Diversity in reenactment units

[Iron Jim Rackham]

Are you equating a slave, armed or otherwise, with a confederate soldier? If a black man wants to portray a slave, such a portrayal would at least be realistic. I only lose interest when a black man incongruously portrays a confederate soldier.

The armed slave, while unusual is historically valid. Andrew Jackson is documented to have armed his slaves. Black confederate combat soldiers are a fiction, and it would be "revisionist" to pretend otherwise.

[Huck Finn]

What seems to challenge most folks Hank, is living the mid-nineteenth century. Heck, you take off for 100 mile jaunts, live for nearly a week in a frigid hospital tent and a host of other things to experience the period. Most folks just want to play at it and pick at the little stuff.

Dare I say the inaccuracies of a black man in a Confederate or integrated federal unit, pales in comparison to some of the things that pass for historical accuracy. I have served with a black man in a Confederate unit, fallen in next to the recreated 54th Mass. and had a darned fine experience. They were there to get close. So was I.

Having been raised in an agrarian based family, relating to things such as walking everywhere, fresh buttermilk, knowing how to drive a team of work horses and generally fend for myself has come in handy. It is actually comfortable.

Years ago, John Wayne made a speech about being an American. The point was, it is our history, good, bad and ugly. Students of history understand that the only perspective worth pursuing is the, dare I say, integrated continuum of events over time. Plucking out racial, sexual or national perspectives from the continuum serve no real purpose, as they are out of context. In addition, history should be composed of facts. Truth is in the eye of the beholder. Facts, if possibly obtainable, are reliable measures of an event.

Shelby Foote went to great lengths in his three volumes on the Civil War to weave history together. Virginius Dabney's New Dominion does the same. It makes them enjoyable to read since the history is not isolated.

We fuss way to much about the minutia. Human nature I guess. This is a great place to learn, if we want, as well as a great place to explore the suspension of disbelief. Why let prejudice, racism or bigotry enter into such things?

Hank is spot on correct. Military life is a small part of the experience of those who we portray. How we portray their lives is filled with the complexity of recreation. Ain't it fun?

[Rob Weaver]

We're also falling prey to the trap of the majority in some of our thinking. Almost subconsciously we're drifting into a "white history" which is exclusively military, and a "black history," which we're seeing as exclusively one of servitude. Obviously, those are gross oversimplifications. As I've said before, in American culture there are 8 ways to be black and only 1 way to be white. There were people who we today would have considered "white" by background and appearance today who were held in slavery in the South and subjected to second class citizen status in the North. Again, an oversimplification but a truth. It would be a valuable experience to do an Underground RR scenario as you've described, because most of us are accustomed to the history of the majority, never stopping to consider that one ancestor in our pasts could have propelled us into the history of the minority.

[sbl]

We had a case here on Cape Ann in Massachusetts of Peter Coffin arming his slaves to fight off a British landing party during the War of Independence. I would not call these slaves soldiers but security guards as they were protecting Peter Coffin's sheep.

[Tarheel57]

...The historical record suggests that no black soldiers served the confederacy as soldiers.A black man portraying a confederate isn't authentic, and a black man's desire to "honor" confederate soldiers makes about as much sense historically, intellectually or emotionally, as a contemporary Jew choosing to portray a WW2 German soldier.

Before someone raises the issue of Solomon Perel's WW2 service, let me observe that his "enlistment" was merely a disguise necessary to survival and can not properly be construed as service. Mr. Perel makes it quite clear from everything he's said and written than he abhorred the regime he "served". Using Mr. Perel as an example it would be very strange for a Jewish WW2 re-enactor to justify his desire to portray a German soldier on the premise that "Jews served" in the German army.

I think it requires similar historical gymnastics to justify a black re-enactor portraying a confederate, and certainly misrepresents the nature of 19th century society to suggest that white and black union soldiers fought side by side....

You have raised a very interesting point, that I think tends to be overlooked. In most of the material I have read on the so-called "Black Confederates", there seems to be the unspoken assumption that any Black man taking up arms for the South was loyal to the Confederate cause. But I've really seen no evidence to support this. Like one historian has pointed out about African-Americans in the Revolutionary War, their overriding concern was how to obtain freedom. Whichever side they fought on, freedom was their priority, and their actions were aimed at this goal.
I think it was much the same in the Civil War. If Blacks did indeed fight for the South ( I know that there was a unit of Freedmen who volunteered in New Orleans, I think) then they probably had an eye towards the future: in case of a Confederate victory, they might be offered their freedom. This actually happened in the waning days of the war, but much too late to matter. In any case, I think that many more Blacks fled towards Federal lines or left their owners at the approach of the Union army than fired a gun at them.
Like a few others, I find the notion that Blacks fought 'side by side' with White Confederates as equals to be ludicrous. Maybe in an isolated instance or two, but certainly not in any widespread sense.

[Robert A Mosher]

You have raised a very interesting point, that I think tends to be overlooked. In most of the material I have read on the so-called "Black Confederates", there seems to be the unspoken assumption that any Black man taking up arms for the South was loyal to the Confederate cause. But I've really seen no evidence to support this. Like one historian has pointed out about African-Americans in the Revolutionary War, their overriding concern was how to obtain freedom. Whichever side they fought on, freedom was their priority, and their actions were aimed at this goal.
I think it was much the same in the Civil War. If Blacks did indeed fight for the South ( I know that there was a unit of Freedmen who volunteered in New Orleans, I think) .

