Page 27 →The Untold Story of Arthur B. Mitchell

In recent years, The Citadel has increased its commitment to understanding its complicated relationship with the Black community. In The Story of The Citadel, Oliver J. Bond briefly mentions a Black employee who worked for The Citadel in the mid-nineteenth century. Bond describes the man, named Page 29 →Mitchell, as the “colored fifer” for the Corps of Cadets. Bond states that Mitchell was such an integral part of cadet life that Citadel cadets attended his funeral, a sign of respect not often extended by white Americans, at that time, to African Americans.¹⁰ Bond’s account is corroborated by a funeral notice in the News and Courier. The notice, likely written by his family or church, provides some information about Mitchell’s private life. It states that Mitchell was a husband and father, member of Calvary Baptist Church, and major of the First Regiment N.G. of South Carolina.¹¹ An article in the same edition of the paper, titled “His Last Tattoo,” states that Mitchell began his employment at The Citadel in 1844 and even went “to the front” during the “great struggle.”¹² One sentence in this article catches the modern reader’s eye: “There is not a colored man in Charleston who stands higher with his white friends.”¹³ This statement causes the modern reader to wonder: Who was Arthur B. Mitchell? Was he enslaved or free? Why did the white authors speak laudably of him during a period in which race relations were strained at best? Which group in The Civil War did Mitchell support and why? This research project sets out to answer these questions and uncover the story of one of The Citadel’s earliest Black employees, a man who worked for an overtly Confederate institution during a period of enslavement and national conflict and who likely risked his life on the battlefield wearing the uniform of the people who deprived him of freedom. Through an examination of public records, such as census documents, death certificates, and financial records, my research uncovers important details about Arthur Mitchell’s life, including the fact that Mitchell was a freeman. Contextualizing these details through the historical frameworks provided by Bernard E. Powers Jr.’s Black Charlestonians and Kevin M. Levin’s Searching for Black Confederates, I seek to provide a broader understanding of the life of a Black man in Charleston during the antebellum period.

Powers provides a crucial understanding of the city which Arthur Mitchell inhabited. We can be certain that Mitchell’s vocation as a military fifer was low paying and that he was not among the very few affluent Blacks in antebellum Charleston. Instead, he was part of a subjugated workforce, both enslaved and free, who were maligned and mistreated, even though their labor was integral to Charleston’s success. Enslaved people, Powers demonstrates, were involved in thirty-eight occupations, which included coopers, musicians, carpenters, bakers, plasterers, and other skill-based tasks.¹⁴ Powers depicts Charleston as a bustling city in which free Black people and enslaved people lived closely together and were involved in all aspects of a labor-central economy. Although unable to vote or hold office, Black Page 30 →residents remained engaged in the civic life of their city. One contemporary observer cited by Powers estimated that ten percent of political rally attendees were Black.¹⁵

Still, white leaders afforded Black residents few freedoms, and the decades preceding emancipation became a time of increased oppression. In fact, as the Civil War approached, white South Carolinians increased their efforts to restrict Black people and maintain a strict social hierarchy based on race. In 1820, South Carolina enacted a law that required legislative approval to emancipate any enslaved person.¹⁶ In large part, the law was intended to curtail the growth of the free Black population.¹⁷ To circumvent these laws, some free Black people purchased enslaved family members. For example, a free man named James Patterson, unable to purchase their freedom, instead purchased both his wife and daughter.¹⁸ In 1822, the legislature passed another law that required free Black migrants to pay special taxes and to have a designated white guardian.¹⁹ In 1841, the state effectively outlawed the emancipation of any enslaved person.²⁰ White leaders also sought to preserve social stratifications by restricting Black wages. For example, the Charleston City Council limited the amount a free Black person could earn in one day to just one dollar.²¹

Even the creation of The Citadel in 1842 was in response to white fears of Black advancement, particularly anxiety about violent rebellion after the Denmark Vesey plot of 1822.²² The struggle for social and economic freedom persisted long after the Emancipation Proclamation. After the Civil War, white leaders instituted Black codes, which defined African Americans as inferior by law and greatly restricted basic civil rights. Under the provisions of these codes, any white person could arrest a Black person if they witnessed them committing a crime. Black people who aspired to own businesses had to meet “certain criteria” established and enforced by white officials, and special courts were created to hear cases against Black individuals.²³ During Arthur Mitchell’s time, Charleston had a large number of free Black people, and there were many opportunities for employment. However, the city’s culture was predicated on race; specifically, the assumption of white supremacy and persistent efforts to enforce oppressive racial hierarchies. Mitchell’s life, as we will see, illustrates both the highs and lows for a Black man attempting to provide for himself and his family during this period.

