American Uprising

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American Uprising Page 19

by Daniel Rasmussen


  161 “We are sorry . . . let them govern”: Thompson, “National Newspaper and Legislative Reactions,” 15.

  161 “no doubt exists” . . . United States Army: National Intelligencer, February 19, 1811.

  13. Friends of Necessity

  167 He informed them . . . to the German Coast: W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 100–104.

  168 “It seemed . . . conviction of others”: N. H. Claiborne, Notes on the War, 105.

  168 “warmest congratulations”: W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 121.

  169 Though he did not mention it . . . and Canada: Hatfield, William Claiborne, 323.

  169 “The late daring . . . neighboring plantations”: W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 123.

  169 “made an impression . . . be effaced”: W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 123.

  171 “The faithful Citizens . . . well-regulated Militia”: W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 124.

  171 “our Security . . . the Militia”: Magloire Guichard, “Answer, of the House of Representatives to Governor Claiborne’s Speech,” in W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 130.

  171 “late unfortunate Insurrection . . . of the Militia”: Jean Noël Destrehan, “Answer, of the Legislative Council to Governor Claiborne’s Speech” in W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 127.

  171 “awful lesson . . . lately quelled”: Junius Rodriguez, “Always ‘En Garde’: The Effects of Slave Insurrection upon the Louisiana Mentality, 1811–1815,” in Labbé, Louisiana: The Purchase and Its Aftermath, 402–3.

  172 The militia . . . train and organize: Rodriguez, “Always ‘En Garde’,” in Labbé, Louisiana: The Purchase and Its Aftermath, 402.

  172 “the state of the population . . . other weighty considerations”: “A Message from the Legislative Council to Pres. James Madison,” Louisiana Courier, February 8, 1811, in Thrasher, On to New Orleans!, 271.

  173 “Feeling that our destiny . . . Ark of safety”: W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 131.

  173 three additional gunboats: Rodriguez, “Always ‘En Garde’,” in Labbé, Louisiana: The Purchase and Its Aftermath, 403.

  174 the mayor sent a message . . . “are responsible”: Official Proceedings, New Orleans City Council, in Thrasher, On to New Orleans!, 275.

  174 “Act . . . Territory”: L’Ami des Lois, New Orleans, February 7, 1811.

  175 “[The average resident] will not embody . . . unites society”: Louisiana Gazette (New Orleans), April 1, 1811.

  175 planters filed claims for about a third of the slaves: Conrad, The German Coast, 107–10.

  175 “It is a fact of notoriety . . . easily anticipated”: W. Claiborne, “Speech. Delivered by Governor Claiborne to both Houses of the Legislative Body of the Territory of Orleans,” January 29, 1811, in W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, 123.

  14. Statehood and the Young American Nation

  177 “Strange as it may seem . . . almost commingled”: Northup/Eakin and Logsdon, Twelve Years a Slave, 23.

  177 “discouraging foreign intrigues” . . . “internal discontent”: E. S. Brown, Constitutional History of the Louisiana Purchase, 190.

  178 “The public . . . white fellow citizens”: Thompson, “National Newspaper and Legislative Reactions,” 17.

  179 The combined population . . . in the United States: Rothman, Slave Country, 221.

  179 The slave population . . . American Revolution and 1820: Rothman, Slave Country, ix–x.

  180 “perfidious Britons . . . in its defense”: Hatfield, William Claiborne, 290.

  181 “the officer Commanding the English Fleet . . . with black troops”: W. C. C. Claiborne, Official Letter Books, volume 6, 282.

  181 “a powerful savage and negro army . . . devoted country”: Rodriguez, “Always ‘En Garde’,” in Labbé, Louisiana: The Purchase and Its Aftermath, 410.

  181 “like blades of grass . . . before the whirlwind”: Hatfield, William Claiborne, 297.

  182 a British fort at Prospect Bluff: Owsley and Smith, Filibusters and Expansionists, 104–5.

  182 300 black men, women, and children: Meltzer, Hunted Like a Wolf, 50.

  182 “I have little doubt . . . on which it stands”: Giddings, The Exiles of Florida, 36–37.

  183 In July of 1815 . . . “stolen negroes”: Giddings, The Exiles of Florida, 36–37, 42–43.

  183 The Spanish controlled . . . invaded Pensacola: Owsley and Smith, Filibusters and Expansionists, 159–60.

  183 “an imaginary line in the woods”: Israel, State of the Union Messages, I: 156–65.

