There is some useful new scholarship on this question. See Bruce Levine: CONFEDERATE EMANCIPATION on the plans to (and the resistance against) more fully exploiting the African American numbers in the Confederate South. Levine also takes up the issue of motivation of Black recruits. Although the Confederate offer of emancipation was taken up by some southern blacks, far more found the Union's offer of freedom to be more promising; no doubt the experiences of dealing with white slaveholders made the enslaved, shall we say, wary of southern promises. One can also turn to Robert Durden's older work: THE GRAY AND THE BLACK. David Kiracofe David Kiracofe History Tidewater Community College Chesapeake Campus 1428 Cedar Road Chesapeake, Virginia 23322 757-822-5136 >>> <[log in to unmask]> 06/15/07 9:07 AM >>> Another curious aspect of the realities of Black slavery are the accounts of Black slaves and freemen serving in the army of the Confederacy. C.F. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in the Civil War Virginia by Jordan; The Louisiana Native Guard by Hollandsworth; Black Confederates by Barrow, Segars and Rosenburg; Black Southerners in Gray by Bataile, et. al; and Black Southerners in Confederate Armies by Segars and Barrow. I find it hard to believe that these slaves and former slaves served out of fear of being whipped. Rather, they must have had some deep felt feelings for the South to risk their lives in battle for "the cause". J South ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.