Mary Boykin Chesnut was born near Camden, South Carolina, the daughter of Mary and Stephen Miller, a plantation owner and politician. Lincoln soon dropped his emigration ideas, realizing that he could not ask black men to fight for the Union and press them later to leave the country. Reflecting on a visit to the White House, Douglass wrote that the presidents personal behavior and demeanor expressed an entire freedom from popular prejudice against the colored race., As the war reached a new stalemate that year, Lincoln was under intense pressure to retreat from abolition as a precondition for peace negotiations with the Confederacy. Confederate States of America. Theyre genuinely friends, he says. DeSaussure family. Major Francis Boykin was born in 1754 and lived the early part of his life in Kershaw County, South Carolina. South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, 2nd. (LogOut/ Douglass came to admire Lincoln as a man. Were abolitionists recruiting more raiders to start slave rebellions? They are descendants of one of the citys earliest settlers, Soloman Legare. Published long after the war, the diary included many insightful and pointed criticisms of slavery, such as this passage, in which she calls the institution "a monstrous systema wrong and an inequity." #78 BOYKIN FAMILY PAPERS Inventory Abstract: Boykin family of Camden, S.C., including Alexander Hamilton Boykin (1815-1866), cotton planter, state legislator, and Confederate officer. Some northern newspapers extolled John Brown as a martyr to the cause of abolition. In February 1861, South Carolina joined the new Confederate States of America. Mary Chesnut studied her familys slaves while Fort Sumter burned a few miles away in Charleston Harbor. 1823-1886 American plantation owner; diarist. He was also a congressman in 1791. Francis questions whether a desire to end slavery is what motivated Turner to kill. Not by one word or look can we detect any change in the demeanor of these negro servants, Mary wrote. Charleston's iconic Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is named after Thomas' dad. But its an interesting part of American history, and I think we all have that patchwork of good and bad. bills of sale for slaves; correspondence from A. H. Boykin taking a cure at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia; a small notebook titled "A. H. Boykin" with . Thank God for my country women, but alas for the men! After two days, Brown and his followers surrendered to federal troops. Edward was a Abstract Papers of an important Dallas County, Alabama, planter family, including correspondence, household and plantation records, materials regarding James Boykin's cavalry unit during the Civil War, and papers of Boykin's descendants down to the mid-twentieth century. The courtship resulted in marriage in 1840, and the couple moved to Mulberry, the Chesnut family plantation near Camden. Photo: Library of Congress. James Boykin (8 August 1823 - 13 July 1907), was one of six sons of Francis Boykin (1785-1839) and Mary Darrington James Boykin (1795-1854), who arrived in Alabama from Camden, South Carolina, about 1818. Northern skilled workers and farmers increasingly joined the antislavery movement, which was distinct from the abolitionist movement. Indeed, in the first months of the war, she was surprised that more slaves didnt run away to northern lines and perhaps join the Union effort. Abolitionists, black and white, attacked Lincoln for his colonization ideas during the first years of the Civil War. Note that South Carolina enslaved a majority of its population. The war was increasingly bloody, the South a fierce and capable enemy. Foner, Eric. Both Turner and Francis are avid students of history, who have researched their own families as well as the historical record of the rebellion. In the predawn hours of April 12, 1861150 years agoConfederate batteries thundered down shells on federal troops bunkered in the fort. (the specific excerpt under consideration is below.) Mary Boykin Chestnut was a famous Confederate author, whose diary encapsulated life in the upper-class society during the Civil War. (Will in back of book). Still, Lincoln was a savvy politician with moderate instincts, and like many other men of the West, he was wary of abolitionists and criticized their self-righteousness., The Souths increasingly aggressive tactics in courts and legislatures, however, continued to alienate many moderate Republicans. Douglass, early on, had bitterly criticized Lincoln for failing to attack the South and slavery with sufficient force and intensity. They could laugh at themselves. Perspective. Mary Chesnut wrote her original diary during the Civil War and extensively revised it years later. Introduction. Mr. Thornton 4-Elizabeth Boykin mar. Why did so many impoverished southerners fight for the Confederacy? While reporting in Virginia, Cooper posed those questions to two men, Bruce Turner and Rick Francis, whose ancestors were on opposite sides of the 1831 rebellion. Thomas Allen Legare, Jr. was a member of the South Carolina state house of representatives in the 1940s and 50s and a senator in the 1950s and 60s. Anderson refused to surrender, and Chesnut, after consulting with his superiors, gave orders to open fire. I even hate the harsh authority I see parents think it their duty to exercise toward their children.. Mary Boykin Chesnut was a plantation owner who became known for the diary she kept during the Civil War. In late June 1861, just weeks into the war, her entry said: Slavery has to go, of courseand