlightening than this one. I'm just so frustrated and heartsick.
But they are not things, they are ever-mutating concepts that are used to obscure actual history, and damnit, can we please just look at the record, learn from it, acknowledge our history, accept that immiseration, slavery, and other cruelties are part and parcel of our entire history, and then try to make things better? And maybe we could remember that while US history is unusual and truly exceptional in many ways, we are, in the end, pretty much like most of history's players: the current citizens of a country with a blood-drenched, shockingly violent and inequitable past.
And we don't study it nearly enough. This important book is essential reading to help mitigate that ignorance. When I was a kid, our history lessons were pro forma: brave new colonists, unfortunate native people, unpleasant enslavement of people shipped from Africa - then Lincoln, Civil War, Emancipation, no more slavery blah blah blah World War I. We never got very far with Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the end of the 19th century's sentimentalized spin on brothers fighting brothers, so sad, cue the violins, and build all the damn Confederate monuments, while black Americans were blocked at every effort to participate in the life of the country and were terrorized by increasingly violent campaigns to try to keep them unfree.
And then, in the 1970s, as this book describes, a new effort of obfuscation arose - the myth of the black Confederate soldiers, trying to convince us, again, that it wasn't so bad, that the bonds between slave and master were so heartfelt and strong that African American slaves not only accompanied their masters to the battlefield, but willingly put on uniforms and took up arms to help their owners preserve their shared and beloved way of life.
No. Not so much. Of course there were African Americans at and around the battles. They were slaves. Not only did they wait on their masters, cooking, cleaning, laundering, providing them with amusement and entertainment, they were also pressed into the labor of building and digging and hauling, of collecting the dead, of doing whatever slaves were commanded to do.
It's probably better to stop reading my diatribe and just go read the book, and see if it makes you feel all diatribe-y too. And read the other reviews; many of them are far more enlightening than this one. I'm just so frustrated and heartsick.
October 28, 2020
Can be a touch dry at times, but this invaluable books gathers all available evidence for black Confederate soldiers and solidly debunks it. The author places the need to have black soldiers fighting for the Confederacy within the Lost Cause narrative. He shows how implausible it was to have had black soldiers and then, how the evolution of the Lost Cause chose to embrace a faulty memory. He cites extensive documentation that camp slaves became these soldiers. He also examines how, within a 50-year period, the change from this being "The War of Northern Aggression" or a battle over states rights, became an acknowledgement of the South's desire to preserve the horrible institution of slavery. It is crucial to have black soldiers fighting to repel Northern invaders to keep the discussion of the Civil War away from enslavement.
If you're a student of history, you should read this.
If you're a student of history, you should read this.
May 19, 2021
Unless you've heard one of the southern heritage folks talk about the concept with a straight face, you might find the basic concept hard to believe...their premise that perhaps thousands of African Americans, enslaved or free, fought as soldiers on behalf of the Confederacy.
This book does have a weakness, which is that the author fails to point out the most obvious counter-evidence to the premise, which is that somehow so few of these supposedly many soldiers ever got hit by bullets, since they don't seem to turn up in medical records on either side. The author also fails to note that there were probably a small number of African Americans in units that had begun as pre-war militia units, especially in Texas, where "able-bodied and not a Comanche" seemed to be the main requirements for being allowed to pick up a gun.
Where the book shines is in pointing out the organized nature of the 1990s campaign to spread this idea of Black Confederates in historical settings. I heard a Sons of Confederate Veterans official give a talk on this topic to a historical society, and until this book I hadn't thought about the fact that it was right around that same time.
The information in the book on how politicized the state pension systems were was also interesting. Basically, African Americans who were camp slaves AND didn't participate in Reconstruction, or who at least disavowed it, could be eligible for a small pension in some southern states. Gee, why would they ever make up anything about their lives with the Confederate army?
This book does have a weakness, which is that the author fails to point out the most obvious counter-evidence to the premise, which is that somehow so few of these supposedly many soldiers ever got hit by bullets, since they don't seem to turn up in medical records on either side. The author also fails to note that there were probably a small number of African Americans in units that had begun as pre-war militia units, especially in Texas, where "able-bodied and not a Comanche" seemed to be the main requirements for being allowed to pick up a gun.
