Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First Time

by Jacob R. Freese

The facts which we shall relate in this connection cannot fail to be as startling to our readers as they were to us. They have never before been related, either in book or newspaper form; nor would they now be, but that time has wiped out the passions of the war and the limits of personal responsibility, and made the facts legitimate for the purposes of history.

That our readers may understand that no animosity towards the South, or the Southern Confederacy, nor sympathy with the slave in any way, has led to the divulging of these facts, we may say that Colonel Abercrombie, to whom we are indebted for the facts, is a Southern man (a Baltimorian) by birth, and from his earliest recollection was taught to look upon the negro as a different race from our own—as a chattel, to be bought and sold, the same as a horse or cow; that he was a captain in the Thirteenth United States Infantry in the early stages of the war, but, being convinced that his duty lay with the South, resigned his commission in the United States army, went South, joined the Confederate service, and remained as an officer in that service until the close of the war; and that it was not until soon after the war, when he went from New York to Galveston by steamship, and from Galveston travelled nearly all over Texas on horseback, that he became fully aware of the facts which he detailed to us, and which we now purpose to communicate to our readers.

The Colonel, Captain Philip Lander, and three others, left Galveston for Brownsville about the middle of June, 1865. From Galveston to Houston they went by steamboat; at Houston they purchased mules, and from thenceforth pursued their journey on muleback. At Columbus they found a considerable number of Confederate soldiers, who had belonged to General Kirby Smith's command, and were then on their way to their homes. At Bastrop they found two companies of United States volunteers doing guard duty. At Austin, the capital of the State, they found General Sturges with four companies of the regiment which he commanded, the Seventh United States Cavalry. About the middle of July, they left Austin for San Antonio. On the road they saw two men in one place, and one in another, hanging by the neck to limbs of trees, who had been strung up there by roving banditti—probably on the suspicion that they were Union men—and left to hang there as a warning to others. At San Antonio they found General Magruder, who claimed that he had not yet surrendered, though "lying around loose," and, as they afterwards learned, was probably looking after the interests of slave exporters, rather than the interests of the Southern Confederacy. It was the latter part of August when they left San Antonio for Brownsville. After five days' travel from San Antonio, and just before reaching the branch road which leads to Brazos San Diego, from the main military road to Brownsville, they overtook a gang of from six to eight hundred negroes, in charge of, and driven along by, about forty white men, part Americans and part Mexicans. The negroes consisted of men, women, and children. There were no old men or old women among them. Some were handcuffed together; others were tied together with ropes; others not bound in any way. Some women were carrying children in their arms. All were on foot and seemed weary from long travel. Their drivers were all on horseback, some at the front, some at the sides, and some in the rear, all armed with pistols, all with whips in their hands, and all with curses in their mouths, which were hurled at the poor negroes on the slightest provocation. Like cattle drivers, or worse, those at the sides and rear were constantly hallooing, cursing, and saying to the negroes, "Git along! git along! Faster! faster!" with an oath between each command. Many of the women, especially such as were carrying children, seemed ready to faint from exhaustion, and often turned their faces beseechingly, and with tears in their eyes, towards their drivers, but their pleadings were only met by curses, still louder and still deeper, from their inhuman captors and drivers. Behind the gang were three two-wheeled carts and an old ambulance, in the first of which rations, etc., were carried; in the ambulance, besides old clothes, lay a woman whom the drivers said "was about to kid."

The Colonel and his party rode along with this negro-driving party some three or four hours, meanwhile gathering from their own lips all they could relative to the character and extent of the business; how, when, and where inaugurated; how and to whom they sold their human chattels; what the profits of the business, and with whom the profits were divided; what part, if any, the former owner got, etc., etc. The drivers were not at all disposed to be communicative, nevertheless a considerable amount of information was drawn from them, part of which led to other clues, which, being followed up, led to additional information, the whole resulting in a development of the facts embraced in this chapter.

When the branch road before spoken of was reached, the negro-drivers, with their drove of human chattels, turned off for Brazos San Diego, while the Colonel and his party pursued their way to Brownsville (opposite Matamoras), which they reached on the following day. Here, too, they saw a considerable number of negroes in confinement, awaiting boats to take them down the Rio Grande River and thence to a market. From Brownsville the Colonel and his party went into Mexico, where they remained about six months. In February, 1866, the Colonel returned to Texas, and while stopping some time with Mr. Higgins, a large landowner and extensive cattle raiser, near Bastrop, overheard a Mexican ask his son, William Higgins, to get up a fandango at his saw-mills and invite all the negroes of the neighborhood, in order that he (the Mexican) and his party might have opportunity to seize some of the negroes and run them off to a market. This, it will be borne in mind, was about ten months after the close of the war, about six months since the Colonel had seen the drove of negroes on the road to Brazos San Diego, and about three years after President Lincoln's proclamation went into effect, declaring freedom to every slave within the limits of the Southern Confederacy.