joy go with it. Mary seemed reconciled to losing her way of life if slavery disappeared. The plantation started by Joseph Gee passed to his nephews Sterling and Charles Gee upon his death, along with 47 slaves. Leading Republicans argued that if slavery became further established in western territories, slaveholders would fight to protect their investments and prerogatives there just as they did in the South. Edward Boykin. The anti-slavery movement also supported a gradual, orderly elimination of slavery in the South with financial compensation to slaveholders. The assault failed to take the fort, but the regiments soldiers were widely hailed for their courage, as were black fighters in other notable battles. While her husband supported the war through his political activities, Mary remained at home, sewing shirts for soldiers and providing provisions to local hospitals. Which would agree with other research documentingstatements in the Will of William Copies of the deed, James Boykin to the Western Insurance and Trust Company, Columbus, Ga., appear in two places: in the Muscogee County Courthouse (Columbus, Ga.) Deed Book A, page 321-322; and in the Stewart County Courthouse (Lumpkin, Ga.) Deed Book A, pages 516-518. In her celebrated Civil War journal, Mary Chesnut wondered what her familys slaves were thinking and feeling. Sandy took a hoe and beat They aspired to slave ownership, which was the mark of southern prosperity and success, writes British historian John Keegan in a 2009 book. It is also possible that Henderson, Emily, and Lewis, are the same, although the last two have wider age differences. Hear Ye. Boykin "of the Upper Parish of Isle of Wight one half of 800 acres of That set off howls of indignation among slaveholders. To southern planters, John Browns raid was an alarm that slaves, armed or inspired by abolitionists, could rise up. Photo: Library of Congress. He would later go on to play a major role in the desegregation of the South while presiding over the school segregation case, Briggs v. Elliott. Nearly a century after Mary Chesnuts death, readers for the first time gained a full picture of this talented, morally torn South Carolinian living at the center of Confederate power, and her book won a Pulitzer Prize. Living History. In regard to slavery, yes. He was famously a supporter of states rights and played a major role in the Souths succession from the Union. This Charleston Mercury Extra heralded South Carolinas Ordinance of Secession passed unanimously on December 20, 1860. I said, Look, I think he got what was comin to him., I dont claim the sinners or the saints in my ancestry, says Cooper. The papers are divided into three series:James Boykin materials; Burwell Boykin materials; and other Boykin family members' materials. President James Buchanan, in turn, declared that slavery existed in all the territories by virtue of the Constitution., Lincoln considered Dred Scott a travesty of justice, a burlesque upon judicial decisions.. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Blacks could never be social and political equals with whites, he said. It was toward the end of her life that Mary decided to publish the diary she had kept throughout the Civil War. The diary was later annotated by C. Vann Woodward and published as, "Mary Chestnut's Civil War." It won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1982. In 1840 she married James Chesnut . Lincoln by then was reaching out to black leaders, including the author, editor, and orator Frederick Douglass, to ask their advice. Devastation. Bloodshed continued in a civil war until 1804, when Haiti finally gained independence and peace. In December 1865, Company E, 4th U.S. Slaveholders claimed that owning slaves always entailed a duty and a burdena duty and burden that defined the moral superiority of the South, wrote David Brion Davis, a historian of slavery, in a 2006 book. God, forgive us but ours is a monstrous system, and wrong and iniquity, she wrote in a March 1861 entry. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981. Head north of Downtown, and youll eventually hit plantation country. Instead, the Civil War broadened his empathy, awakening him to the human rights of all Americans. He fought in the Revolutionary War and then moved his family about 1800 to what would become Baldwin County, GA, just south of Milledgeville. James served in the United States Senate, but resigned in 1860 when Lincoln became president. New York: The Modern Library, 1999. Muhlenfeld, Elisabeth. Francis says at least 17 of his family members were killed during the rebellion, though he thinks the number could be higher. Laughter, she wrote, is my forte. But her ambitions always had to be filtered through her husbands opportunities, and she seethed when Confederate hotspurs commanded females to keep quiet in salon debates: SilenceWhat do you know about war, woman?. Many poor whites supported slavery because it seemed to offer a ladder to wealth and power. It drives home (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not) the moral and intellectual failures of the southern master class. The industrializing North was already gaining ground in the U.S. House of Representatives because of its rapidly expanding population, while the Souths white population was stagnant. The Civil War, however, unleashed energies among black Americans that had been suppressed for many generations. Even though she was born into a plantation-owning family and enjoyed the ease and comfort of plantation life, Mary Boykin Chesnut came to wonder about and eventually express hatred for slavery. This approximately two-hour walk provides an overview of Charlestons Historic Downtown, focusing on the French Quarter and the area south of Broad Street. 