  185 “The invasion . . . American soil”: Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers, 6:2290–92.

  15. The Slaves Win their Freedom

  188 By February . . . steam gunboats: Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana, 85.

  188 Two well-armed . . . Louisiana vessels: Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana, 89.

  189 But Farragut . . . in the night: Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana, 85–86.

  189 On April 18 . . . Fort Jackson’s guns: Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana, 88.

  190 “People were amazed . . . speechless astonishment”: Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana, 96.

  190 “To the negroes . . . hour of triumph”: Roland, Louisiana Sugar Plantations During the Civil War, 48–49.

  190 “like thrusting a walking stick into an ant-hill”: Roland, Louisiana Sugar Plantations During the Civil War, 92–93.

  191 “Revolt & Insurrection . . . Lincoln and Freedom”: Rodrigue, Reconstruction in the Cane Fields, 36.

  191 A planter just outside . . . the plantation economy: Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen in Civil War Louisiana, 17.

  191 In August of 1862 . . . were captured: Roland, Louisiana Sugar Plantations During the Civil War, 97.

  191 “I shall treat . . . I fancy”: Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen in Civil War Louisiana, 33.

  192 “Any attempt . . . in the end”: McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 17–18.

  193 “in time of actual armed rebellion . . .City of New Orleans”: Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers, 5:3359.

  193 At Mooreland plantation . . . “Glory to Abe Lincoln”: Roland, Louisiana Sugar Plantations During the Civil War, 98–100.

  193 “the slave population . . . of our families”: Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen in Civil War Louisiana, 97.

  194 “If we hadn’t . . . naturally manhood”: McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 213.

  194 “One morning the bell . . . away to the woods”: Berlin et al., Free at Last, 51–52.

  195 the first black regiments . . . by Union troops: Redkey, A Grand Army of Black Men, 3–5.

  195 Initially . . . cowardice: McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 163–64.

  195 “There is not one man . . . field of battle”: McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 163.

  195 Over the next two years . . . major battles: McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 237.

  196 “We can not spare . . . Union goes with it”: McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 235.

  196 “We are now making up . . . root neor branch”: Berlin et al., Free at Last, 482.

  197 “visited plantations” . . . “called their wives”: Berlin et al., Free at Last, 112.

  197 “the Federal Government . . . the existing states”: McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 3–4.

  198 “were so far inferior . . . reduced to slavery”: Stauffer, Giants, 157.

  16. The Cover-Up

  200 “It has been documented . . . provided for”: Brochure on Destrehan Plantation Web site.

  201 “Hidden History Tours . . . But not anymore!”: Leon Waters, “Tours.”

  202 By 1996 . . . revolutionary struggle: Thrasher, On to New Orleans!, 48.

  203 “overthrow their oppressors . . . ‘white’ rulers”: Thrasher, On to New Orleans!, 48.

  203 “On to New Orleans!” . . . “Freedom or death!”: Thrasher, On to New Orleans!, 51.

/>   203 “patently in contradiction with the truth”: Thrasher, On to New Orleans, 65.

  203 “This revolt stimulated . . . never abate”: Thrasher, On to New Orleans!, 66.

  203 “sham . . . capitalist moneybags”: Thrasher, On to New Orleans!, 1.

  205 “This incident . . . subjugated”: Gayarré, History of Louisiana, 4:267.

  206 “high circular gallery . . . kept them at bay”: Gayarré, History of Louisiana, 4:267–68.

  206 In 1918 . . . to the uprising: U. B. Phillips, American Negro Slavery, 474.

  206 “were largely deprived . . . so strongly gives”: U. B. Phillips, American Negro Slavery, 454.

  207 “It is a land . . . a white man’s country”: U. B. Phillips, “The Central Theme of Southern History.”

  207 “growling” . . . “They must know who were their masters”: Kendall, “Shadow over the City,” 144–47.

  207 through the work of Communist activists: Gilmore, Defying Dixie, 6.

  208 “saw [Communism] . . . race relations”: New York Times, March 20, 2003.

  208 With Hitler gaining power . . . dangerous ideologies: Gilmore, Defying Dixie, 197–99.

  209 “Ulrich B. Phillips . . .‘by racial quality submissive’ ”: Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 13.

