Slave Soldiers and Islam_ The Genesis of a Military System - Daniel Pipes

44

TheIslamicateContext

The secretary

ofwarauthorized

the enlistmentof slaves

two

days

afterthis measurewaspassed.

93

The

capital

itself,

Richmond,

was

the

onlyplace

atwhichanyappreciable

number

wasenlisted.

Heretwo

companies

ofmixedfreeNegroes

andslaveswere

re-

cruited.

Asameansofinducing

other

Negroes

to

sign

up,

these

companies

were

put

onexhibition

inthe

city.

Uniformed

in.Rebel

grey,they

held

parades

inCapitolSquare

before

thousandsof

curious onlookers. White

Richmonderswere

fascinated

by

the

spectacle

ofblacksmarching

in

perfectstep

and

goingthrough

the

manual

ofarmswithclocklikeprecision.

Butwithinaweek

after

the

drillings

and

paradings

hadbegun,

Richmondwas

abandoned;

it

hadbecometoolate.

"4

Historiansagree

ontheineffectiveness

ofthisbelatedattempt

to

armtheslaves:

"TheresultsoftheNegro

soldierbill

werenil."

"There seems

tobenoevidence

thatthe

Negro

soldiers

au-

thorizedby

theConfederate

Government

everwentintobat-

tle.

’’95

The

desperation

behindenactment

ofthisbilland

its

contrastwithIslamicatemilitary

slaveryhardlyrequire

elabora-

tion.

German

Cameroon. Anintriguing

final

example

comesfromthe

Germancolonial

administrationin

Cameroon.

us

Germany

an-

nexed

the

country

in1884,andin

1891 an

agentpurchased

199

male

and 171 femaleslaves

fromthe

king

ofDahomey

toserve

forfive

years

as"carriers, soldiers,

farmworkers.

’’7

Known

as the Dahomeys, fifty-five

of

the menwere two

years

later

employed

as"Polizeisoldaten,"orgendarmes--simultaneously

police

andsoldiers.TheGermans

usedthemto

helpsubject

the

whole Cameroonregion;

asveteran soldiers, they

were well

93.c.H.

Wesley,

TheCollapse

of

the

Confederacy(Washington,

D.C.,1937),p.

166.

94.CW,

pp.

280-81.

95.CW,p.280;Wiley,p.

160.

96.Ralph

Austen

brought

thiseventand

its

descriptionbyR/iger

tomy

at-

tention.

97.A.

Riiger,

"Der

AufstandderPolizeisoldaten(Dezember,1893),"

Kamerun

unterdeutscherKolonialherrschaft;

Studien,ed.H.Stoecker(Berlin,

1960-68),

1:104.