2003 - John P. and Elizabeth H. Fort received the plantation from Mary Boykin DuVal Myers in a family transfer ( 5 ). Mary Chesnut wrote her original journal in spare moments during the war, and then set it aside. upon the Creek within old Richard Walls line to him and his heirs. Photo: Library of Congress. In the intimate setting. In the 1840 Census, he shows having 31 slaves. He could not imagine a time when millions of freed slaves would be fully integrated into American life. of "Lawnes Creek Parish, Surry Co.,", on Feb. 5, 1702, sold to Edward / CBS News. Let the war end either way, and you will be free. Mary Boykin Chesnut, A Confederate Lady's Diary (1861) I wonder if it be a sin to think slavery a curse to any land. The diary was later annotated by C. Vann Woodward and published as, Mary Chestnuts Civil War. It won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1982. He was the son of Winborne ODOM b. Northampton Co., NC and Mary BENNETT.Mary was the daughter of Bowen BENNETT b. My disgust sometimes is boiling over. So A birds eye view, looking south, of Circular Church on Meeting Street (right) in Charleston at the close of the Civil War. Mary Boykin Chesnut was not an apologist for slavery. With so many women on the plantation, Chesnut had little to do. Each new state would send at least one representative to the House, the number depending on the states population size, which gave the North a crucial advantage in the House. Later that year, the U.S. Coast Survey, which eventually became part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), issued this map of slavery in the South, and it captured the attention of President Abraham Lincoln, according to Susan Schulten, a historian at the University of Denver. He owned land in Randolph/Stewart County and in Muscogee County, GA, as well as Russell, Barbour, Macon, and Lee counties in Alabama. Boykin, Sarah Jones DeSaussure, fl. Edward Boykin, the first of his family in Virginia, is said to have been born at Caernarvon in Wales, but this is unsupported tradition. Hugh Swinton Legare was a U.S. Representative and South Carolina state attorney general in the 1800s. I hate slavery, the South Carolina diarist Mary Chesnut wrote in 1861. The James Boykin series makes up the bulk of the collection. Expansion at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Why They Fought: Ordinary Soldiers in the Civil War, Two Wings of the Same Bird: Cuban Immigration and Puerto Rican Migration to the United States, Military History and the LGBTQ+ Community, Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913), Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945). How a War for Union Became a War for Freedom. The first reading, Mary Boykin Chesnut's Slavery a Curse to Any Land presents the views of a white Southern woman and Harriet Jacobs' Trials of Girlhood present the views of a slave. And what role does violence play in that?. Despite their sorrows, both were fond of jokes, tall stories, and wordplay. Mary Boykin Chestnut was the wife of a wealthy South Carolina planter who kept a diary during the Civil War. in Brunswick County not bequeathed already. Abolishing slavery would cause a dramatic break between North and South. Rutledge Avenue runs from the northern edge of Downton, all the way to the southern tip of the peninsula. Whites who failed to live up to their responsibilities were considered negligent. The actor John Wilkes Booth was in the crowd on the White House lawn. All of the troops from the mountainous parts of South Carolina, and from North Carolinas mountains, too, were disaffected. He would stand his ground on the spread of slavery but would not interfere with slavery where it already existed. Colored Infantry, Fort Lincoln, guarded the District of Columbia. A radical southern partisan, Booth and a group of conspirators had planned to kidnap Lincoln and other top administration officials and demand release of southern prisoners of war. L McCraney 4/01/13. After all, each new state entering the Union would have two new U.S. Senate seats. This fear was especially strong in South Carolina where blacks outnumbered whites, especially along the coast and the midlands. Solomans farm was on Johns Island, where he grew cotton, indigo and potatoes. Woodward, C. Vann, Ed. Perhaps slave emancipation was the only way to undermine the Souths slave-based economy and win the war. Sarah . Although she never doubted her loyalty to the Confederacy, she bitterly criticized southern slave owners for dishonoring marriage and corroding family relationships. That is the last speech he will ever make.. During the war, she recognized the injustices of slavery, and she was justifiably proud of her kindness toward men and women who lived under her thumb. Like the patriarchs of old, our men live all in one house with their wives and their concubines; and the mulattos ones sees in every family partly resemble the white children. Does ayone have the Redmond Boykin Kemper Co Ms Boykins? Mary Boykin Chestnut was the wife of a wealthy South Carolina planter who kept a diary during the Civil War. Jules Washington, of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Civil War Reenactment Unit, commemorates their service. Creating an Empire: U.S. In a journal entry in May 1865, she wrote, Look at Lincoln now. The series containing other Boykin family members' materials include the miscellaneous business, legal, and military papers of James Boykin's brothers, Samuel T. and R. D. Boykin. Major Francis Boykin was born in 1754 and lived the early part of his life in Kershaw County, South Carolina. Research Boykin in the Surnames forums on Genealogy.com, the new GenForum! In the early days of settlement, South Carolina landowners established . Boykin, the first of his family in Virginia, is said to have been born A delusion and a snare.. 