  209 Aptheker devoted a short paragraph to the 1811 uprising: Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 98.

  Epilogue

  211 “You really think. . . half-naked?”: Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 84.

  212 “a nigger . . . a funeral”: Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 86.

  212 “We got our own M-1’s . . . we had everything”: Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 88.

  213 “When we started firing . . . come back”: Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 88–89.

  214 “We get no justice . . .resort to that method”: Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 149.

  215 “No sincere leader . . . by example”: Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 246.

  216 “Now that the United States . . . for this undertaking”: Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 241.

  216 white Southerners lynched close to 4,000 African Americans: University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law faculty project Web site.

  Bibliography

  Primary Sources

  Acts Passed at the Second Session of the Third Legislature of the Territory of Orleans: Begun and Held in the City of New-Orleans, on Monday, the Twenty-Third Day of January in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eleven. New Orleans.: Thierry, 1811.

  Aime, Valcour. Plantation Diary of the Late Mr. Valcour Aime, Formerly Proprietor of the Plantation Known as the St. James Sugar Refinery, Situated in the Parish of St. James, and Now Owned by Mr. John Burnside. New Orleans: Clark & Hofeline, 1878.

  Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Travels Through North America, During the Years 1825 and 1826. 2 volumes. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828.

  Brackenridge, H. M. Views of Louisiana. Together with a Journal of a Voyage Up the Missouri River, in 1811. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1962.

  Claiborne, Nathaniel Herbert. Notes on the War in the South; with Biographical Sketches of the Lives of Montgomery, Jackson, Sevier, The Late Gov. Claiborne, and Others. Richmond, Va.: William Ramsay, 1819.

  Claiborne, William C. C. Official Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne, 1801–1816. Edited by Dunbar Rowland. Jackson, Miss.: State Department of Archives and History, 1917.

  Conrad, Glenn R. The German Coast: Abstracts of the Civil Records of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes, 1804–1812. Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1981.

  Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789–1804: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006.

  Engerman, Stanley, Seymour Drescher, and Robert Paquette. Slavery. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

  Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African/Written by Himself; Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Edited by Werner Sollors. New York: Norton, 2001.

  Gayarré, Charles. History of Louisiana. 4 volumes. New York: Redfield, 1854–1866.

  Jefferson, Thomas. The Life and Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by S. E. Forman. New York: Braunworth, Munn & Barber, 1900.

  ——— Notes on the State of Virginia: With Related Documents. Edited by David Waldstreicher. New York: Palgrave, 2002.

  Latrobe, Benjamin Henry. Impressions Respecting New Orleans; Diary & Sketches, 1818–1820. Edited by Samuel Wilson Jr. New York: Columbia University Press, 1951.

  de Laussat, Pierre-Clément. Memoirs of My Life to My Son During the Years 1803 and After, Which I Spent in Public Service in Louisiana as Commissioner of the French Government for the Retrocession to France of that Colony and for Its Transfer to the United States. Baton Rouge: Published for the Historic New Orleans Collection by the Louisiana State University Press, 1978.

  Martin, François-Xavier. A General Digest of the Acts of the Legislatures of the Late Territory of Orleans and of the State of Louisiana and the Ordinances of the Governour Under the Territorial Government: Preceded by the Treaty of Cession, the Constitution of the United States, and of the State, with the Acts of Congress Relating to the Government of the Country and the Land Claims Therein. New Orleans, La.: Printed by Peter K. Wagner, 1816.

  Phillips, Wendell. Speeches, Lectures, and Letters. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1894.

  Redkey, Edwin, ed. A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861–1865. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

  Report of Spanish Consul, January 13, 1811, Eusebio Bardari y Azara to Vicente Folch, February 6, 1811. Legajo 221a, Papeles de Cuba, Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain. Microfilm, Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans. Translated for the author by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall.

  Richardson, James, ed. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 20 vols. and Supplement. New York: Bureau of National Literature, 1896–1917.

  Shaw, John, to Paul Hamilton. New Orleans, 18 January 1811. Washington, D.C.: National Archives, Record Group 48, Microfilm 14.

  St. Charles Parish, Original Acts, Book 41, 1811. Translated by Robert Paquette. Clinton, N.Y.: Hamilton College, 2008. Cited in notes as Denunciations.

