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How essential were slaves to the Confederate
railroads?
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| Slaves were required for Confederate railroad construction (i.e. the
Piedmont Railroad and others) because of the great scarcity of white labor
in the South throughout the war. You cannot read the historical record
without being struck by the number of times writers complain of a shortage
of manpower for the army, industry, railroads, food production, etc.
Slaves filled in for the missing whites in railroad construction. |
| Likewise, slaves filled in for missing whites in track maintenance and
the menial train jobs (brakeman, fireman, station labor). In late
1864, the Atlantic & Gulf RR reported 350 slaves working on the
track, as train hands and in warehouses. |
| In construction, track maintenance and train labor, slaves had been the
normal labor force before the war. |
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What would have been the effect of the South not
being able to use slaves for these railroads jobs? |
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| Given the resistance of the army commanders to detailing men to any
non-military job, the railroads would have deteriorated faster than they
did and the construction of the essential railroads that was undertaken
would probably not have been completed. The result of these two would
probably have been the shortening of the war by something like 6 months. |
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| Here are the
links to slave-related pages. |
| AHC, A&M 1-1-62 |
A typical slave hire contract
for one year |
| AHC, S&M 1-14-65 |
A typical slave hire contract
for one year |
|
MISC, V&T
1-1-63 |
A typical slave hire contract for a train hand |
| NA,
LS 10-31L-62 |
Slaves used in the CS Locomotive
Shop |
| Central
(of Georgia) buying slaves |
| Charlotte & South Carolina
Slaves |
| North Carolina
Slaves Hired 1862 |
| North Carolina
Slaves Hired 1864 |
| Richmond & Petersburg
Slaves |
| South Carolina Slaves
|
| Virginia & Tennessee
Employees
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| Virginia Central Employees |