litwack1979

@Book{ litwack1979,
	author = {Leon F. Litwack},
	title = {Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery},
	address = {New York},
	publisher = {Alfred A. Knopf},
	year = 1979,
}

Litwack discusses Refugeed Slaves taken to Texas and other interior parts of the Confederacy on pages 30-36, relying heavily on Rawick’s publication of WPA narratives, especially the Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas volumes.

He emphasizes both the significant dangers of the journey, with sickness and death frequently occurring en route, and the potential costliness to slaveholders of attempting a move when it might provoke or enable flight by their enslaved people. Moreover, “rather than finding any relief from the customary problems of management and discipline, slaveholders were apt to discover that the new environment encouraged greater independence in the slaves” (34).

Because of these risks, notes Litwack, “a small minority of slave owners … turned to sale as a preferable if not altogether profitable alternative” (35).

Former Slaves Mentioned

• Allen Manning (brought from Clarke County, Mississippi to Coryell County, Texas), whose narrative is provided in Rawick’s volume of Oklahoma Narratives
• Charley Williams (brought from Louisiana)
• Virginia Newman
• Stephen Jordon, who decided to run away upon hearing he might be removed to Texas
• Bill Homer
• Elvira Boles (brought from Mississippi), who “left her baby buried ‘somewhere on dat road’ to Texas” (33).
• Louis Love (brought from Louisiana), remembered one of his brothers dying on the road.
• Millie Evans also recalled several deaths on the road from North Carolina to Arkansas.
• Van Moore

Refugee Planters Mentioned

• John Williams cited as an example of a Louisiana planter who was unable to depart before 27 of his slaves had run away
• John Berkley Grimball of South Carolina
• Mary Williams Pugh also cited as an example of how difficult it was to get slaves to Texas.
• F. D. Richardson, about whom see Bayside Plantation Records at UNC
• Louis Manigault