Where the book shines is in pointing out the organized nature of the 1990s campaign to spread this idea of Black Confederates in historical settings. I heard a Sons of Confederate Veterans official give a talk on this topic to a historical society, and until this book I hadn't thought about the fact that it was right around that same time.
The information in the book on how politicized the state pension systems were was also interesting. Basically, African Americans who were camp slaves AND didn't participate in Reconstruction, or who at least disavowed it, could be eligible for a small pension in some southern states. Gee, why would they ever make up anything about their lives with the Confederate army?
August 30, 2024
An excellent book that thoroughly debunks the myth that Blacks served in the Confederate army. Dr. Levin provides numerous examples showing why this myth has grown to such illogical proportions. I find his examples of opposition to the idea during the war the most damning. Many writers during the war knew that enlisting blacks in the Confederate army would undermine their entire reason for secession in the first place--not just slavery, but white supremacy in the broadest sense for it Blacks could fight as well as Whites, then what was the reason for treating them as sub-human? Moreover, the very idea of arming Blacks was anathema to so mush in Southern culture.
The book also points out the danger of those "doing their own research" without any technical knowledge of verification, understanding context, or spotting fake or altered materials.
The book also points out the danger of those "doing their own research" without any technical knowledge of verification, understanding context, or spotting fake or altered materials.
June 22, 2020
An excellent, thoroughly researched book addressing the claim of African Americans fighting for the Confederacy. Levin completely debunks the claim. I was greatly surprised to read at the end that Henry Louis Gates has supported this claim. (Own)
January 6, 2021
An excellent book, addressing a continuing problem in historical memory. It needs to be widely read, and would serve excellently as a resource in undergraduate classes, especially alongside Charles Dew's Apostles of Disunion.
The narrator on the audiobook is also very good.
The narrator on the audiobook is also very good.
September 1, 2019
This is an incredibly fascinating and informative read on a vital, and sadly sensitive, subject.
The author did an amazing job debunking the myth of the black Confederate soldiers. Making his case in a very well written, structured way and presenting the facts in an objective and impartial manner. Slaves were not free to make their own choices, duh… and the Southern states (at that time) regarded them as property not people and would never have wanted to elevate them to the rank of soldier, which would have implied they were equal to white men.
I was pleased by the richness of historical details and context provided by the author’s meticulous and in-depth research, conscientiously referencing the many quotations throughout the book. In the foreword, he also makes a very good case for the necessity of having this book out there in this day and age of fake news & the internet, as well as the rising tide, unfortunately, of (aggressive) white supremacy. The author brilliantly demonstrates how important academic research is in the fight against fake news as a way to ignore all the pesky little facts that don’t fit into some people’s narrative or worldview.
It’s sad, scary, and incomprehensible, that so many people today still feel the need to revere and defend the former slave-owning Southern states. Why not take responsibility and preserve this history as a warning and lesson, instead of trying to glorify it?
I have learned so much reading this book. Very much a necessary read.
The author did an amazing job debunking the myth of the black Confederate soldiers. Making his case in a very well written, structured way and presenting the facts in an objective and impartial manner. Slaves were not free to make their own choices, duh… and the Southern states (at that time) regarded them as property not people and would never have wanted to elevate them to the rank of soldier, which would have implied they were equal to white men.
I was pleased by the richness of historical details and context provided by the author’s meticulous and in-depth research, conscientiously referencing the many quotations throughout the book. In the foreword, he also makes a very good case for the necessity of having this book out there in this day and age of fake news & the internet, as well as the rising tide, unfortunately, of (aggressive) white supremacy. The author brilliantly demonstrates how important academic research is in the fight against fake news as a way to ignore all the pesky little facts that don’t fit into some people’s narrative or worldview.
It’s sad, scary, and incomprehensible, that so many people today still feel the need to revere and defend the former slave-owning Southern states. Why not take responsibility and preserve this history as a warning and lesson, instead of trying to glorify it?
I have learned so much reading this book. Very much a necessary read.
October 10, 2019
I truly had no idea that this myth is still being pushed. Very thorough debunking of a completely absurd idea. Blech. Review to come.
March 6, 2022
A good read. 3.5 stars. It's an interesting look at the long game factors in rewriting history and how those efforts are still in play.
