POOR WHITES AND ENSLAVED BLACKS

“One reason for the prejudice which the plantation owners had against the poor white people in every community was that these poor white people naturally sympathized with us and the plantation owners were afraid that because of this they might teach us to read or might give us some information about what the North was trying to do.” p.43 This remarkable insight by a former New Bern, North Carolina slave, William Henry Singleton, is from RECOLLECTIONS OF MY SLAVERY DAYS (1922). Sergeant William Henry Singleton's slave narrative has more recently been augmented by Katherine Mellen Charron and David S. Cecelski with an introduction, corroborating annotations, and appendices, republished in 1999. I use the adjective “remarkable” to characterize the quote, because in 2019 the common view among blacks is that “poor whites” are the very ones who are the most averse to black people and to black progress. Sgt. Singleton's unit was the 35th U.S.C.T. In the Civil War, in which he met, shook the hand of, and spoke to President Abraham Lincoln, while serving under General Ambrose Burnside's Headquarters, as Lincoln left a meeting with Burnside in 1862. In what he called, “one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Singleton writes: “His adjutant pointed to a man who was talking to the general in the inner room amd said 'Do you know that man in there?' I said, 'No.' He said, 'That is our President, Mr. Lincoln.' In a few minutes the conference in the inner room apparently ended and Mr. Lincoln and General Burnside came out. I do not know whether they had told President Lincoln before about me or not but the General pointed to me and said, 'This is the little fellow who got up a colored regiment.' President Lincoln shook hands with me and said, 'It is a good thing. What do you want?' I said, 'I have a thousand men. We want to fight to free our race. We want to know if you will take us in the service?' He said, 'You have got good pluck. But I can't take you now, because you are contraband of war and not American citizens yet. But hold on to your society and there may be a chance for you.' So saying he passed on...On January 1, 1863, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which made me and all the rest of my race free.” p.48-49 Abraham Lincoln was certainly “poor white” in his early life. There may be no greater attestation to the truth of Singleton's first quotation than Abraham Lincoln.