The Confederate Negro, by James H. Brewer, 1969, 212 pages.

This book has been sitting on my self for several years, and It just caught my eye for deep research. This book is a narrative of the surviving records of the Confederate State of Virginia on it's military mobilization of African Americans. It is ONLY giving statistics on Virginia- a State that was much more conservative on the use of African Americans in a military role than that of other Confederate States like the Gulf States.

Page 159

Table 6.10 Slave employees at Drewry's Bluff, 1864.

Nelson -Wagon Driver- annual wages $300
Henry - Cook - "" $300
Dick - Wagon Driver - "" $300
Arthur - Boatman - "" $300
Jacob - Cook - "" $300
William - Blacksmith - "" $300
Henry - Wagon Driver - "" $300
Thomas - Wagon Driver - "" $300
William - Wagon Driver - "" $300
George - Hostler - "" $300
Jacob - Boatman - "" $300
William - Boatman - "" $300
Cyrus - Cook - "" $300

[Finally the Congress on February 17, 1864, authorized the organization of labor TROOPS to be composed of free Negroes and slaves of ages eighteen to fifty years. The former were to be given the pay and allowance of a PRIVATE OF INFANTRY-- that is, $11 monthly, rations, medical attention and clothing- and were to serve for the duration of the war. The term for slaves was twelve months....

...Southern sentiment had changed somewhat prior to the passage in February 1865 of the new labor troop bill, calling for 40,000 slaves. In the fall of 1864 the Confederacy moved to adopt a more realistic attitude toward her vast Negro population. Although there was no real change in racial attitudes, Southerners manifested a higher degree of racial tolerance. Incentives were extended to Negroes to identify with the Southern war effort. Perhaps strangest of all was the bold pronouncement of President Davis regarding "the propriety of a radical modification in the theory of the law." Davis asserted:

"Viewed merely as property, and therefore as the subject of impressment, the service of labor of the slaves has been frequently claimed for short periods in the construction of defensive works.

The slave, however, bears another relation to the State- that of a person. The law of February, 1864, contemplates only the relation of the slave to the master (as property) and limits the impressment to a certain time of service.... Hazard is also encountered in all the positions to which the Negroes can be assigned for service with the army, and the duties required of them demand loyalty and zeal.

In this aspect the relation of person predominates so far as to render it doubtful whether the private right of property can consistently and beneficially be continued...

...the policy of engaging to liberate the Negro on his discharge after service faithfully rendered, seems to me preferable to that of granting immediate manumission or that of retaining him in servitude" Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, IV, 257.