SOUTH CAROLINA'S BLACK CONFEDERATES

New book documents African American service in the Civil War

South Carolina's African American Confederate Pensioners 1923-1925 
Alexia Jones Helsley
South Carolina Department of Archives and History
138 pages, introduction, photos, appendices, index
$13 

At the outbreak of the Civil War the majority of South Carolina's work 
force was African American. As the demands of the war took their toll on 
the state's white
male population the state turned to this work force to help shore up 
Confederate defenses. By 1862 the state was impressing black South 
Carolinians to labor on
Confederate fortifications. African Americans served as cooks, servants, 
laborers and performed other duties behind the battle lines. Other 
states placed black
soldiers into combat duty, but South Carolina never officially allowed 
blacks to take up arms.

South Carolina's African American Confederate Pensioners 1923-1925 by 
Alexia Jones Helsley brings to light stories of some African Americans 
as told on
their applications for Confederate pensions. In 1923 the South Carolina 
legislature approved "An Act to Provide for Pensions for certain 
faithful Negroes who were
engaged in service of the State in the War Between the States." The 
state required each applicant to supply his name, address, description 
of service, commanding
officers and character references. Some applications include affidavits 
From witnesses confirming the applicant's service and testifying to good 
character. In most
cases these pension applications, which are part of the state's archives 
at the South Carolina Archives and History Center, provide the only 
written documentation of
an individual African American's service during the Civil War. They tell 
of hard work, loyalty, personal injury and heroism. Helsley abstracts 
more than three
hundred pension applications filed between 1923 and 1925. 

This new book is available for $13 plus shipping from the South Carolina 
Archives and History Center, 8301 Parklane Road, Columbia, SC, 29223. A 
complete
catalog of publications from the Archives and History Center is 
available. For more information or to order by phone, call Carrie 
Bassett at (803) 896-6191.



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