What Will Be Gained by the Present War?

This is a question that Sgt. Charles W. Singer of the 107th U.S. Colored Infantry asked and then answered in a letter to the editor of the Christian Recorder (Philadelphia, Pa.). This is an excerpt of the complete letter published on Oct. 8, 1864.

The question has frequently been asked: What will be gained by the present war? I ask, in return: What will you not lose by a mongrel state of peace? We would lose the best opportunity that has ever been afforded us to show the whole world that we are willing to fight for our rights. Why should not the black slave of the South fight for his liberty as well as the white serf of Russia? A slave is but a slave, and a man is but a man. Age or color is nothing - blood will tell all. The so-called southern Confederacy is fighting for the establishment of a Government, which will have for its corner-stone the perpetuation of human slavery - the degradation of the many for the purpose of elevating the few; but never shall they succeed so long as I can raise my arm against them. Who ever learned in the school of base submission the lessons of freedom, courage and independence? When did submission to a wrong induce an adversary to cease his encroachments? Some say: "Show me what the colored man has to fight for, and then I will go." You cannot see it now; but wait until some future day, and it will unfold itself most gloriously to the whole country. We want the rights of freemen, and must have them; but we can never get them if the South gain its independence. If I were now a slave at the South, my motto would be: "Give me liberty, or give me death!" I hope that motto will ring throughout the entire length and breadth of the rebel States, and fire the hearts of the men. Shall we not console our aged mothers with the hope, that, when hereafter their souls, crowned with the garlands of martyrdom, look down from the home of the blessed, the united joys of the heavens shall thrill through their immortal spirits, seeing their dear people free from the bondage of slavery?

Post-Civil War Labor Contracts

The phrase labor contracts instantly brings to mind images of the massive reform movement of the late nineteenth century and the powerful political organizations of the twentieth. My father was an active member of his labor union, which protected his rights as a worker in a scissor manufacturing plant in New Jersey. He served as shop steward at one time.

Transcribing the 1866 agreement between Cyrus N. Brown, owner of the Alterra plantation along the Yazoo Delta in Mississippi, and the freedman who were formerly his slaves, I wondered what impact contracts like this (preserved on rolls and rolls of microfilm at the National Archives) had on the larger efforts of labor reform. Here is the transcribed contract:

Yazoo City Jany 5th 1866

We the undersigned foremen agree to work faithfully & honestly for C.N. Brown for the year 1866 for the following considerations. All field hands are to have one third of the corn & cotton made on this plantation for the year 1866, our employer to furnish teams & farming essentials, good rations & medical attention, half of every Saturday to be given to our own pursuits, with team and farming essentials for the cultivation of our gardens, patches & the sawing of wood. All hands are permitted to raise poultry, & four hogs to each family, to furnish their own corn in rearing & fattening their hogs. The hands will select from their number a foreman or leader to be governed & controlled by him as to hours for working & the time to come in from the field. We the foremen of Alterra plantation do agree to obey & respect the orders of the foreman or leader.
All stock shall be regularly attended to on Saturday & Sunday.

C.N. Brown
Samuel (his X mark) Hustin
Dolley (her X mark) Hustin

From Records of the Field Offices for the State of Mississippi. Bureau of Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872. I became aware of these files after finding Freedom's Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Era Mississippi (Indina University Press, 1999) by Noralee Frankel.