Small Proportion of Slaveholders Among Virginia Soldiers

The accusation that the people of Virginia of the Civil War period stood ready to fight "no matter whom and little matter how, for the protection of slavery and slave property," because of the profits derived from the inter-state slave trade, would seem to acquit those Virginians who derived no benefit from the traffic. We have seen, from the facts heretofore presented, what a small proportion of the people of Virginia were owners of slaves; and all available data indicate a still less proportion of slaveholders among the soldiers which the state contributed to the armies of the Southern Confederacy.

Professor A. B. Hart, of Harvard University, says: "Out of 12,500,000 persons, in the slave-holding communities in 1860, only about 384,000 persons—or one in thirty-three—was a slaveholder."^[216]

The same author estimates that each slaveholder was the head of a family and that, therefore, 350,000 white families in the South, out of a total of 1,800,000, owned slaves; though 77,000 of these families owned only one slave each, and 200,000 of the remaining owned less than ten slaves each.^[217]

The author is, of course, in error in assuming that every slaveholder was the head of a family. Doubtless in a large majority of cases such was the fact. The Federal census, however, from which his first figures are taken, is correct in showing the exact number owning slaves. This number included men, women and children, and, not infrequently, a number of persons were part owners of the same slave or slaves, and yet each was enumerated as a slaveholder.

Admiral Chadwick's analysis of the census returns for Virginia shows that of the 52,128 slaveholders in the state, one-third held but one or two slaves, half one to four, and that but one hundred and fourteen persons held as many as one hundred each. He also points out the fact that the great majority of the soldiers in the ranks of the Confederate Armies, from Virginia and the South, possessed no such interest.

SLAVEHOLDERS IN THE RANKS

From a mass of data bearing more directly upon the number of slaveholders in the ranks of the Virginia soldiers, we select two citations:

Major Robert Stiles, late a prominent member of the Richmond Bar, referring to the personnel of the Richmond Howitzers (of which he was a member) and the motives which impelled them to fight, writes:

"Why did they volunteer? For what did they give their lives?... Surely, it was not for slavery they fought. The great majority of them had never owned a slave, and had little or no interest in the institution. My own father, for example, had freed his slaves long years before."^[218]

This command was composed of representatives of the leading families in the city of Richmond, at that time the largest slaveholding city in the state. Here one would expect to find the slaveholding soldiers.

Dr. Hunter McGuire, the medical director of the Stonewall Brigade, has left on record his estimate of the number of slaveholders in the ranks of that command—which, being drawn from all portions of the state, was more representative of the citizenship of Virginia, East and West:

"The Stonewall Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia," writes Dr. McGuire, "was a fighting organization. I knew every man in it, for I belonged to it for a long time; and I know that I am in proper bounds when I assert, that there was not one soldier in thirty who owned or ever expected to own a slave."^[219]

But it is also urged that, while men without slaves filled the ranks of the Virginia regiments, yet slaveholders led these soldiers into battle as they had led the people into revolution.

SLAVEHOLDERS AMONG THE LEADERS

It is obviously impracticable to present the facts with reference to each one of the prominent leaders which Virginia gave to the armies of the Confederacy. By universal accord her five most notable generals were, Robert E. Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston, A. P. Hill and J. E. B. Stuart—to whom may be added Fitzhugh Lee and Matthew F. Maury, as only less prominent but no less representative of her leading soldiers.

In dealing with these men, and their relation to slavery, we pass from the domain of conjecture into the realm of fact.

Robert E. Lee never owned a slave, except the few he inherited from his mother—all of whom he emancipated many years prior to the war.^[220]

"Stonewall" Jackson never owned but two slaves, a man and a woman, both of whom he purchased at their own solicitation. He immediately accorded to them the privilege of earning their freedom, by devoting the wages received for their services to reimburse him for the purchase money. This offer was accepted by the man, who, in due time, earned his freedom. The woman declined the offer, preferring to remain a servant in General Jackson's family.^[221]

Joseph E. Johnston never owned a slave and, like General Lee, regarded the institution with great disfavor.^[222]

A. P. Hill never owned a slave, and regarded slavery as an evil, much to be deplored.^[223]

J. E. B. Stuart inherited one slave from his father's estate; and, while stationed as a lieutenant in the United States Army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, purchased another. Both of these he disposed of some years prior to the war—the first, because of her cruelty to one of his children, and the second, to a purchaser who undertook to return the slave to his former home in Kentucky.^[224]

Fitzhugh Lee never owned a slave.^[225]

Matthew F. Maury never owned but one slave, a woman who remained a servant and member of his family until her death, some years after the war.^[226] As we have seen, he characterized the institution as "a curse."^[227]

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[216]

Slavery and Abolition, Hart, p. 67.

[217]

Idem, p. 68.

[218]

Four Years Under Marse Robert, Stiles, p. 49.

[219]

The Confederate Cause and Conduct, in the War Between the States, McGuire and Christian, p. 22.

[220]

See letter from his eldest son, General G. W. Custis Lee, to the Author, dated February 4, 1907, on file in Virginia Historical Society.

[221]

The Confederate Cause and Conduct in the War Between the States, McGuire and Christian, p. 22.

[222]

See letter from his nephew, Dr. George Ben Johnston, of Richmond, Va., dated April 17, 1907, to the Author, on file in Virginia Historical Society.

[223]

See letter from his son-in-law, James Macgill, dated April 20, 1908, to the Author, on file in Virginia Historical Society.

[224]

See letter from his widow, Mrs. Flora Stuart, to the Author, dated March 25, 1908, on file in Virginia Historical Society.

[225]

See letter from his brother, Daniel M. Lee, to the Author, dated May 28, 1908, on file in Virginia Historical Society.

[226]

See letter from his son, Colonel Richard L. Maury, to the Author, dated June 1, 1907, on file in Virginia Historical Society.

[227]

See Life of Matthew F. Maury, Corbin, p. 131.