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This daguerreotype (ca.1850s) of a slave woman who served as a family
nurse predates the Civil War but is a good example of what a house
servant looked like during the war.
Papers of the Minor Family, #6055
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While some scholars have argued that white mistresses were secret
abolitionists, this fragment of an 1861 letter from Louisa Davis to Mrs.
Alice Saunders illustrates that most mistresses firmly believed in the
slave system. "I have not a single doubt about the rightfulness of
slavery, so that I believe that we are fighting for our rights, & only
our rights."
Papers of the Irvine, Saunders, Davis and Watts families,
#38-33
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State laws required free blacks to register their residency. These
registers identified each by name, physical description, age, place of
residence, and circumstances of manumission. This Washington County,
Virginia, register includes several free black women who registered
during the first months of the Confederacy: Mary Smith "sometimes called
Mary Crow" (entry 122, January 29, 1861), and sisters Fannie and Emely
Broddy (entries 124 & 125, February 26, 1861).
Register of Free Blacks, Washington County, #41-A
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During the war, masters and mistresses continued to hire out their
slaves. This January, 1862 receipt for Betsy Ann "a little negro girl"
hired to Jack Shelton outlines what responsibilities a master had to his
slave, responsibilities which included clothing Betsy Ann and
"treat(ing) her well."
Papers of the Irvine, Saunders, Davis and Watts families, #38-33
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In September of 1862, Betty Saunders found herself in a difficult
situation. In this letter to her mother, she describes the work she has
been forced to do because so many of her slaves had fallen ill.
However, this letter is a better indication of the sort of work slave
women were doing since Betty Saunders "great deal to do" consisted of no
more than instructing her slaves to fill in for those who were sick.
Papers of the Irvine, Saunders, Davis and Watts families, #38-33
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There was little natural alliance between white women and black female
slaves during the war. In this diary entry of February 24, 1863,
Sigismunda Stribling Kimball of Shenandoah County, Virginia, angrily
recorded the return of two runaway slaves with Union cavalry who
liberated a slave woman named Fairinda and her children. When offered
her choice of the plantation's goods Fairinda responded "she did not
want anything but herself."
Sigismunda Stribling Kimball Diary, #2534
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Letter, December 17, 1863, of a Virginia plantation mistress regarding
the duplicity of Edmonia, a slave woman sent on an errand. However, the
slave instead returned with a group of Union soldiers and with their
encouragement opened her owner's trunks and "took all she could
carry."
Micajah Woods Papers, #10279
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Slave wives and husbands, often separated because of residency on
different plantations, sought to visit each other despite the war. In
this January 9, 1864 certificate, W. C. Scott verifies his slave Willis
Garland has permission to marry Martha Brown, a slave owned by a Mrs.
Francis Cabell of Liberty Hall, Nelson County, Virginia. Scott adds that
Garland will have visitation rights with Martha "at least three times
annually."
Papers of the Cabell Family, #5084
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Mrs. Fannie Berry joined other slaves in celebrating the South's defeat
and the ending of slavery. Nearly seventy years after war, during a
Works Progress Administration oral interview, Berry recalled a song the
emancipated slaves sang upon learning of their freedom:"You are free,you are free."
Slavery-Virginia: Interviews With Ex-Slaves, #3429
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