Of course, the Colonel was surprised at hearing such a proposition, and, though as much of a pro-slavery man as any one could be after all that had transpired, still felt curious to know all about this new business, or old business, as it might happen to be, of kidnapping, running off, and selling such as had been slaves. His inquiries resulted in developing the following facts:

For many years prior to the war the breeding and raising of negroes had become as much of a standard business in Virginia as the planting and raising of cotton had formerly been, or as the breeding and raising of cattle still is in Texas. As the lands became poorer in Virginia from long cultivation, the raising of crops became less and less profitable, until it was finally discovered that to raise about enough of crops to supply themselves and their negroes with bread and clothing, and to devote all else of their thoughts and energies to the raising of negroes for market and use in States where the climate and quality of soil made the raising of cotton and rice a remunerative business, would, in the long run, be much more profitable to them. This, therefore, became the general sense of the State, and from thenceforth was generally pursued throughout the State. This necessitated middlemen, or slave merchants—such as would purchase the slave of the Virginia farmer at such price as might be agreed upon, take him or her to his place of business, put them in the best possible trim for a market, and then take them off in droves to South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, or wherever else needed, and sell them at private or public sale for the best prices they could obtain. Whatever inhumanity there might be in such business, it certainly resulted in large profits, especially to the dealers, and hence it is not at all surprising that a great many should have been engaged in it.

When the war commenced there were hundreds, if not thousands, of these slave-dealers throughout the South. Some went into the army; some, who had well-filled purses, fled to Cuba, to 'Canada, to Nassau, to England; while others, too poor to get away, too cowardly to fight, too lazy to work, and too ignorant to do any business other than what they had been doing, remained in the country and continued to ply their vocation whenever and wherever opportunity offered. It was a fixed policy with the Confederate Government not to allow slaves to be taken or sold beyond their bounds, and that every possible precaution be taken to prevent the escape of slaves into the Union lines; but the Government had no objection to the sale and transfer of slaves from Virginia to Georgia, or to any other of the Confederate States, and as the Union army advanced into Virginia, rather encouraged such sales and transfers, to prevent the escape of slaves into the Union lines. The effect of this was to make an active and very profitable business for slave-dealers, and to largely increase the number of slaves in the more southern of the Confederate States.

When, besides going into Virginia, Union armies commenced forward movements into Kentucky and Tennessee, into Missouri and Arkansas, it was deemed expedient to run off a large number of the slaves of those States into Texas, the better to secure them from capture by the Union armies, and have them where they could be shipped to foreign ports, if not thereafter needed by the States of the Confederacy, or if, peradventure, the Confederacy itself might fail of success. When, on the 16th of November, 1864, Sherman commenced his march "from Atlanta to the sea," a like necessity of getting slaves beyond the reach of Union soldiers existed in all the Gulf States, and so far as it was possible to get them into Texas it was done. How many thousands, yea, how many hundreds of thousands were thus driven into Texas from other Confederate States, God only knows, or will ever know!

This particular route was made necessary because of the blockading of Southern ports; and because once in Texas, they could be held there until the result of the war was known. It was not, as before stated, the policy of the Confederate Government to have the slaves taken beyond their control, as the corner-stone of the Confederacy was to be slavery, and the more they could have of it the greater, they thought, would be their prosperity; nor was it the policy of the slave-dealer to take his chattel beyond the reach of the best market in the world, so long as there was a reasonable prospect of that market being kept open. In Texas the dealer had the double chance—either to return with his human chattels to the Confederate States, in case it became an established government, or, if that failed, then to ship them from Brazos San Diego, from Brownsville, from Corpus Christi, from Powder Horn, or from any other port that might not be blockaded, to Cuba, to Brazil, or wherever else slavery existed and a market could be found. These slave-dealers watched the result of the contest between the North and the South with the same interest that stock-jobbers and gold-gamblers watched the rise and fall of stocks, and the rise and fall of gold, when they had a large quantity of either on hand, and were waiting to turn their speculation to the best possible account. When news would reach them that the Union armies were carrying everything before them, off would go one or more cargoes of negroes to Cuba or Brazil. When, by the next mail probably, news would reach them that the Confederate armies were meeting with great successes, making it probable that a Southern Confederacy would be established, they would regret that they had sent any away, and hold the firmer to those they had left. The price at which slaves could be sold—especially at forced or hurried sales—in the Brazil and Cuban markets, was far less than what they could reasonably hope to obtain in the Southern Confederacy, provided it became an acknowledged government.