Clip 1 from 'Black Confederates: The Forgotten Men in Gray'

[bboy1ization]

another tid bit. Lincoln was a white surpremisist yet who was to be the confederate pesident and his wife had an adopted black son who was a citizen and free and was getting an education.robert e lee freed his slaves long before the war but grant (leading gen of north) kept his until it was over..black union soldiers got paid half what the whites did but confederate black soldiers were not forced and were paid equal 2 whites.complicated times.and slavery was only a very small reason for the war.

[Reneelwaring]

The American Constition was written so that the States would be able to govern themselves with little intervention from the Federal Government. When the Feds under the pressure of the abolutionists ratified the Constition to abolish slavery they were interfering with State rights. I'm sure that blacks DID fight with the Confederates, after all, they were born in the South but this war for Southerners wasn't about slavery but ironically it was about freedom.

[HardyRoundtree]

"No finer Confederates ever fought." - American General Nathan Bedford Forrest ( May 1865 in speaking about his black soldiers)

[37stepp]

No such thing as a "Black Confederate soldier". They were slaves and had no choice in serving. If the "master" sent or took them, thats all that is was to it. They were property, without rights. They may have thought that they were fighting for southern way of life, but in essence they were fighting to keep themselve enslaved. Any "black confederate soldier" defending Confederancy is simply ignorant, period.

[TexasReb93]

@37stepp easy to say it but history proves otherwise

its very common for simple minded yankees to dismiss blacks as ingorant if they didnt follow the union

just accept many slaves were born in the south and felt it was there homeland

[37stepp]

@TexasReb93 Who would fight for an institution that wanted to keep them in bondage, litterally bought and sold on auction blocks like animals, families seperated never to be seen again? Working from Sun UP to sun Down never recieving a dime for hard back breaking labor... The slave was kept systematically ignorant and if a blackman fought for the CSA he was IGNORANT and had little choice.

[SOUTHERNANDPROUD1861]

@37stepp I had 3 black kin folk fight along side by side with the whites and by there own choice.Ole abe orderd all blacks found fighting with the south to be shot on site hows that from abe

[CherokeeCharli]

I see have more to learn on the issue of the African American role as fighting men in the south. Very interesting topic.

[TexasReb93]

@CherokeeCharli its such a shame these Southern heros were forgotton the NAACP wants us to forget them because it hurts there attempts to make everyone believe blacks only fought for the union and fought for there freedom against evil southern slavers

We few patriotic southerners will not let the NAACP erase there memory

these men were as brave as any white soldier

God Bless these fine men and God Bless the southland

[worseto]

NICE VID THANKS.

[mrceebees14]

All of the blacks that fought for the Confederacy were house negros that had always enjoyed being treated better than the others.

They were essentially brain washed from birth.

[jjuuoi]

@mrceebees14 Wouldnt you defend your land?Fight for the only home that you knew?

[mrceebees14]

@jjuuoi Two things.

1) The Union was defending their land, the southern United States being part of it.

And 2) The South wouldn't have had to "defend" their homeland if they didn't didn't declare war on the US govt by firing on Fort Sumter.

[Tellgryn]

@mrceebees14 This country is a Union of States, not a single one state (Government). There is nothing in our documents that said a state can not withdraw form the Union, in fact many times before the Civil War a number of Northern states wanted to withdraw form the Union.

Fort Sumter while built by the goverment was on South Carolina land and once it had left the Union, the fort belonged to the state. The issue when back and forth in the papers.

[Tellgryn]

@mrceebees14 Louisiana fielded an all free black regiment for the Confederates, and Louisiana had more free blacks than than any state in the Union.

The largest slave holder in Louisiana was a black woman.

[TennesseeOwnsMyBones]

This, my friends, is revisionist history at its finest. The truth? There weren't even enough willing free blacks to make up ONE measely regiment in the Confederate ranks. The government, the army, and society at large abhorred the idea of armed black men: just read contemporary Southern sources on the matter. There were no legions of black Confederates, and the Confederacy most surely was not colour-blind. Dig into the archives and see for yourself...

[Tellgryn]

@TennesseeOwnsMyBones Now that is funny, the Louisiana Native Guard was the first regiment of free blacks and was a Confederate regiment and numbered over 900 free blacks, with black officers. There are a number of good books on the Louisiana Native Guard if you care to look it up.

[TennesseeOwnsMyBones]

@Tellgryn I wouldn't call it funny. The Native Guard you mentioned indeed existed. Yet, when it offered its services to the Confederacy, they were rejected on the basis that they were 'negroes'. Furthermore, I'm sure you know the fabled 'authentic photograph' of the Native Guard, you know, showing a bunch of black men dressed in Confederate gray.

[TennesseeOwnsMyBones]

@Tellgryn I'm also quite sure you also know that this photograph was photoshopped, as the true image presented black men dressed in blue, FLANKED by a white Union officer. I care to look things up alright..

[Tellgryn]

@TennesseeOwnsMyBones Your still funny, because every historian in Louisiana knows about the faked photo of the Native guards.

But that still does not change the fact that the first Black Regiment of the war was a Confederate unit.

