[578] Sewanee Review, Vol. II, pp. 94-95; Acts of Ala., Nov. 20, 1863, and Resolution of Aug. 29, 1863; Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 10.
[579] See also C. C. Jones, Jr., in the Magazine of American History, Vol. XVI, pp. 168-175. When the war ended General (now Senator) Morgan was recruiting near Selma for a Confederate negro brigade.
[580] His master was named Godwin. Horace learned to make bridges, and became so skilful and was so much in demand that he was set free. By special act of the Alabama legislature he was given civil rights and at once he became a slave owner. After the war he was in Republican politics for a while, but soon went back to bridge-building.
[581] Some masters, like General John B. Gordon, informed their slaves that the victory of the North meant the freedom of the negroes. See Ku Klux Rept., Ga. Test., and Sewanee Review, Vol. II, p. 95. I have been told by ex-slaves that the negroes in the quarters believed from the first that their freedom would follow the defeat of the masters, but that few slaves believed that their masters could be defeated.
[582] The following are some of the various occupations in which slaves relieved whites: spinners, weavers, dyers, cutters and dressmakers, body-servants, butlers, coachmen, gardeners, carpenters, planters, brick masons, painters, tanners, shoemakers, harness makers, barrel makers, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, machinists, engineers, millers, seine and sail makers, and ship carpenters, besides farm occupations. Nearly all of the skilled laborers were negroes. Their industrial capacity was even greater during the war than in time of peace. President Winston in Proceedings of Fourth Conference for Education in the South, pp. 40, 41. See also the books of Miss Hague, Mrs. Clayton, and Booker T. Washington.
[583] Harrison, “Gospel Among the Slaves,” p. 299.
[584] See Mallard, pp. 209, 210; Hague, “Blockaded Family”; Clayton, “White and Black”; “Our Women in War”; Sewanee Review, Vol. II, p. 95.
[585] See Mallard, p. 210; Sewanee Review, Vol. II, pp. 94-95; Southern Magazine, Jan., 1874.
[586] It has been estimated that one-fourth of the total number of negroes was not engaged in field labor, but in some kind of service which brought them into close relations with the whites. Tillinghast, “Negro in Africa and America,” p. 126. And on the farms and smaller plantations also the blacks knew their “white folks.”
[587] See W. H. Thomas, “American Negro,” p. 41.