Confederate Reckoning

The exclusion of enslaved people from the politics of the Confederacy was “as close to a founding principle as the Confederacy had” (218). While white women were officially excluded from the political process, they were nonetheless entitled to the protection of the state. Enslaved people, by contrast, had no such protections. The institution of enslavement made them subordinate to their masters, but treated them as entirely outside the compass of the state. Traditionally, in societies where enslavement was a major economic, political, and social factor, enslavement strengthened individual enslaver households and weakened the state. This was also true for the United States and the CSA.

The CSA’s Constitution defined enslaved people as property, mandated that any new states have legalized enslavement, and prohibited the federal government from limiting enslavement. During the Civil War, because Confederates thought of enslaved people as “part of the nation’s natural resources” (223), they planned to use enslaved labor for military camps, military police, and engineers and builders. Given that enslaved people made up roughly 40% of the South’s population, there were even proposals for enslaved soldiers, though these proposals were rejected out of fear that arming enslaved people would lead to rebellion. Planters recognized the dangers the war posed for their control over enslaved people, increasing the number of patrols and asking for state support in providing protection.