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Emancipating Masculinity: Black Union Deserters and Their Families in the Civil War South

Emancipating Masculinity: Black Union Deserters and Their Families in the Civil War South Emancipating Masculinity: Black Union Deserters and Their Families in the Civil War South Jonathan Lande In June 1863, James Smith fled slavery in Virginia and joined the Union ranks. Not six months later he deserted again—this time emancipating himself from the 36th United States Colored Infantry ( usci). Chaplain Henry McNeal Turner of the 1us st ci learned of the desertion and wrestled with why Smith would run from the army. To proponents of military service such as Turner, fighting would forcefully reclaim Black manhood in the wake of emasculating bondage. Deserters disrupted these aspirations, bewildering the chaplain . “I can neither hear nor imagine the reason why these men desert to the rebels,” Turner wrote to thC e hristian Recorder. “Perhaps it is mere wife-love,” he spec -u lated, “some of them having wives South to whom they feel much endeared, and not knowing any thing concerning their condition, it seems to prey upon their minds, until all fear, dread and manhood is lost. And thus they desert.” The chaplain dismissed Smith as unmanly for shirking his duty. But the chaplain failed to consider that soldiers could also prove themselves men acting on “wife-love.” Indeed, Smith and many http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of American History Oxford University Press

Emancipating Masculinity: Black Union Deserters and Their Families in the Civil War South

Lande, Jonathan
Journal of American History , Volume 109 (3): 23 – Dec 1, 2022
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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© The Author 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Organization of American Historians. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
ISSN
0021-8723
eISSN
1945-2314
DOI
10.1093/jahist/jaac344
Publisher site
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Abstract

Emancipating Masculinity: Black Union Deserters and Their Families in the Civil War South Jonathan Lande In June 1863, James Smith fled slavery in Virginia and joined the Union ranks. Not six months later he deserted again—this time emancipating himself from the 36th United States Colored Infantry ( usci). Chaplain Henry McNeal Turner of the 1us st ci learned of the desertion and wrestled with why Smith would run from the army. To proponents of military service such as Turner, fighting would forcefully reclaim Black manhood in the wake of emasculating bondage. Deserters disrupted these aspirations, bewildering the chaplain . “I can neither hear nor imagine the reason why these men desert to the rebels,” Turner wrote to thC e hristian Recorder. “Perhaps it is mere wife-love,” he spec -u lated, “some of them having wives South to whom they feel much endeared, and not knowing any thing concerning their condition, it seems to prey upon their minds, until all fear, dread and manhood is lost. And thus they desert.” The chaplain dismissed Smith as unmanly for shirking his duty. But the chaplain failed to consider that soldiers could also prove themselves men acting on “wife-love.” Indeed, Smith and many

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Journal of American History – Oxford University Press

Published: Dec 1, 2022

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