Black Reconstruction Chapter 4: The General Strike
Chapter 4 is THE chapter where W.E.B Dubois lays out the thesis of the Book; black America ultimately was the deciding actor in the Civil War and Reconstruction.
In Chapter 4, W.E.B Dubois first outlines the positions of the Northern capitalist and the Southern slaveholder in their expectations for the civil war, of white workers in relation to the war, and their expectations of the enslaved African. One, neither the North’s nor the South’s positions were in the interest of the enslaved person (which is obvious). The southern slave holders wanted to keep the institution of slavery and expected every white male to fight for its maintenance purely on racial identarian grounds.
The Southern slave owner initially had little concerns about the ability of the slave system to be maintained. Both sides of the Civil War assumed a quick victory, a short skirmish and a political settlement. Much evidence can be brought up for this initial sentiment given problems within the Union camp and the lack of widespread abolitionism support among average Northerners.
The Northern capitalist, who toward the end of the antebellum period and even into the Civil War resisted the idea of ending slavery by conflict at all. Some parts of the northern bourgeoisie and petit-bourgeoisie were pro-South and pro-slavery until the end of the Civil War and even during Reconstruction. Dubois quotes Frederick Douglass in saying that “the Civil War began in the interest of slavery on both sides. The South was fighting to move slavery outside of the Union while the North was fighting to keep slavery within the Union.” This hostility from the pro-slavery camps of the North somewhat delayed the eventual “General Strike” of the enslaved African away from the plantation system. The Southern slave owners used this Northern Anti-black racism as propaganda somewhat effectively during the Civil War to keep many enslaved Africans on the plantation system. This propaganda would fail as most enslaved Africans knew clearly what was in their best interest, defecting toward the Union lines.
The General Strike
The general strike of the enslaved Africans would come soon as Northern armies began to penetrate deep into Confederate territory. As Union armies moved south, many of the enslaved would leave the plantation system toward freedom in Union camps. During the beginning of the campaign, the official policy was to return enslaved Africans or turn them back from Union lines. As the war escalated into a “real” war, logistical and political constraints on the Union forced a rethinking of this policy, initially at the military level then the political. Major-General Fremont in Missouri issued his 1861 emancipation proclamation, placing the state of Missouri under martial law and declaring all enslaved Africans free, an action that Abraham Lincoln initially distanced himself from.
This proclamation by Fermont was not due to moral reasons but political-strategic necessity to neutralize the pro-slavery camp in Missouri. Policies similar to the 1861 emancipation proclamation would be enacted as Union Generals penetrated Confederate territory. The resulting large numbers of escaped enslaved Africans forced a policy change within the government from the bottom up. The flood of escape Africans to Union lines exposes a sharp contradiction within the Union camp; the industrial proletariat of the North was unwilling to engage in the war of survival for the American “Republic”. The American Republic was unwilling to formally state that the Civil War was for the abolition of Slavery yet, the Union armies became increasingly dependent on formerly enslaved Africans to win the conflict. The end result was the abolition of slavery due to the actions of the enslaved and the strategic importance of abolishing slavery.
The Union Generals and Change in Social Relations
Dubois cites the experiences of multiple Union generals in his analysis of the change of social relations during the conflict. General Butler came into control of New Orleans in 1862, initially with orders to repel escaped enslaved Africans and return them to the plantation economy. Because the enslaved African was striking against the condition of labor (being chattel slavery), these attempts failed, along with attempts at compulsory work under a military-slave regime. Eventually, through collaboration with New Orleans’ increasingly powerful black petit-bourgeoisie, General Butler and his successor, the then General and future president Grant, transitioned the formerly enslaved African from chattel slave to agricultural-proletariat against the wishes of the Lincoln administration.
General Grant was in control of the Grand Junction region in Mississippi beginning in November 1862. After being swarmed with black refugees and as the war continued, Grant increasingly needed to employ them in the military camps as cooks, surgeons, assistants, and in building fortifications, as the manpower situation worsened. To manage the increasing swarms of black refugees and provide wages for the newly proletarianized black working class, Grant formed the Department of Negro Affairs, a precursor to the Freedmen’s Bureau.
A rapid change of social relations occurred where the formerly enslaved African became increasingly in control over the management of themselves and of their community. For a brief period of time, a “socialistic” means of organizing property relations was established as the federal government consolidated land abandoned by plantation owners, fixed wages to match government pay, and built institutions not built by the slavocratic class (like schools and hospitals) for the enslaved and poor whites. During federal occupation, a black petit bourgeoisie rapidly emerged as tradesmen and independent cultivators increased during wartime. In the David’s Bend region of Mississippi in , many of the formerly enslaved began to occupy areas of local office/administration, such as sheriff or Judge. The formerly enslaved, not of possession of themselves or their children, soon became in possession of wages, land and political office within the span of a year or two.
The experience of General Sherman is of special importance as his Sea Island Circular (Special Field Order No. 15) of January 1865 marks the beginning of the reparations struggle. He redistributed the abandoned rice fields on the eastern seaboard of South Carolina and Florida along the St. John’s River to thousands of formerly enslaved Africans. Five hundred and forty-nine thousand (Black Reconstruction, the numbers from Wikipedia are different, saying four hundred thousand) acres of land were confiscated from the planter class and made available for the formerly enslaved during the conflict. Special Field Order No. 15 was viewed as necessary to jumpstart the economy under federal occupation. Like other areas of occupation, the formerly enslaved refuse to work under the conditions they previously escaped from, making land reform the only viable option toward wartime reconstitution in occupied areas.
These rapid changes in social relations were the result of federal occupation and the space it gave to the newly freed African. Dubois stressed that the federal occupation of the South would be logistically, politically, and militarily impossible without the general strike of the enslaved African moving away from the plantation. The involvement of two hundred thousand highly motivated black soldiers in arms on the Union side, and hundreds of thousands more in logistical support in the camps, the involvement of many (such as the great Harriet Tubman) in espionage, sabotage, and insurgency, made winning the Civil War militarily feasible for the Union side. There was a severe opposition by white workers to joining the conflict, and the resulting bloody draft riots (anti-black massacres in New York) were indicators of this sentiment. The recruitment of black soldiers, spies, and logistical personnel was of political importance just as much as for military importance. It was ultimately the enslaved black workers who freed themselves and made abolition the central issue of the Civil War.