Fort Snelling, A Bastion of Slavery in Territorial Minnesota Recently, I was taken to task by a reader of this blog who signed his name Billy Yank. It was in response to a post in which I stated that Minnesota did not make slavery illegal until 1858 - just three years before they raised an army to invade the Confederate States of America.
In his note, Billy Yank said "You do understand that Minnesota came into the Union in 1858 and that is why they did not 'abolish' slavery until then right?" The Yank went on to call my post a "gross ignorance and understanding of real history."
This response is typical of so many semi literate people who know only a smattering of history, yet have an arrogant, condescending attitude toward Confederate defenders , like myself, who are actually far more knowledgeable than they. Such Yankee apologists are to be pitied. They are simply regurgitating the politically correct half truths they have heard, having never fully investigated the facts for themselves.
Since Billy Yank didn't even bother to sign his real name, my first inclination was to ignore him. On second thought, let me enlighten Billy Yank just a wee bit. I'd like to take him with me to Historic Fort Snelling, an 1820's military outpost around which the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have developed. When the fort was built it was a lonely station in the wilderness, on the far northwestern frontier of United States Territory. Not many people lived there then, but even among that small population there were a number of slaves.
Today, Fort Snelling is a Minnesota Historical Site. When I visited there, in the spring of 2008, the park interpreters boasted that the 1st Minnesota, which was mustered into service there, was the first state volunteer regiment formally tendered to the Federal government in response to Abraham Lincoln's call for 300,000 troops to crush the South in 1861. The modern folks at Fort Snelling imply strongly, and very erroneously, that the noble Minnesotans marched South to free the slaves. Actually, at the time Lincoln called them into service. he was still promising never to interfere with slavery - not even in the northern states where it was still being practiced. His goal was to "save the Union," and particularly to save the Union's primary source of revenue, which was excessive and unjust tariffs that targeted the South.
In Early History Events, The Publishing Society of Minnesota, 1908, it is noted, "In 1826 negro slavery was practically general throughout the United States. At Fort Snelling there were quite a number of slaves of both sexes. Major Taliaferro, had inherited several black bondmen and bondwomen and he hired them to the officers of the garrison."
The historical account goes into much more detail with the actual names of numerous slaves and slave holders at Fort Snelling. Slavery reached further into Minnesota than just the fort. A Dr. Wiliamson, who established his mission station at Kaposia, near St. Paul, had a negro slave, James Thompson by name, for the use of the mission. Another slave holder in Minnesota was Alexis Bailly, a prominent mixed blood trader. Alexis Bailly not only owned slaves but he also served in the territorial legislature. It looks like he would have known the law.
The best known Negro slave in Minnesota during this period was Dred Scott, key player in what has been called the most important Supreme Court case in the United States prior to the War Between the States. In the 1857 Dred Scott case. the high court ruled that slaves were property and therefore could be taken legally to any part of the United States. Dred Scott was originally brought to Fort Snelling in 1836 by his owner, Dr. John Emerson, an army surgeon. Scott later married at Fort Snelling to a slave named Harriet Robinson, owned by Major Taliaferro. According to the major, Scott "was united with my servant girl which I gave him."
Another very enlightening historical document is The Negro in Minnesota, 1800 - 1865, by Dr. Earl Spangler of the Manitoba Historical Society. Dr. Spanger confirms all of the above facts and gives many more. His scholarly work also documents the attitudes of early Minnesotans toward the handful of free blacks who lived within the territory. In one example he quotes an 1859 article from a southern Minnesota newspaper which states that there was not one Negro in its town and probably not in the whole county. The paper editorialized, "It is often remarked by visitors that we are peculiarly blessed in this respect." In 1861, as the Minnesota soldiers were marching South, another Minnesota paper reported an "ebony-skinned vagrant" in town, calling him a "black disgrace" who should be in jail. One week later the same paper commented that "Hell is paved with the skulls of such fiends in human shape."
So much for the myth of the noble, enlightened Northerner of the 1800s.
It is not the scope of this blog to give an exhaustive history of slavery in Minnesota and the Northwest Territories, but hopefully this short post will prompt Billy Yank to dig a little deeper into the historical record before showing his ignorance in the future.
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My wife, Karen, with two Union reenactors at Fort Snelling, Minnesota
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During our visit to Fort Snelling in May, 2008. Karen and I had a great time chatting with these two very friendly and hospitable Union reenactors.
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