So, now I will speak briefly about the Civil War and Reconstruction, and how our folks in Marlboro reacted to events thrust upon them during this period.
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South Carolina, especially Charleston, was the hotbed of the secessionist movement. When Lincoln was elected in 1860, his victory was the last straw, and the impetus for SC to be the 1st state to secede from the Union. By the 1860's, Marlboro's planter elite had the same interests as planters throughout the state. By leaving the union, slavery would be protected, and perhaps even spread within a new Southern Confederacy.
Now, if you recall, half of Marlboro's population were not slaveholders....so why did the smaller landowners and yeoman support South Carolina in the rebellion against the United States?
As written in the last post, only 8 families in Marlboro owned greater than 100 slaves. But, the thing is, these large plantations were extremely important within the community. They provided employment, for example. Planters hired teachers, lawyers, skilled artisans, overseers, and even white laborers for their farms. The poorer yeoman farmers also depended upon planters to gin their cotton and transport their crops to sale. So, there was loyalty there.
Also, a great indicator of wealth was the number of slaves one owned, and people were always aspiring to do better economically. There was a desire among poorer whites for slave ownership.
Now, there was a problem...which was the great disparity between the rich and poor Whites. The planter elite had to appeal to poorer (and greater number) of the less well to do for their political support. This division among Whites was along economical AND a social lines. There was no real equality. As a matter of fact, when visiting these large plantations, the less well to do had to call at the plantation's back door. There was no love lost between the two social groups. Furthermore, a big fear among the elite, was the relationship between poorer Whites, free people of color, and the enslaved. The affluent had to contrive of ways to separate dealings between the poor Whites and Blacks. The solution was (as is ever,) fear mongering. In order to gain the support of the poor, the planters had to present the White race as superior, and the yeomen as members of their society. There were none who desired membership among the disenfranchised inferior group of non-whites.
Then along came the Civil War. The Planter elite viewed it as the only solution for continuation of a slave keeping society, the end of abolitionists, and race-mixing (miscegenation.) The elite promised to take care of the families of the poor while the men were at war.
When war was proclaimed in April 61' the first wave of men eagerly enlisted, rich and poor....but things would change, and promises were not kept...
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So the war came.....
Both the Federal Government and the Confederacy passed legislation to aid their war efforts. Of course the Union possessed more manpower and resources to draw from, but the south fought on.
There were laws in the south permitting persons holding a certain number of slaves exempt from serving in the war, which did not go over well with the small or non-slave holding population. Additionally, enlisted men found themselves serving until the war's duration. Officer's (often those with greater community standing and money) could resign.
With greater numbers of men needed, the southern home front was taxed, and many families of the less well to do began to suffer. There were no men to put in crops, nor to earn money, and soldiers began receiving distressing mail from their loved ones. The elite were not keeping their promise to care for the less fortunate, which resulted in many men deserting home (risking their lives.) There was a famous instance of women rioting in Richmond, due to their inability to feed their families, thus widening the breach between the rich and poorer Whites.
Back in southern communities (across the Confederacy,) friends and relatives fed and harbored deserters. This was also the case in Marlboro. Some residents also fed and hid escaped Union soldiers from a Confederate prison camp in nearby Florence, SC. There was dissidence in the county between the 'home guard' (men watching out for deserters, keeping the slave population under control) which at times rose to violence. Marlboro, (like other southern communities,) also had it's share of Unionists, who wisely kept their views hidden (under the peril of their lives.)
Towards the end of the conflict (March 1865) the war physically came to Marlboro. General Sherman's Army, after marching through Georgia, marched northward through SC. Sherman sent out foraging parties acquiring every type of product required for military use. No farms were exempt, even slave quarters were raided. Slavery in Marlboro continued on as usual even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. There were no Union troops in the area to undermine the institution or to permit slaves to follow in their wake for protection.
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After the war, citizens in the North and South were given the opportunity by the Federal Government of claiming the value of seized property by Union soldiers during the war. This was known as the "Southern Claims Commission." It was operated under the Freedmen's Bureau during the Reconstruction Years. These documents were never meant to be a source for genealogical purposes or primary historical documents, but they are. In the next chapter of this blog, we will finally hear how things progressed during and after the war through these documents filed by Whites, Free persons of color, and the formerly enslaved from Marlboro County.
Recommended Readings
The Diary of Mary Chestnut: A Diary from Dixie Mary Chestnut ©
Battle Cry of Freedom James McPherson © 1988
A Short History of Reconstruction 1863-1877 Eric Foner ©
The South vs. The South: How anti-Confederate southerners shaped the course of the Civil War William W. Freckling © 2001
Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War
Charles B. Dew © 2001
Confederate Reckoning Stephanie McCurry © 2010
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