The African Americans by Henry Louis Gates Jr

Author:Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Hay House
Published: 2012-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

Slave quarters at Jefferson Davis’s plantation, circa 1860–1870. Photograph. Library of Congress. Inscribed on the front: “Sent Home by Elizabeth Findley Missionary to the freedmen” and on the back: “Graveyard Joe Davis Plac[e]. Davis Bend, Miss.”

Joseph Davis clearly had the wisdom not to let racism cripple his own economic interests. But the relationship went far beyond that; the two trusted one another implicitly, and Davis encouraged the education of Montgomery’s children. He even took the ten-year-old Isaiah Montgomery into his mansion to become his personal valet and private secretary. He hired a slave from his brother’s plantation to tutor the Montgomery children, and when they outpaced their teacher, Montgomery hired his own tutor for his children: a white man. One is hard-pressed to think of another similar instance in the entire history of the Deep South.

While it is unlikely that the other 350 or so slaves on the plantation received similar treatment from Davis, life at Hurricane—compared to other plantations in the region—was probably about as good as one could expect under the slave regime. Abundant food for all made life more than bearable, and no record survives of sexual exploitation or severe beatings. Montgomery, who likely found many opportunities to flee, remained content with his growing authority, his increasing wealth, and the protection he enjoyed as a slave of one of the most powerful men in the state. His remarkable abilities might have become the basis for a highly successful career in the free North, but it was a risk that he found unnecessary to take. Prudence remained the central feature of Montgomery’s life and business dealings.

But the war brought changes and revealed much about how the other slaves perceived life at Hurricane. With the approach of Union forces in April 1862, Joseph Davis fled Davis Bend, leaving Montgomery in charge of the entire plantation—clearly an enormous sign of the trust Davis placed in his “property.” But the other slaves at Hurricane and at Brierfield, regardless of how well Jefferson Davis and his brother thought they treated the African Americans they owned, fled for the Union blue at the first opportunity. Others broke into their master’s home and took furniture and clothing. Of the hundreds of slaves owned by the president of the Confederacy, only 17 remained behind.

Defenders of the Old South like the Davises described slaves as “contented” and slavery as a paternalistic institution that cared for a people who could not care for themselves. African Americans, however, voted with their feet and believed in the benefits of freedom. They also showed Union soldiers where Jefferson Davis had buried his family silver.

While Benjamin cared for the remnants of the plantation, the livestock, and the few other slaves still in Davis Bend, his son Isaiah left with Union Admiral David Dixon Porter, who, for a time, took over as a guarantor of the Montgomery family. He suggested that given the chaos of the war, the family should remove to Cincinnati, where Benjamin worked as a carpenter. Porter, however, found

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