Alabama 41,879 District of Columbia 6,377 Connecticut 97 Delaware 4,509 Georgia 149,654 Illinois 917 Indiana 190 Kentucky 126,732 Louisiana 69,064 Maryland 107,397 Mississippi 32,814 Missouri 10,222 New Jersey 7,557 New York 10,088 North Carolina 205,017 Pennsylvania 211 Rhode Island 48 South Carolina 258,475 Tennessee 80,107 Virginia 425,153 Arkansas Territory 1,617 --------- Aggregate 1,538,125
The anti-slavery sentiment of the Northern States was growing, but no organization with a great leader at its head had yet announced its platform or unfurled its banner in a holy war for the emancipation of the Bondmen of the Free Republic of North America.
[1] I have in my possession large numbers of official orders and letters on the suppression of the slave-trade, but the space appropriated to this history precludes their publication. There are, however, some important documents in the appendix to this volume.
EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS IN THE WAR OF 1812.--THE NEW YORK LEGISLATURE AUTHORIZES THE ENLISTMENT OF A REGIMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS.--GEN. ANDREW JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION TO THE FREE COLORED INHABITANTS OF LOUISIANA CALLING THEM TO ARMS.--STIRRING ADDRESS TO THE COLORED TROOPS THE SUNDAY BEFORE THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS.--GEN. JACKSON ANTICIPATES THE VALOR OF HIS COLORED SOLDIERS.--TERMS OF PEACE AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR BY THE COMMISSIONERS AT GHENT.--NEGROES PLACED AS CHATTEL PROPERTY.--THEIR VALOR IN WAR SECURES THEM NO IMMUNITY IN PEACE.
When the war-clouds gathered in 1812, there was no time wasted in discussing whether it would be prudent to arm the Negro, nor was there a doubt expressed as to his valor. His brilliant achievements in the war of the Revolution, his power of endurance, and martial enthusiasm, were the golden threads of glory that bound his memory to the victorious cause of the American Republic. A lack of troops and an imperiled cause led to the admission of Negroes into the American army during the war of the Revolution. But it was the Negro's eminent fitness for military service that made him a place under the United States flag during the war in Louisiana. The entire country had confidence in the Negro's patriotism and effectiveness as a soldier. White men were willing to see Negroes go into the army because it reduced their chances of being sent forth to the tented field and dangerous bivouac.