May 30, 2021
If you are at all interested in the Civil War, Reconstruction, or the Lost Cause Myth, this is a VERY interesting read that is short and engaging!
September 27, 2019
Kevin M. Levin's excellent new book is about the role that African-Americans actually played in the Confederate Military and how perceptions of that role shifted during and after the Civil Rights Movement through misinterpretation of primary sources, both deliberate and otherwise. Levin writes pointedly about how the men who served as Camp Slaves and their enslavers would have thought the notion of their being armed African-Americans in the Confederate Military as preposterous. Levin has produced a fine work and easily my favourite chapter was the 5th, regarding the origins of the myth in the 1970s and how it initially spread. This chapter includes some analysis of the response to major pieces of popular culture relating to Slavery and the Civil War - including "Roots" and "Glory". I have a soft spot for media analysis and cultural memory studies.
If you're at all interested in the Civil War, historiography, or cultural memory this is not a book to miss.
If you're at all interested in the Civil War, historiography, or cultural memory this is not a book to miss.
August 31, 2025
I think it's sort of interesting reading this now, watching the current administration seek to rewrite and erase black history. After the, admittedly flawed, progress made by the United States during Biden's presidency, we're back to having blind praise and propping up of Confederate traitors by the current government.
The issue of black Confederates has interested me for a while. You see people mention them everywhere (in fact, there are points in my life where I fully believed the half truth of their existence), but in almost every instance it's used to justify the lost cause myth rather than really have a serious discussion about the place of slaves in the Confederacy. Levin's book effectively looks at these claims presenting a well researched analysis of the concept of the black Confederates as well as a great look into how the lies about slaves in the Confederate army spread over the years.
In recent years, I've seen an increased prominence of the idea that slaves and former slaves served with the Confederates. Maybe it's just the hellholes of the internet I waste my time on, but I find it concerning how commonplace the claim is. It feels, sometimes, that I'm watching history slowly be morphed into the history white supremacists want. Most people don't know enough about the black Confederates to really determine whether or not they actually existed, and when you see a lie repeated everywhere, you're more likely to believe it. It terrifies me because I'm certain that the myth of black men, serving as soldiers in the CSA will be, if it has not already been, further spread by the current administration, and unlike other lies they hope to tell to reform American history to fit their agenda, this one might actually become the accepted belief. In around 180 pages, Levin dispels the notion of black Confederates, but most people won't take the time to read even that.
The issue of black Confederates has interested me for a while. You see people mention them everywhere (in fact, there are points in my life where I fully believed the half truth of their existence), but in almost every instance it's used to justify the lost cause myth rather than really have a serious discussion about the place of slaves in the Confederacy. Levin's book effectively looks at these claims presenting a well researched analysis of the concept of the black Confederates as well as a great look into how the lies about slaves in the Confederate army spread over the years.
In recent years, I've seen an increased prominence of the idea that slaves and former slaves served with the Confederates. Maybe it's just the hellholes of the internet I waste my time on, but I find it concerning how commonplace the claim is. It feels, sometimes, that I'm watching history slowly be morphed into the history white supremacists want. Most people don't know enough about the black Confederates to really determine whether or not they actually existed, and when you see a lie repeated everywhere, you're more likely to believe it. It terrifies me because I'm certain that the myth of black men, serving as soldiers in the CSA will be, if it has not already been, further spread by the current administration, and unlike other lies they hope to tell to reform American history to fit their agenda, this one might actually become the accepted belief. In around 180 pages, Levin dispels the notion of black Confederates, but most people won't take the time to read even that.
December 8, 2020
This is the clearest and most detailed overview of the Black Confederate myth. It should be a staple in Civil War courses.
August 31, 2019
This book is painstakingly researched and beautifully written. Levin thoroughly exposes the misread sources, misinterpretations, and outright lies which have lead to a fringe movement of neo-Confederates to perpetuate the myth that African Americans served in the Confederate military during the Civil War. This goes on the list of books I wish I could make every American read.
August 24, 2019
A myth laid to rest.
Well documented and thoroughly researched book on the myth of the Black Confederate 'SOLDIER '. Highly readable and informative. If one is interested in the history and development of the mythical Black Confederate 'SOLDIER ' this is the go to book.