Arthur B. Mitchell first appears in census records in 1860, where he is included among the “free inhabitants” of Charleston. This record provides concrete evidence that Mitchell was a free Black man before the Civil War. The census document also mentions two family members: Martha Mitchell, Page 31 →Arthur’s wife, and Mary Mitchell, his young daughter. At this time, Arthur is listed as being thirty-six years old and his wife as twenty-eight.

Significantly, in the census document, Mitchell is designated as “B” for Black. The other options of classification were mulatto and white. The distinction of color was an important component in Charleston society and communicated status. White people were at the top of a social hierarchy, and the lower ranks were composed of levels of Blackness. Black slaves were at the bottom, whereas biracial people (mulattoes, in nineteenth-century terms) were caught between Black and white.²⁴ As a darker skinned free man, Mitchell would have been excluded from the upper echelons of the free Black society. He almost assuredly faced discrimination not only from powerful whites but also from fellow African Americans with lighter skin tones.

By the spring of 1861, the Civil War had begun after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12. As the first state to secede, South Carolina and all its inhabitants were thrown into the conflict. The almost panegyric obituary “His Last Tattoo,” referenced earlier, celebrates Mitchell’s support of the Confederate army. For modern readers, the claim may seem implausible. In fact, it may seem like an example of Lost Cause propaganda, an effort to erase a history of violence by making the oppressed willing accomplices of their oppressors.²⁵ In Searching for Black Confederates, Kevin L. Levin addresses claims that Black people served in the Confederate Army. There was a group of free Black men residing in New Orleans who attempted to create a militia called the Native Guard to assist the South, but the Confederate Army refused their assistance.²⁶ Levin argues that slaves did not serve as soldiers in the Confederate ranks and that this belief is strictly fiction.²⁷ He does acknowledge, however, that free Black men did assist the Confederacy. Those whose names appear on muster rolls, he says, were paid service workers.²⁸ Further, Levin argues that allowing Black men to serve as combat soldiers would have created practical and ideological risks, because a man who learns to fight one enemy is well prepared to fight another. Moreover, placing Black soldiers in roles that required quick thinking, bravery, and honesty would have exposed the lie of white supremacy. To support this claim, he offers the words of Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon: “If slaves make soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong.”²⁹

Mitchell’s experiences both support and complicate Levin’s claims. An early twentieth-century historical text, South Carolina Troops in Confederate Service, by A. S. Salley Jr., reports that Mitchell enlisted in October of 1861 and was given the title chief musician.³⁰ Mitchell then seems to disappear Page 32 →from regimental muster rolls until 1862, when he enlisted again in Suffolk, Virginia, and was once again listed as a musician, not a combat soldier. He appears in muster rolls for several months until February 1863, when he is designated AWOL. By April of the same year, Mitchell had returned to Charleston and was officially designated a deserter.³¹ Salley’s account partially refutes Levin’s claim about Black members of the Confederate army. Mitchell was clearly more than a “paid service worker.” He enlisted twice in the Confederate Army and was listed as a deserter when he failed to report for duty. These details affirm that he was military personnel, not a civilian (or enslaved) worker. Still, there is no record that he was ever assigned a regular military rank, nor that he underwent any sort of basic training. Mitchell seems to have a sort of hybrid position, both in and out of the Confederate military.

Salley’s historical record also casts doubt on other reports of Mitchell’s service during the Civil War. Oliver Bond states that Mitchell served The Citadel, “until 1861, when he became the body servant of General Maxcy Gregg, and afterwards General Colquitt.”³² The historical records, however, indicate that Mitchell served as a musician, not a servant. It is also difficult to determine when Mitchell could have entered either man’s service. Colquitt joined the Confederate Army in May of 1861.³³ Gregg joined the Confederate cause immediately after secession and was tasked with organizing the first group of volunteers.³⁴ It is unlikely that Mitchell joined their service at the start of the war, because records indicate that Mitchell did not become employed by the Confederate Army until October 1861, several months after the conflict had begun. More important, the records indicate that Mitchell enlisted in the Confederate Army, something that would not have been necessary for a personal servant.