[TennesseeOwnsMyBones]

@Tellgryn See, you can repeat this all you want. The bare naked fact remains that the Confederacy did not WANT this unit, precisely because it WAS a black unit. And every Louisiana historian knows about it? I'll go you one further: every scholar in the world knows that that picture of blacks dressed in gray, with the Union white officer edited out, is a fake.

[TennesseeOwnsMyBones]

@Tellgryn Also, if you had cared to look up the offical Confederate congressional records, you'd know that the Confederacy outright FORBADE black men to enlist, let alone carry weapons. And not just black men. A group of Creoles offered its services to the Confederacy and was promptly rejected on the ground that its members were of 'dubious racial heritage'.

[Tellgryn]

@TennesseeOwnsMyBones As a militia unit, the Native Guards paraded with Confederate troops and sought to contribute to the Southern cause in other ways. After the fall of New Orleans, many of the officers and some of the men embraced the Old Flag by forming the first officially-sanctioned black regiment in the Union Army. During the war, the Native Guards fought at Port Hudson, Mansura, and Mobile.

[TennesseeOwnsMyBones]

@Tellgryn The facts are that not some of the men but the entire unit went Union.

[TennesseeOwnsMyBones]

@Tellgryn Lastly, I'm sure you have heard of Alexander Stephens' 'bedrock speech', where the Confederate vice-president STRESSED that the difference between the USA and the new CSA lied exclusively in the interpretation of the 'all men are created equal' doctrine in the Constitution. All men were NOT created equal, per Stephens, as he called white supremacy the bedrock of the new confederacy.

[Tellgryn]

@TennesseeOwnsMyBones Ah bring up a distant relations of mine, Alexander H. was a man behind his time. I know Alex's speech and about the Confederate Constitution and that has nothing to due with the post I made.

[TennesseeOwnsMyBones]

@Tellgryn Yes it has. You cannot spew this baloney about droves of loyal black Confederates - let alone droves of whites SUPPORTING them or even TOLERATING them - without willfully ignoring not only the CS constitution, but also the general white stance on black soldiers in the South. Read Bruce Levine's 'Confederate Emancipation'. To believe blacks were ACCEPTED as soldiers in the South is ludicrous.

[darthroden]

@TennesseeOwnsMyBones

Maybe not accepted as soldiers in the South as a whole, but to their individual units the black servants, teamsters and foragers who picked up guns in battle and joined in were accepted for the most part among their comrades. If there were say ten or twenty such men in each regiment then that still equals a good number of men no matter how you slice it.

[CNS2]

Great video, although the not seeing battle part is not exactly accurate it is still a wonderful little known piece of history not withstanding. God Bless partiotic Black Southerners! †

[sterlingmenthol77]

nice 1

[MrBiggblack83]

i as a black man would never fight for someone who wanted to keep me in chains F-that those of you so called black people who support this ideal are some uncle toms and you should be keep in slavery and close to your white master.

[EBanonymous]

Blacks fought for Washington - And a tremondous amount fought for the British against Washington & Amsrican slavery. Harry Washington ran away from Washington's plantation to do just that.

Partick Henry, Jefferson all had runaway slaves and tens of thousands fled salvery after 1775 Dunmore Proclamation.

As for the "conspiracy" of Confederat soldiers, what a piffle.

It's like Germans saying we found some Jews who fouht in the SS. You people r beyond extreme w. ur "Lost Cause" myth.

[darthroden]

Its clearly obvious you are a fool and closed minded.

Your little Nazi comparison clearly shows you are scared of the topic and so afraid that you are willing to close your mind to it no matter what.

[lance62]

Funny i was aware of this when i was in elementary. Blacks were enslaved for a very simple reason and that was to serve no matter the task and for one to think it was service on one side only should be questioned. Regardless of what we find out later on it's that all they were doing was looking for some form of pride that was always being stripped from them in this land for one reason or another.

[blfine1]

There is movie called "Glory" a true story, but hollywood done, but if you read the historical facts....the union separated white and black soldiers and at the end of the War Union Army would march the Black soldier into certain dealth to use up confederate ammunition and yet in the south they served as soldier, cooks, and labors along side they white counter-parts.....this is often not mention in history

[TOCR815]

@blfine1 Of course it doesn't get mentioned because history is written by winners. It's also why most people think the way they do because it's what they learn from their textbooks but it is far from the truth obviously

[Jchrist420]

As far as the Civil War is concerned, the losers have written the lion's share of their own history, which isn't much. I see plenty of references to black servants in the pages of "Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade" and other veteran literature. A response to Blfine of my own is that there are also plenty of references to blacks serving in Union camps in the same capacities.

[CNS2]

@blfine1 Well done, very good research...

[utubecenseorstruth]

@blfine1 i was at a seminar on slavery ( was one of hte only white people there) and the speaker was honest and said if hte north wanted slavery to end they would have. The north wanted to preserve the union and used the black man as pawns.

[mrceebees14]

@blfine1 The soldiers that served in the Confederacy were mostly "house negros," that had been like a Dog to their masters they would do anything they were told. MOST blacks ran from the south and came up north.

Post a link to prove that the Union used the blacks to use up Confederate ammo, because I have never heard of that before. If anything, the black soldiers beat the hell out of some confederate regiments, especially the Alabama regiment that the 54th Mass decimated.