Friday, July 20, 2012

Civil War Humanitarian Crisis

From the UK Guardian, "How the end of slavery led to starvation and death for millions of black Americans: In the brutal chaos that followed the civil war, life after emancipation was harsh and often short, new book argues," by Paul Harris New York, on 16 June 2012







Downs's book is full of terrible vignettes about the individual experiences of slave families who embraced their freedom from the brutal plantations on which they had been born or sold to. Many ended up in encampments called "contraband camps" that were often near union army bases. However, conditions were unsanitary and food supplies limited. Shockingly, some contraband camps were actually former slave pens, meaning newly freed people ended up being kept virtual prisoners back in the same cells that had previously held them. In many such camps disease and hunger led to countless deaths. Often the only way to leave the camp was to agree to go back to work on the very same plantations from which the slaves had recently escaped.

Treatment by union soldiers could also be brutal. Downs reconstructed the experiences of one freed slave, Joseph Miller, who had come with his wife and four children to a makeshift freed slave refugee camp within the union stronghold of Camp Nelson in Kentucky. In return for food and shelter for his family Miller joined the army. Yet union soldiers in 1864 still cleared the ex-slaves out of Camp Nelson, effectively abandoning them to scavenge in a war-ravaged and disease-ridden landscape. One of Miller's young sons quickly sickened and died. Three weeks later, his wife and another son died. Ten days after that, his daughter perished too. Finally, his last surviving child also fell terminally ill. By early 1865 Miller himself was dead. For Downs such tales are heartbreaking. "So many of these people are dying of starvation and that is such a slow death," he said.





"This challenges the romantic narrative of emancipation. It was more complex and more nuanced than that. Freedom comes at a cost," Downs said. (source: UK The Guardian)


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  3. I seldom write responses, however I looked at some of the remarks on "Civil War Humanitarian Crisis". I do have a couple of questions for you if it's okay. Is it simply me or do a few of the remarks look as if they are left by brain dead individuals? :-P And, if you are posting at other places, I'd like to follow you. Could you list of all of your social networking sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?
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    1. I don't know about the whole "left brain vs right brain" thing. One of my sons happens to be left handed and he does indeed view the world quite differently from the rest of us. It's like a parallel universe through a mirror. He turns scissors upside down to cut; his mouse and keyboard are reconfigured or backwards; he even stirs a pot on the stove counterclockwise when cooking. Other than his mirror-like physical universe, he's completely normal and brilliant. But other than a personal anecdotal story of my beloved son, I don't have any research data on this left vs. right brained theory.

      Secondly, I'm sorry but I don't currently Facebook or Tweet .... Not that I'm against it or anything, it just seems like uncomfortable history takes a bit of time to digest and it doesn't seem to me to be a subject of micro-minute or short attention span.

      Actually I feel that a blog is somewhat limiting, but because I'm not beholden to anybody, I can take the time for multiple posts from differing viewpoints on the same subject. If I run across an article that seems interesting, or a lecture, or a book, or a photograph, I just try to bundle it together to tell a story to educate the readers about various topics.

      Slavery existed in the landmass called the USA from 1619-1865, which is about 250 years or 13 generations. Certainly European enslavement of Africans could be dated from about 1456-1888 (Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal to the end of slavery in Brazil), which is over 430 years. Although the Americas were more unfree than free, it seems that many people are uncomfortable discussing this topic. Keep reading and thanks for commenting.

      --Ron Edwards, US Slave Blog

  4. Hi! Thanks for the informative post. I'm curious if the images you post with it are from Downs book? I would love to share them with my students, but I always like to know where images came from before I share them so I can credit them and also ensure their authenticity.


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