During the spring of 1862, Gregg’s regiment was sent to Virginia, which corresponds to Mitchell’s second enlistment.³⁵ During the spring and summer of the same year, Colquitt also spent considerable time in Virginia.³⁶ It is possible, then, that Mitchell met both men in 1862 when all three were in Virginia. Curiously, like Mitchell, Colquitt returned to South Carolina in 1863.³⁷ Still, there is no reason to conclude that Mitchell worked as Colquitt’s servant. Had he returned to South Carolina in Colquitt’s service, he would not have been designated a deserter. We may never know all of the roles Mitchell served during the war, nor his motivations for deserting his post. By 1863, the war had gone on for two long years, and as the Confederacy inched closer to Union territory, Mitchell would have found himself in a dangerous environment, far from home. It seems unlikely, however, that Page 33 →Mitchell returned to Charleston because he was in the service of a Confederate officer.

The assumption that Mitchell served as a body servant to highly respected Confederate generals, however, very likely contributed to the favorable treatment he received in The Story of The Citadel and “His Last Tattoo.” In the decades after the war, former body servants and camp workers were often visible at veteran reunions and were used to support the Lost Cause narrative of the “loyal slave.”³⁸ Levin reports that some African Americans even made careers for themselves by performing the parts of loyal slaves. For example, a man named Steve Perry attended reunions using the name Uncle Steve Eberhart. His stage name appeared frequently in newspapers across the South, and white audiences no doubt enjoyed hearing his narratives of willing service to Confederate officers. The tales he told, however, were not true.³⁹ Another former camp slave, William Mack Lee, gained so much notoriety at Confederate reunions that he was asked to testify before the Georgia House of Representatives. To that group, Lee acknowledged “his perfect faith in the white man of the South doing the right thing for his race.”⁴⁰ Like Steve Perry, Lee was comfortable fabricating events, no doubt with a view toward personal gain. He often told tales that placed him in close proximity with Robert E. Lee. In an autobiographical pamphlet, he even stated that the two men were “real friends.”⁴¹ An article published by the Confederate Veteran magazine challenged that claim, noting that Robert E. Lee was unlikely to make anyone a confidant and would never “have revealed himself to a negro servant.”⁴²

There is no evidence that Mitchell fabricated any details of his service. It is, however, entirely possible that others may have given him a fictitious past. For those invested in the Lost Cause ideology, a faithful Black servant would have been more reassuring than a brave Black fifer. Mitchell may have crossed the paths of Gregg and Colquitt, but it remains unclear, even doubtful, that he served as a body servant to either man. It is, however, very likely that Mitchell’s support of the Confederate cause in whatever capacity helped him gain respect amongst white Charlestonians later in life.

Mitchell appears in public records again in 1864 within a document titled, “A Descriptive List of Free Negroes Belonging to City Engine No. 7,” indicating that he was serving as a fireman, although that was not his primary job.⁴³ The document lists thirty men and includes details about age, height, occupation, and residence. Mitchell’s occupation is designated as a cooper, not a musician, which suggests that he was working as a tradesman when he returned to Charleston.⁴⁴ As has been previously established, both free Page 34 →and enslaved Black men worked in thirty-eight occupations in Charleston before the end of slavery—with cooper being one of them. Furthermore, considering the need for additional tradesmen during the Civil War, it was likely easier for Mitchell to get a job as a cooper than as a musician.

As a husband and father, Mitchell must have felt immense pressure to provide for his wife and young daughter. In some limited ways, it was becoming easier for free Black people to control their own finances. On March 3, 1865, President Lincoln signed into law an act that established the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company.⁴⁵ The Trust Company gave free Black people access to regular banking services and provided an important pathway to financial independence.⁴⁶ In 1866, Mitchell established an account with the Trust Company.⁴⁷ Mitchell’s banking records provide crucial biographical information but also raise new questions. The bank required customers to identify their previous masters. Mitchell’s records provide no such information and identify him as “Free,” substantiating that he was not enslaved before the Emancipation Proclamation. Also, the document lists the names of Mitchell’s brother, sister, mother, and father and reports that, by 1866, both Mitchell’s father and sister had died. His mother and brother were still alive and living in Charleston. Consistent with the 1860 census, the banking records identify Mary as Mitchell’s daughter, but it lists Mitchell’s wife’s name as Dorcus. Given the fact that both the 1860 census and the 1870 census lists Mitchell’s wife name as Martha, it is unlikely that Mitchell had remarried in 1866 but, rather, that Martha had more than one name. Perhaps Dorcus was her first name and Martha her middle name. In either case, the banking document also mentions an “unnamed” baby boy as a member of the Mitchell household. The Mitchells may have had another child, but neither the 1880 census nor Mitchell’s funeral notice in the News and Courier reference a son. Perhaps tragedy struck the household after the banking document was recorded, and the baby boy died.

