Lee's Army Becomes Slave Hunters

jgoodguy

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Plenty of evidence has been previously presented about the AnV kidnapping AAs in the website that shall not be mentioned.
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You have access there, maybe URLs to the threads would be nice.
 

diane

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Possible, but in the case of the ANV in Pennsylvania, there were orders to send blacks to ANV HQ, and keeping a slave in camp is going to be difficult. They have to be fed and guarded.
That's very, very true...for the ANV. If you were a partisan outfit, that might be another story, though!
 

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Possible, but in the case of the ANV in Pennsylvania, there were orders to send blacks to ANV HQ, and keeping a slave in camp is going to be difficult. They have to be fed and guarded.
Not difficult as the kidnapped AAs were sold once they were in Virginia.
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jgoodguy

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That's very, very true...for the ANV. If you were a partisan outfit, that might be another story, though!
Indeed. Sometimes the difference between bandits and partisans was not clear as well as do it your self retribution on neighbors.
 

diane

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Indeed. Sometimes the difference between bandits and partisans was not clear as well as do it your self retribution on neighbors.
There were several irregulars who did a lot of things the regulars couldn't do, and a little lucrative slave dealing on the side was liable to make up for the family farm biting the dust! Forrest, who certainly knew everything there was to know about his business, had very harsh penalties for anyone caught selling someone, whether they were free or not. If not, they had an owner who was out of pocket whatever they were worth, and he was very sensitive about that. That's why he took his slaves to war with him - 47 prime field hands at market value of the time represented at minimum about 125,000 investment. Yep...taking this with me!
 

jgoodguy

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There were several irregulars who did a lot of things the regulars couldn't do, and a little lucrative slave dealing on the side was liable to make up for the family farm biting the dust! Forrest, who certainly knew everything there was to know about his business, had very harsh penalties for anyone caught selling someone, whether they were free or not. If not, they had an owner who was out of pocket whatever they were worth, and he was very sensitive about that. That's why he took his slaves to war with him - 47 prime field hands at market value of the time represented at minimum about 125,000 investment. Yep...taking this with me!
Forrest keeps going up in my estimation. If I remember correctly it was slaveowners whose slaves had run off that pressures the CSA Congress/House to pass the legislation. The funny thing was that an escaped slave had to admit he was a runaway and name his master then that was put in the newspaper. The master had to read the notice and show up. Problematic in the last stages of the war. The slaves in the depots set up were easy targets for CSA conscription.
 

jgoodguy

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That's easy " Free blacks taken in Pennsylvania" Aug 15 2017 " CWT . Plenty of sources.
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You missed the one where the slaves were BBQed over spits in the field. Gotta be one because of all the stuff I see slung about.
 

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You missed the one where the slaves were BBQed over spits in the field. Gotta be one because of all the stuff I see slung about.
Valid sources are in the aforementioned thread . So the accounts of people who were at the scene in Gettysburg invalid? White Confederates are scrupulous in defense of equal rights?
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diane

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Forrest keeps going up in my estimation. If I remember correctly it was slaveowners whose slaves had run off that pressures the CSA Congress/House to pass the legislation. The funny thing was that an escaped slave had to admit he was a runaway and name his master then that was put in the newspaper. The master had to read the notice and show up. Problematic in the last stages of the war. The slaves in the depots set up were easy targets for CSA conscription.
It got even more complicated if the judge said you had no standing because of citizenship and that black testimony (which meant yours) was inadmissible. Any white could claim you - that's how a large number of Indians were enslaved. If Lee's army took any people with them, it was going to be some long time before it got straightened out. Fortunately, the end of the war resolved all of it. The owner did indeed have to step up and claim his slave, but Forrest had that problem corralled - he knew just about every slave holder in Tennessee and Mississippi and was like to know their slaves as well. Quite often he was able to leave word with the owner where his slaves were! He never had to be told to pick up slaves, it was just in the course of his job - he was one of those planters leaning on Davis about keeping his property. Sometimes he referred to his troops as his 'posse'.
 

jgoodguy

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It got even more complicated if the judge said you had no standing because of citizenship and that black testimony (which meant yours) was inadmissible. Any white could claim you - that's how a large number of Indians were enslaved. If Lee's army took any people with them, it was going to be some long time before it got straightened out. Fortunately, the end of the war resolved all of it. The owner did indeed have to step up and claim his slave, but Forrest had that problem corralled - he knew just about every slave holder in Tennessee and Mississippi and was like to know their slaves as well. Quite often he was able to leave word with the owner where his slaves were! He never had to be told to pick up slaves, it was just in the course of his job - he was one of those planters leaning on Davis about keeping his property. Sometimes he referred to his troops as his 'posse'.
I remember a lot of court cases about stolen slaves. There was in many cases a paper trail, but of course cheap might make a buyer less cautious. Most if not all of the slave depot records went missing at the end of the war so we have little information. The estimates of free blacks taken South by Lee range from 80 to over 1,000 suggesting no one really knows. What little we have records a couple of free blacks hired out as laborers.
 
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jgoodguy

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Valid sources are in the aforementioned thread . So the accounts of people who were at the scene in Gettysburg invalid? White Confederates are scrupulous in defense of equal rights?
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White Yankees are completely accurate in their accounts, unbiased, write clean concise records and have perfect memory.
 

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White Yankees are completely accurate in their accounts, unbiased, write clean concise records and have perfect memory.
There were written accounts by AAs in the aforementioned thread on the other forum which shall not be named.
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