The Louisiana Native Guards were a pre-war militia unit of New Orleans Freedmen. When the seccessionist Louisiana State Government called out the militia, the Guards showed up. However, they were eventually told to go on home. As I recall, later in the war when a Union occupation was clearly imminent it was rumored that they would be called to muster again with the goal of disarming them. Whether true or not, the Guard ignored that muster call and hid their weapons away. They would later offer their services under the Union occupation and eventually became a part of the USCT.

Robert A. Mosher

[Rob Weaver]

A major part of the USCT, one might add, since they had the first black regularly commissioned officers in the United States Army (at least for a little while.)

[PaperPusher]

If they want to reenact....let them reenact...it's not about politics, race or sex. It's a love of history and I'll share that with ANYONE!

[bryanac625]

I've read 8 pages into this very interesting discussion so far. I found the thread by typing "interracial" into the search box because I am African-American, my wife is white and we have interest in getting back into reenacting after being off for 7 years (I posted this in the general discussion thread yesterday. BTW, we are in Maryland; DC metro area).

A number of thoughts come to mind for me here. First of all, I have reenacted with some White units before and I was the only Black person. They (the other reenactors) really had no problem with it, at least none that they voiced to me. From what I've read here, I'm glad to read that many units would not have a problem with a Black man as part of their unit.

I forget who raised the points here but it is a very good point about White people of one ethnicity (Greeks, Poles, Slavs, Danes, etc.) portraying White soldiers of, say the Irish Brigade. Of course, a Greek or a Dane could get away with it much easier than myself. And I realize an overt, mean-spirited discrimination is not the intent of many here who feel it would be inappropriate and a misrepresentation of history to have me or another Black person play a soldier in a White unit. But there are so many differences between Civil War soldiers as they existed and us in America today- not just the many different European, Hispanic, Asian and African people who populate the country now... but we are taller, heavier and older than those men were. Look at how many reenactors wear eyeglasses (even period eyeglasses). Then I challenge you to find ten photos of real Civil War soldiers who wore eyeglasses. And movies like Gettysburg and Glory, which feature overweight Confederates offer little insight into what southern soldiers really looked like. In other words, what we portray as reenactors is a glimpse of what was 150 years ago; but it is very different from what their world actually looked like.

So far in this thread, I haven't read anything about something I just learned recently in Civil War history: that on occasion, some Black men DID serve in otherwise "all White" units... like Crowder Patience of the 103rd Pennsylvania. Or William Henry Johnson of the 2nd Connecticut Infantry, who fought at 1st Bull Run. Once again, there is more to the story.

Having said all of this, I can't speak for others but I'm not interested in reenacting as a Confederate soldier. I have nothing against Confederate reenactors at all. But I just don't buy into the 30,000-90,000 Black Confederate soldier story.

By the way: to the idea of White people reenacting Negro League baseball- this happens every year in the Major Leagues. Both teams in a game (say the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians) will wear the uniforms of the Negro League team from their city (the Chicago American Giants and the Cleveland Buckeyes) and the game itself becomes a reenactment. So the idea is not as farfetched as it may seem.

[FloridaHoosier]

I've read 8 pages into this very interesting discussion so far. I found the thread by typing "interracial" into the search box because I am African-American, my wife is white and we have interest in getting back into reenacting after being off for 7 years (I posted this in the general discussion thread yesterday. BTW, we are in Maryland; DC metro area).

A number of thoughts come to mind for me here. First of all, I have reenacted with some White units before and I was the only Black person. They (the other reenactors) really had no problem with it, at least none that they voiced to me. From what I've read here, I'm glad to read that many units would not have a problem with a Black man as part of their unit.

I forget who raised the points here but it is a very good point about White people of one ethnicity (Greeks, Poles, Slavs, Danes, etc.) portraying White soldiers of, say the Irish Brigade. Of course, a Greek or a Dane could get away with it much easier than myself. And I realize an overt, mean-spirited discrimination is not the intent of many here who feel it would be inappropriate and a misrepresentation of history to have me or another Black person play a soldier in a White unit. But there are so many differences between Civil War soldiers as they existed and us in America today- not just the many different European, Hispanic, Asian and African people who populate the country now... but we are taller, heavier and older than those men were. Look at how many reenactors wear eyeglasses (even period eyeglasses). Then I challenge you to find ten photos of real Civil War soldiers who wore eyeglasses. And movies like Gettysburg and Glory, which feature overweight Confederates offer little insight into what southern soldiers really looked like. In other words, what we portray as reenactors is a glimpse of what was 150 years ago; but it is very different from what their world actually looked like.

So far in this thread, I haven't read anything about something I just learned recently in Civil War history: that on occasion, some Black men DID serve in otherwise "all White" units... like Crowder Patience of the 103rd Pennsylvania. Or William Henry Johnson of the 2nd Connecticut Infantry, who fought at 1st Bull Run. Once again, there is more to the story.

Having said all of this, I can't speak for others but I'm not interested in reenacting as a Confederate soldier. I have nothing against Confederate reenactors at all. But I just don't buy into the 30,000-90,000 Black Confederate soldier story.

Welcome aboard and thanks for an interesting perspective on things. First, I want to point out that this thread is 4 years old, and some perspectives have changed in the hobby in general, and the current moderating staff were not moderators when this thread was active. That said, that thread had some interesting ideas and some "out there" that probably wouldn't have made it with the current staff here. Some of the people who posted aren't even in the hobby anymore. I applaud you for researching and guaging things, and I hope that you find a reenacting home that serves you and your family's needs. Like many things in this hobby that people try to justify for their impressions, you will be challenged by some to portray the average, common impression and as you have already found, there are exceptions for everything. Be able to know the difference (as I'm fairly sure you do) between the common and the exceptional. It is my opinion as a living historian, and not as a moderator here, that this hobby needs more African Americans in all portrayals. Best of luck to you.