Along with thousands of other African Americans, Mitchell no doubt hoped that the Freedmen’s Bureau Bank would provide a safe depository for his savings. By 1873, however, customers seem to have lost confidence in the bank, and there were runs on several branches. The following year, the bank closed and with it the hopes of economic enfranchisement for many Black people. In the nineteenth century, the federal government did not ensure deposits. As a result, some depositors lost all their money. Others were “lucky” enough to recover three-fifths of their account balance.⁴⁸ We do not know how the Mitchells fared through these difficult events.

Page 35 →The 1870 census provides little new evidence about Mitchell’s life and adds to the uncertainty of his age. In this document, Mitchell is recorded as forty years old. Four years earlier, however, Mitchell’s bank records also indicated that he was forty years old. To add to the uncertainty, the 1880 census states that Mitchell was forty-five years old and that his wife Martha was one year younger than him.⁴⁹ Twenty years earlier, the 1860 census stated that Martha was eight years younger than Mitchell. The contradictions in the public documents make it virtually impossible to determine Martha and Arthur’s actual ages and suggest that they may have been unaware of their birthdates.

Mitchell’s experiences as a soldier and musician after the Civil War, however, are well documented. Although “His Last Tattoo” does not reference Mitchell’s military rank, the funeral notice in the News and Courier refers to him as “Major of the 1st Regiment N.G. of S.C.,” indicating that he was a high-ranking officer in the National Guard of South Carolina. If Mitchell’s earlier enlistments in the Confederate Army made him an accomplice, however reluctantly or unintentionally, to the horrors of enslavement, his role in the National Guard may have allowed him to work against the forces of segregation, disenfranchisement, and white supremacy. During Reconstruction, white southerners resisted change and worked to maintain their hegemony. Before the war, voting was a singularly white privilege. The influx of Black voters after the war changed the political power structure seemingly overnight. In 1865, South Carolina’s provisional governor, Benjamin Franklin Perry, expressed great disdain at the thought of “negro suffrage” and even stated, “they [the Republican Party] forget that this is a white man’s government, and intended for white men only.”⁵⁰ Perry’s overtly racist statement seems somewhat surprising and demonstrates the depth of racism in white southern culture. In 1851, Perry founded the Southern Patriot, which promoted the Union cause. Although he supported the Confederacy after succession, he was appointed to the office of provisional governor by Andrew Johnson and charged with implementing a new state constitution. President Johnson entrusted him to ensure Black enfranchisement, but the forces of white supremacy overrode his earlier Union sympathies. It was under Perry’s direction that South Carolina instituted the unconstitutional Black codes designed to hinder Black voters.⁵¹ These initial efforts, however, were not entirely successful. In 1870, Black voters in South Carolina surpassed white voters by over twenty-six thousand.⁵² White southerners subsequently used violence and intimidation to restrict Black political power. Page 36 →The Ku Klux Klan, particularly in upstate counties, terrorized Black communities with seeming impunity. In October 1868, the Klan murdered Benjamin Randolph, a Black minister, educator, Union veteran, and politician. The assassination took place in broad daylight in Hodges, South Carolina, while Randolph campaigned for state office.⁵³ These horrific efforts proved successful. After Klan intimidation, Black voting declined significantly. In 1868, Abbeville County recorded thirty-three percent Black voter turnout, Laurens County recorded forty-six percent, and Anderson County recorded only fifty percent.⁵⁴ The decrease in Black voter turnout boosted the Democratic Party’s prospects in these counties. The violent actions used to intimidate Black voters created mayhem.

