Possible Rebellion – Against Alabama

Madison County Courthouse 1860

According to The New-York Times the government of Alabama was making plans for a possible “Black Republican” victory in the 1860 presidential election at least 9 months earlier. Some freemen did not take kindly to what they viewed as unlawful taxation.

The New-York Times. November 9, 1860:

Taxation for Disunion Resisted in Alabama

Last Winter the Alabama Legislature passed a bill authorizing a tax of $200,000 to be raised to defray the expense of arming the State, and giving the Governor power to appoint two Commissioners from each county, with power to determine the course which the State should take in the event of the Lincoln election. The tax-gatherers of Alabama are now collecting this tax from the poor and rich alike in that State; and a portion of the citizens of Madison County, Ala., have assembled together, and solemnly resolved to resist its collection. Here are their resolutions:

Resolved, That we, as freemen, abhor the Military Law passed by our Legislature, and now, in this public manner, denounce the law as unconstitutional and subversive of our liberties as freemen.

Resolved, That we will resist this military tax by all lawful means, let it be attempted to be enforced in any manner or shape.

Resolved, That we recommend to all citizens and freemen of the State of Alabama to do as we have done — take in bold and legal stand against the enforcement of this Military law.

Resolved. That when our State requires our property and lives in defence of what we may consider her honor and the safety of her citizens and their property, we will freely give both; but we are not willing to surrender up our property, liberty and lives to an unconstitutional and intolerant act of our Legislature.

Sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking of the war as a unified South versus a unified North, even though this obviously wasn’t true. Ever since I was a little kid I knew the idea “brother fought brother”. There were draft riots in New York; McClellan ran against Lincoln in 1864.

Since I started working on this blog I’ve found out even more about how diverse opinion was in both sections. In the South there were the rabble-rousing fire-eaters and the plantation class with their vested interest in their black “property”; but there were also people like these freemen, who were not ready to jump on the secession bandwagon, especially if that meant giving in to what they considered an unconstitutional military law.

The first thing I thought about when I read this was the Shelby Foote YouTube video I learned about from other Civil War sites (I kind of jumped on that bandwagon) In that video Mr. Foote tells the story of the union army capturing an obviously poor rebel soldier who owned no slaves and who had no interest in great constitutional issues. When asked why he was in the Southern army, the rebel replied, “I’m fighting because you’re down here.”

I have not learned yet what happened with the Alabama Freemen’s protest, but based on their last resolution it would seem that when the war started and the Union army advanced they would have definitely been in the fight to protect their state.

As always, I’m interested in what you think. Thanks