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. By all accounts she treated slaves well. He was tried for conspiracy, treason, and murder, and hanged on December 2. Cotton trade--South Carolina. Each was a steely adversary. Click here to visit Voted in the 10 best: Charlestons Hidden Alleyways and Passages. The war, of course, concluded with slave emancipation throughout the United States and its territories, southern families and communities devastated, towns and farms in ruins, planters financially broken, and the Souths influence in the wider world gone up in smoke. Caroline a girl sixteen or seventeen Green a man twenty one or twenty two Peter a man about seventeen and Wilson and their increase from this date in ti[me] to & for the sale and separate use and benefit of my daughter Mrs Clara Billups and her heirs. In Mary Chesnuts original 1860s journal, she is a woman of relatively progressive views about slavery considering her time and place, although her racial attitudes coarsened, turning ugly, in later revisions. Mary, in her Charleston schoolgirl days, heard stories of St. Domingue violence from her migr teachers. News of Lincolns assassination softened Mary Chesnuts view of her old enemy. Easy as setting John Brown to come down here and cut our throats in Christs name.. Although they did not own slaves, many men from impoverished parts of the South fought for the Confederacy. She was impoverished now. There he offered a startling proposal, calling for the enfranchisement of literate blacks and black Union military veterans in former Confederate states under control of the federal government. Those, she seems to think, drop from the clouds. Marys husband, James Chesnut, Jr., was the first U.S. senator in the South to resign in protest. Copyright 2023 American Social History Productions, Inc. Who Freed the Slaves? Gwaltney: "I give my Grandson, Edward Boykin one cow". Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter, Mary Chesnut worried about her husband in a boat somewhere in that dark bay. Photo: Library of Congress. Following are the names and sometimes ages of enslaved people listed in three of James Boykins legal documents. The mulattoes one sees in every family exactly resemble the white childrenand every lady tells you who is the father of all the mulatto children in [everybody elses house hold], but those in her own she seems to think drop from the clouds, or pretends so to think., Marys father-in-law, a Camden planter, would not acknowledge his own mistress and mixed-race children. It was no longer for sale in January 2017 ( 3 ). It allowed for a popular vote in each territory to determine whether slavery should be legally allowed there. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Each was a devoted spouse. Who thinks any worse of a Negro or mulatto woman for being a thing we cant name? Unfortunately, it is hard to know if she really believed what she wrote, or if she changed it for later readers who, after the Civil War, likely were not Confederate sympathizers. Photo: Library of Congress. The first was John Browns famous raid. Even so, thousands of impoverished southerners fought to the end. Due to the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to certain materials may require additional advance notice. Like the patriarchs of old, our men live all in one house with their wives and their concubines; and the mulattos ones sees in every family partly resemble the white children. 1932 - "Whit" Boykin passed away ( 6, p. 13). We will have to free you before we get out of this thing. The South, she believed, couldnt hold slaves in captivity while also battling an invading Union army. A devout Christian, Mary wished to obey the commandments and honor her husbands father. And people talk before them as if they were chairs and tables. Sumner said not one word of this hated institution which is not true. John Drayton. This 1890 print depicts the storming of Fort Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina, by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Direct ancestors of King Charles III and the royal family bought and exploited enslaved people on tobacco plantations in Virginia, according to new research shared with . This stance seemed a distinction without a difference to fire-eater secessionists who knew that the southern slave society had to expand into new areas to survive politically in the Union over the long term. at Caernarvon in Wales, but this is unsupported tradition. He refused to do so, and he attacked those who have proposed to me to return to slavery [these] black warriors to conciliate the South. The new Republican Party became the political home for a new free soil, free labor, free men cause. appears that she was married to Edwards son, John Boykin. To fire-eater secessionists, the rise of the Republican Party showed that the era of compromise between slave states and free states was finished, and that slavery would be doomed if the South remained in the Union. Other than the four names, the differences between the two documents are negligible.