To put an end to the violence, Governor Robert K. Scott signed the South Carolina Militia Law of 1869, sometimes called the National Guard Service of South Carolina. The legislation allowed men of any color from ages eighteen to forty-five to enlist in militia forces deployed to suppress insurrection and prevent violence.⁵⁵ Many whites refused to serve in these desegregated units, which caused the militias to be identified as “Black militias.”

These militias allowed Black men to bear arms and fight against white violence. They proved somewhat effective in restoring Black participation in elections. Democrats still carried the elections of 1868, but after the implementation of the “Black militias,” Democrat candidates received only forty-three percent of the vote in twelve upstate counties.⁵⁶ Unsurprisingly, white residents attempted to disarm the Black militias, and several Republicans were killed in the violence.⁵⁷ Mitchell’s involvement in the militia is especially notable. If his military career began as an almost certainly reluctant participant in the Confederate cause, it ended with him serving as an officer in units intended to protect Black lives, property, and political enfranchisement.

Federal legislation also sought to protect Black civil rights. In 1870, Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner introduced the Civil Rights Act as an amendment to a bill to grant immunity to former Confederate soldiers. The Act sought to protect access to accommodations, including theaters, churches, and public schools. It was eventually passed in 1875, but as the history of Jim Crow demonstrates, it was never effectively enforced.⁵⁸ The Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, empowered the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to suppress terrorist activity, especially the actions of the Klan. Despite these efforts, the Klan and its allies continued to steer South Carolina politics. By the spring and summer of 1871, some Black militias disbanded, Republican voters had been Page 37 →thoroughly intimidated, and many Republican officials lost their seats.⁵⁹ In Charleston, many Black people could not find work unless they provided evidence that they had voted for Democratic candidates.⁶⁰ Racial terror destroyed the rights of Black citizens and undoubtedly defined the lives of Arthur Mitchell and his family.

The final public record for Mitchell is a certificate of death, dated November 2, 1893.⁶¹ It reports that at the age of sixty-seven, Mitchell succumbed to typhus malaria in the comfort of his home. His last residence was on Reed Street in Charleston’s Ninth Ward. During the fifty years of his life that can be documented, Mitchell and his family moved homes four times. This movement likely reflects Mitchell’s quest for survival, to provide for his family, and to serve. His last occupation was musician, specifically a fifer for The Citadel. One hopes that music provided not only sustenance for his family but also joy both in his early and later years.

There are, of course, many unanswered questions about Arthur Mitchell’s life. Census records prove that he was free before the war, but it is unclear whether he was born free. The journey to freedom for enslaved people was complicated and could follow many paths. Records from Mitchell’s early life are scant, and it is all but impossible to discover details concerning his wife, Martha, and their marriage. The struggles of the enslaved have been extensively studied and have found their way into popular culture and literature. The stories of working-class free Black men have received much less attention. In presenting a more complete understanding of Arthur B. Mitchell’s life, this paper hopes to shed light on a remarkable man who demonstrated resourcefulness and resilience as he sought to make a life for himself and his loved ones during times of enslavement, violence, and oppression. The brief historical accounts of Oliver J. Bond and others do not fully capture the mental, social, and economic challenges a Black individual faced during the precarious period before and after the Civil War. The author of “His Last Tattoo” attempted to define the meaning of Mitchell’s life by indicating that he was respected by white peers. The claim is almost certainly true, but so too is the fact that the author appropriated Mitchell’s life to mitigate, if not erase, the horrors of white supremacy. Mitchell’s life is meaningful because he was a husband, father, and friend. If we want to assign a larger meaning, it should not be that of Confederate ally or Lost Cause sympathizer. Rather, we should view Arthur Mitchell’s life as an allegory of the struggle that African Americans faced in the years before and after the Civil War in their quest to secure the full benefits of American citizenship.

My mother’s maiden name is Mitchell. We believe it comes from her ancestors’ time as enslaved people in Mitchell County, Georgia. During my research, I often wondered if Arthur B. Mitchell was a distant maternal relative. Although the thought created a sense of familiarity, it also evoked a feeling of loss. The legacy of white supremacy and American chattel slavery is the continued loss of history. At a time when politicians across the South ask us to forget and move on, descendants of the enslaved, like myself, continue to dream of the day when we can open the archives and tell our families’ truths. For this reason, it has been an honor to pursue the truth behind the man we spotted in the archives.