The book has footnotes, index and bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
Highly recommended.
Well documented and thoroughly researched book on the myth of the Black Confederate 'SOLDIER '. Highly readable and informative. If one is interested in the history and development of the mythical Black Confederate 'SOLDIER ' this is the go to book.
The book has footnotes, index and bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
Highly recommended.
May 7, 2020
To initiate this review of Searching for Black Confederates, I am introducing myself as a public historian with near forty years in the field. Almost twelve of these spent at a Lincoln museum with previous research into the field of public memory particularly that of the Civil War and Lincoln. Kevin Levin’s book lands in the segregated world of American public history. It is a world divided between heritage’s personal past and academic historians working on their own, in universities or museums.
Searching for Black Confederates is narrowly focused on one component of Civil War memory. Like all memory studies it says little about the actual known past, but much about current political and social attitudes of those telling the stories. The key thesis is that the stories of African Americans serving, particularly, as soldiers by the thousands within the Confederate Army is a modern addition to the Lost Cause myth promoted by an increasingly marginalized pro-Confederate culture. Levin supports this thesis through a quick review of some of the historic sources used to promote this belief and a much deeper study of public history and commemoration activities promoting the Lost Cause. This culminates in his review of the current iconoclasm confronting the supporters of Confederate heritage. The Son’s of Confederate Veterans (SCV) slogan “Heritage, not hate” has been wearing thin in recent decades after the Civil Rights movement and the greater acceptance that American slavery was a leading cause of the conflict.
In his final section, Levin takes some time to address two academic scholars who have adopted the belief that slaves and free blacks were serving as regular soldiers in order to defend that black men were agents of their fates. Extensive recent publications into slave and free black histories should have proven the validity of the complexity of African American experiences in America.
Critics of this work have attacked Levin for ignoring opposing evidence noting that the north was not fighting to end slavery and was racist. I repeat this is a narrowly focused book. Lincoln documented this national fault in his 1865 Inauguration address. He confessed both sides as guilty of the sins of slavery; there were no good guys in the conflict. Only right and wrong about secession and any defense of slavery as a social good.
Further work should be done perhaps by analyzing all The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies for the range of times African Americans are mentioned and in what context. This is not likely to change respectable interpretations much as this collection has been mined for a century by generations of Civil War scholars and researchers. Historiographies of the Civil War are common, but I would like to see a direct confrontation with current historians and other scholars promoting the Black Confederate myth.
Searching for Black Confederates is narrowly focused on one component of Civil War memory. Like all memory studies it says little about the actual known past, but much about current political and social attitudes of those telling the stories. The key thesis is that the stories of African Americans serving, particularly, as soldiers by the thousands within the Confederate Army is a modern addition to the Lost Cause myth promoted by an increasingly marginalized pro-Confederate culture. Levin supports this thesis through a quick review of some of the historic sources used to promote this belief and a much deeper study of public history and commemoration activities promoting the Lost Cause. This culminates in his review of the current iconoclasm confronting the supporters of Confederate heritage. The Son’s of Confederate Veterans (SCV) slogan “Heritage, not hate” has been wearing thin in recent decades after the Civil Rights movement and the greater acceptance that American slavery was a leading cause of the conflict.
In his final section, Levin takes some time to address two academic scholars who have adopted the belief that slaves and free blacks were serving as regular soldiers in order to defend that black men were agents of their fates. Extensive recent publications into slave and free black histories should have proven the validity of the complexity of African American experiences in America.
Critics of this work have attacked Levin for ignoring opposing evidence noting that the north was not fighting to end slavery and was racist. I repeat this is a narrowly focused book. Lincoln documented this national fault in his 1865 Inauguration address. He confessed both sides as guilty of the sins of slavery; there were no good guys in the conflict. Only right and wrong about secession and any defense of slavery as a social good.
Further work should be done perhaps by analyzing all The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies for the range of times African Americans are mentioned and in what context. This is not likely to change respectable interpretations much as this collection has been mined for a century by generations of Civil War scholars and researchers. Historiographies of the Civil War are common, but I would like to see a direct confrontation with current historians and other scholars promoting the Black Confederate myth.
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