Racial Discrimination
This letter from a Confederate soldier informs the Union of the Confederate policy of re-enslaving captured black troops. This demonstrates how black soldiers were still considered as property by the Confederacy and reflects the huge amount of racial prejudice that blacks had to undergo on a daily basis.
Black soldiers faced enormous racial prejudice and discrimination from both sides during the Civil War. Many white men believed that black men lacked the ability and discipline to fight effetively, and for much of the war, blacks were paid $10 a month (not including a $3 clothing deduction) in comparison to $13 for white men. (This discrepancy was eventually reversed by Congress in 1864.) Black regiments were not allowed to have black commanders.
Moreover, black troops were treated far more brutally than whites by the Confederate Army as prisoners of war. Black soldiers were often killed unnecessarily after defeat and were subject to unspeakable atrocities by victorious Confederates. The most famous of these brutal incidents occurred at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, where Confederate soldiers under General Nathan Bedford Forrest butchered and abused numerous black soldiers after the Confederates had already seized the fort and the Union soldiers had surrendered peacefully. Forrest would later go on to play a leading role in the development of the Ku Klux Klan.
Letter citation:
N.d. Photograph. National Archives. United States Government. Web. <http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/black-pows.html>.
Moreover, black troops were treated far more brutally than whites by the Confederate Army as prisoners of war. Black soldiers were often killed unnecessarily after defeat and were subject to unspeakable atrocities by victorious Confederates. The most famous of these brutal incidents occurred at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, where Confederate soldiers under General Nathan Bedford Forrest butchered and abused numerous black soldiers after the Confederates had already seized the fort and the Union soldiers had surrendered peacefully. Forrest would later go on to play a leading role in the development of the Ku Klux Klan.
Letter citation:
N.d. Photograph. National Archives. United States Government. Web. <http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/black-pows.html>.