As I reflect on my experience researching the life of Arthur B. Mitchell, I am struck by the notion that understanding Mitchell is inextricably linked to understanding his oppressors. To tell Mitchell’s story, I first needed to understand the pervasiveness of white supremacy and racism in ante- and postbellum South Carolina. Although Arthur B. Mitchell was a free man, his worth was determined by his proximity to whites and the value they placed on his skills as a musician, cooper, and fireman. As I wrote “The Untold Story of Arthur B. Mitchell,” I continued to reflect on why it was untold. I struggled to find primary sources because Black people in America were relegated to a lesser status, not entirely erased, but largely excluded from public records for much of the antebellum period. For this reason, I have only grasped at part of Mitchell’s story.

It is not lost on me that I stand on the shoulders of the perseverance and resilience of Black Americans of the past. As I complete my studies at Harvard Law School, I will go forward with the understanding that white supremacy was codified into law in more ways than I ever could have imagined. However, because of this research, I have gained the skill to see beyond the law written on a page and always question how our legal system affects the most vulnerable.

Researching Black history and emphasizing the humanity of African Americans of the past is an act of resistance against white supremacy. I am grateful to teachers and mentors like Dr. Felice F. Knight, who instills in younger generations the skills to think critically and to search for truth.

Taylor Diggs holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science from The Citadel, where she pursued research on the antebellum and postbellum periods. She is currently a juris doctor (law degree) candidate at Harvard Law Page 39 →School, where she is an editor on the Civil Rights – Civil Liberties Law Review and continues to pursue her interest in American history.

Felice F. Knight is director of education at the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC. A recognized scholar of race, slavery, and the African-American experience, she applies her extensive track record in academia to support nonprofit and educational organizations as they build community engagement, motivate teams, and optimize project management.

