Fear of the Coming Insurrection

After Nat Turner’s Rebellion, white southerners began to form their own militia groups. When faced with the threat of another slave rebellion, wealthy slave-owners and poor whites alike worked together to preserve their white southern culture. For those who were of lower class, this was an opportunity to have power over others, especially slaves. This was also a chance for them to show their allegiance to the South. It was also an excuse to practice intense racism, as shown in “Fear of Insurrection”, “Everywhere men, women and children were whipped till the blood stood in puddles at their feet”. These lower class whites, travelled across the land like a lynch mob, robbing, attacking and framing black people. It was as if their anger at being poor and oppressed by the wealthy slave-owners had been unleashed onto any slave in sight.

As night fell, this mob which was motivated by more than a few drinks, proceeded to break into slave’s houses, ransack their property, and drag away anyone suspected of rebelling. As the wealthier elite realized that these people were interfering with their own operations, they began to force them from their towns, back into rural areas from which they came.

This mob was brought in to search black homes during the day, and continued for weeks after Nat Turner’s rebellion. They trained as a militia of their own, with drums, uniforms, and marching across the land.

You can argue that this was the forming of the Confederate Army. As these groups formed throughout the South, in order to preserve their way of life, they were acting as an army of their own. When the threat to their way of life changed from black people, to white people from the North, these poor whites were ready to spring into action. This motivation to defend their own homes, land and families the South to have such a strong upper hand at the beginning of the Civil War. These people knew the land well, and fueled by their penchant for racism, fought hard and united under a common cause.

Under the guide of great military commanders the Confederate Army won many of the early battles until the casualties of war began to catch up to them. In a society based so heavily on slavery, the population of whites was significantly smaller than that of the North and their lack of foresight led to their eventual demise. This backward way of thinking led to bankrupting of the South and loss of most of its population.