Slavery and the Beginning of the Civil War

As I awake to the smell of spring in the air I hear a lot of 
commotion coming out of my master’s house.  It’s April 12, 1861.  
I rise, it’s time to get out in the cotton field to pick cotton.  
I best hurry, what with all the turmoil coming out of the main 
house, I wouldn’t want to be whipped for not being in the field 
at the crack of dawn.  But listen, I hear the word "war" and I 
hear the word "shots".  Could it be?  Could all the talk of 
freeing the slaves finally have come to a head?  Yes indeed!  

I hear my master talking.  Seems the confederates fired early this 
morning on Fort Sumter here in South Carolina.  The Union soldiers 
began occupying the fort the day after Christmas last year, 
December 26, 1860.  Since South Carolina is a seceded state, this 
caused a crisis between the U.S. Government and the state of South 
Carolina, who was offended by Federal troops sitting on sovereign  
territory.  

Secessionists commanded by Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard had put up 
batteries around Fort Sumter.  When this happened we all knew the 
threat of war loomed.  Personally, I was rooting for those "Yankees"- 
I wanted to be free!

African slavery was introduced to America in the 17th Century.  The 
first African slave ships landed in Virginia in 1619.  My pappy was 
brought here on a slave ship.  He was young but remembered the awful, 
barbaric conditions.  Packed like sardines with hundreds on a ship, 
sometimes in quarters no taller than 18" high, pappy and hundreds of 
other black Africans kidnapped to be brought to America and sold as 
slaves fought for their lives.  Sometimes they weren’t fed or given 
water.  Many of the slaves didn’t survive the trip and died aboard 
the ship.  My pappy, his pappy, his mammy, and his sister were 
brought aboard shore in chains and led to a square in the middle of 
town.  There the bidding started.  

My grandpappy went quick.  He was big and strong. Pappy cried knowing 
the family was going to be separated.  Pappy’s sister went next.  She 
was young and skinny, but pappy had heard the stories, he knew she 
would be used to produce more black slaves.  Pappy went pretty early 
in the bidding too.  Even though pappy was young and skinny, he could 
be trained to obey, he was young and had a lot of years of work ahead 
of him.  Grandmammy hugged pappy and his sister.  She told them to be 
good slaves for their masters.  Rumor had it that slavery would be 
temporary. Of course that didn’t happen, but by the end of the 
American Revolution slavery was confined to the South.  

Pappy never saw his family again.  He never knew what happened to 
grandmammy, but he knew she was sold too. Pappy labored on the 
cotton plantation he was sold to. Slaves labored mostly on 
plantations and small farms, wherever heavy work was required.  A 
lot of people didn’t know many slaves were trained artisans.  But, 
in America, they adopted the language, manner, and religion of 
their masters.  They did keep a lot of their African culture and 
in turn, influenced the language, dance, and music of their 
masters.  Pappy worked hard.  If he didn’t he was whipped.  He 
obeyed everything his master said.  He met mammy and was allowed 
to marry her.  I was born and then my sister.  I would hang out 
with mammy in the master's house when I was very very little.  She 
cleaned and cooked for the master.  Sometimes the master would take 
her to another room and then return her.  I wondered what he did to 
mammy?  Soon I started growing.  It wasn’t long before I was sent 
with pappy out in the fields to pick cotton.  The master seemed to 
like pappy.  Pappy was one of his best servants, worked hard and 
obeyed.  

One day I overheard the master talking about some debts he owed and 
he took mammy and my sister and sold them.  Mammy was going to have 
a baby, the master’s I bet!  From then on pappy was depressed.  He 
didn’t work so hard.  The master whipped and whipped pappy.  The 
master forced me to watch.  I cried watching pappy bleed and cry out 
in pain.  One day pappy just gave up and died.  I became the master’s 
head slave.  I took pappy’s place.  I worked hard for the master.  If 
you did, he was pretty nice to you.  Not like some of the masters.  
At church on Sunday mornings some of the slaves would talk about the 
beatings and lack of food.  I figured I was pretty lucky for a slave, 
if you behaved and worked hard, my master didn’t beat you and I was 
fed pretty well.  

I also worked hard because I knew someday I would be free.  The North 
wouldn’t permit slavery into new states and territories.  It was for 
this reason that Abraham Lincoln was eventually elected President of 
the United States, the South seceded from the Union, and the Civil War 
began.