1. 1. Peter Filene, The Joy of Teaching: A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 75; emphasis original.
2. 2. “Slavery and Universities LibGuide” (Charleston, SC: Daniel Library, The Citadel), 2021.
3. 3. Mitchell was likely born in the 1820s and according to census records in 1820, Charleston had a free Black population of 1,475, an enslaved Black population of 12,652 and a white population of 10,743. See Bernard Edward Powers Jr., Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822–1885 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994), 267.
4. 4. United States Census, 1860, database with images, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org.
5. 5. United States Census, 1870, database with images; FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org.
6. 6. A. S. Salley, South Carolina Troops in Confederate Service, vol. 1 (Columbia, SC: The R. L. Bryan Co., 1913), 218.
7. 7. Salley, South Carolina Troops, 378.
8. 8. “Descriptive List of Free Negroes Belonging to City Engine No. 7 [Copy 2].” Lowcountry Digital Library. The Charleston Museum Archives, 1864.
9. 9. For examples of student research projects connected with The Citadel’s Universities Studying Slavery project, see “Slavery and Universities.” Information about The President’s Task Force on Race, Diversity, and Inclusion—on which the authors served—may be found at President’s Task Force on Race, Diversity and Inclusion, The Citadel, https://www.citadel.edu/rdi-task-force/.
10. 10. Oliver J. Bond, The Story of The Citadel (Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1989), 136.
11. 11. “Funeral Notices,” News and Courier, November 4, 1893.
12. 12. “Funeral Notices.” See also Bond, Story of The Citadel, 136. A military tattoo is a musical performance, such as would be led by a fifer.
13. 13. “His Last Tattoo,” News and Courier, November 4, 1893.
14. 14. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 10.
15. 15. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 16.
16. 16. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 38–39. For a useful discussion of this and other laws restricting emancipation and the courts’ efforts to reverse those laws, see Smiddy, “Judicial Nullification,” 655.
17. 17. Page 40 →Powers, Black Charlestonians, 38–39.
18. 18. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 39.
19. 19. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 32.
20. 20. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 39.
21. 21. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 44.
22. 22. Denmark Vesey was a free Black man who helped establish the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He plotted a slave revolt in Charleston and was publicly hanged along with his co-conspirators. His actions caused great fear among white South Carolinians and caused the state legislature to create and staff a municipal arsenal at Marion Square. In 1842, the state established the South Carolina Military Academy, now The Citadel, on that site. For a brief of these events, see “Denmark Vesey,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/people/denmark-vesey.htm.
23. 23. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 81.
24. 24. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 56. See also Kathy Russell, Midge Wilson, and Ronald Miller, The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans (New York: Anchor Books, 1993).
25. 25. For accessible essays concerning Lost Cause propaganda, see Alan T. Nolan and Gary W. Gallagher, eds., Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).
26. 26. Kevin M. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 45.
27. 27. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 45.
28. 28. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 46.
29. 29. Quoted in Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 61.
30. 30. Salley, South Carolina Troops, 218.
31. 31. Salley, South Carolina Troops, 378.
32. 32. Bond, The Story of The Citadel, 136.
33. 33. Myler, “Alfred H. Colquitt (1824–1894).” In New Georgia Encyclopedia, March 3, 2006.
34. 34. Ouzts, “Maxcy Gregg and His Brigade of South Carolinians at the Battle of Fredericksburg.” The South Carolina Historical Magazine 95, no. 1 (1994), 8.
35. 35. Ouzts, “Maxcy Gregg,” 8.
36. 36. Ouzts, “Maxcy Gregg,” 8.
37. 37. Myler, “Alfred H. Colquitt.”
38. 38. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 92.
39. 39. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 94.
40. 40. Quoted in Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 94.
41. 41. Quoted in Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 94.
42. 42. Quoted in Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 94.
43. 43. “Descriptive List of Free Negroes.”
44. 44. “Descriptive List of Free Negroes.”
45. 45. For a detailed discussion of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company and its importance for researching the history of African American families, see Reginald Washington, “Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company and African American Genealogical Research.” Federal Records and African American History 29, no, 2 (Summer 1997).
46. 46. Page 41 →Washington, “Freedman’s Savings and Trust.” Access to banking services has been an ongoing problem for African Americans. In the 1930s, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote that “economic enfranchisement” was high on Black people’s priority list but would not be possible until African Americans had access to secure savings and reasonable loans. For additional information on Charleston’s Freedman’s Savings and Trust, see Powers, Black Charlestonians, 100. While he was enlisted in the Confederate Army, Mitchell would have had access to another bank: the Military Savings Bank, which was established in 1864 by General Rufus Saxton for African American soldiers and civilians serving the Confederate cause. The bank was later named the South Carolina Freedmen’s Savings Banks. See Washington, “Freedman’s Savings and Trust.”
47. 47. “Registers of Signatures of Depositors, 1865–1874, Roll 21: Charleston, South Carolina; December 19, 1865–December 2, 1869,” database with images, Ancestry, https://www.ancestry.com.
48. 48. Washington, “Freedman’s Savings and Trust.”
49. 49. “Year: 1880; Census Place: Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll 1222; Page 338A; Enumeration District: 068,” database with images, Ancestry, https://www.ancestry.com.
50. 50. Kevin J. Dougherty and Robert J. Pauly, American Nation-Building Case Studies from Reconstruction to Afghanistan (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2017), 72.
51. 51. See Perry’s biography as recorded on SCIWay: South Carolina’s Information Highway, https://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/perry.html. “Black codes” were laws enacted after the Civil War to restrict African Americans. These codes denied basic rights, limited wages, mandated harsh working conditions, and imposed harsh penalties for vagrancy. For a useful discussion of Black Codes and the establishment of Jim Crow, see Novak, Wheel of Servitude.
52. 52. Dougherty and Pauly, American Nation-Building, 74.
53. 53. For a comprehensive discussion of this event and other acts of violence during Reconstruction, see Zuczek, State of Rebellion.
54. 54. Dougherty and Pauly, American Nation-Building, 76.
55. 55. Dougherty and Pauly, American Nation-Building, 75. See also Lou Falkner Williams, The Great South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials, 1871–1872 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996).
56. 56. Dougherty and Pauly, American Nation-Building, 77.
57. 57. Dougherty and Pauly, American Nation-Building, 77–78.
58. 58. See “Landmark Legislation: The Civil Rights Act of 1875,” US Senate.
59. 59. Dougherty and Pauly, American Nation-Building, 79–80.
60. 60. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 114.
61. 61. South Carolina Death Records, South Carolina Department of Archives and History; Columbia, SC.

• 1880 US Federal Census. Ancestry. http://www.ancestry.com.
• Page 42 →“Benjamin Franklin Perry.” SCIWay: South Carolina’s Information Highway. 2024. https://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/perry.html.
• Bond, Oliver J. The Story of The Citadel. Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1989.
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