  Stedman, John Gabriel. Stedman’s Surinam: Life in Eighteenth-Century Slave Society. Edited by Richard Price and Sally Price. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

  Stoddard, Amos. Sketches, Historical and Descriptive of Louisiana. Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1812 and New York: AMS Press, 1973.

  Thrasher, Albert. On to New Orleans! Louisiana’s Heroic 1811 Slave Revolt. 2nd ed. New Orleans, La: Cypress Press, 1996.

  Secondary Sources

  Articles

  Bartle, Philip F. W. “Forty Days; The Akan Calendar.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 48 (1): 80–84.

  Brewer, W. M. Untitled review. Journal of Negro History 29, no. 1 (January 1944): 87–90.

  Craven, Avery. Untitled review. Journal of Economic History 5, no. 1 (May 1945): 75–77.

  Darnton, Robert. “An Early Information Society: News and the Media in Eighteenth-Century Paris.” American Historical Review 105, no. 1 (2000): 1–35.

  Dormon, James. “Notes and Documents.” Louisiana History 17 (Fall 1977): 473.

  ———. “The Persistent Specter: Slave Rebellion in Territorial Louisiana.” Louisiana History 18, no. 4 (1977): 389–404.

  Edwards, Laura F. “Enslaved Women and the Law: Paradoxes of Subordination in the Post-Revolutionary Carolinas.” Slavery & Abolition 26, no. 2 (2005): 305–323.

  Hamilton, G. De Roulhac. Untitled review. American Historical Review 49, no. 3 (April, 1944): 504–506.

  James, C.L.R., under the name J. Meyer. Untitled review. Fourth International 10, no. 11 (December 1949): 337–341. Accessed at http://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/works/1949/12/aptheker.htm.

&
nbsp; Johnson, Michael P. “Denmark Vesey and His Co-Conspirators.” William and Mary Quarterly 58, no. 4 (2001): 915–76.

  Johnson, Walter. “On Agency.” Journal of Social History 37, no. 1, Special Issue (2003): 113–124.

  Kendall, John S. “Shadow over the City.” Louisiana Historical Quarterly 22 (1939): 142–165.

  Law, Robin. “ ‘My Head Belongs to the King’: On the Political and Ritual Significance of Decapitation in Pre-Colonial Dahomey.” Journal of African History 30, no. 3 (1989): 399–415.

  ———. “Horses, Firearms, and Political Power in Pre-Colonial West Africa.” Past and Present 72, no. 1 (1976): 112–32.

  Leglaunec, Jeanne-Pierre. “Slave Migrations in Spanish and Early American Louisiana: New Sources and New Estimates.” Louisiana History: 46, no. 2 (2005): 185–209.

  “Memoirs of Micah Taul,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 27, no. 79 (January 1929), 356, quoted in William C. C. Claiborne, Interim Appointment: W.C.C. Claiborne Letter Book, 1804–1805.

  O’Donovan, Susan. “Trunk Lines, Land Lines, and Local Exchanges: Operationalizing Slaves’ Grapevine Telegraph.” Faculty Working Paper, Harvard College, 2008.

  Paquette, Robert L. “The Great Louisiana Slave Revolt of 1811 Reconsidered.” Historical Reflections 35, no.1 (Spring 2009): 72–96.

  Phillips, Ulrich B. “The Central Theme of Southern History.” American Historical Review 34, no. 1 (1928): 30–43.

  Rodriguez, Junius P. “Always ‘En Garde’: The Effects of Slave Insurrection upon the Louisiana Mentality, 1811–1815.” Louisiana History 33, no. 4 (1992): 399–416.

  Thompson, Thomas Marshall. “National Newspaper and Legislative Reactions to Louisiana’s Deslondes Slave Revolt of 1811.” Louisiana History 33, no. 1 (1992): 5–29.

  Thornton, John K. “African Dimensions of the Stono Rebellion.” American Historical Review 96, no. 4 (1991): 1101–13.

  ———. “African Soldiers in the Haitian Revolution.” Journal of Caribbean Studies 25 (1991): 59–80.

  Books

  Accilien, Cécile, Jessica Adams, and Elmide Méléance, eds. Revolutionary Freedoms: A History of Survival, Strength and Imagination in Haiti. Coconut Creek, Fla.: Caribbean Studies Press, 2006.

 

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