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

SlavesinWar:TheHistorical

Record 29

abling

or

inducing

slavesto

fight.Manysocieties

specifically

ex-

cluded slaves from

military

service but

(reluctantly) allowed

freedmenthis

privilege.

23

Insuch

places,manumissionhadto

precede

enrollmentin

the

army.

24

Ifslavescouldenrollinthe

army

orif

they

werenot

formallyenrolled,manumissioncould

either

precedewarfare

5

orfollowitasarewardfor

loyal

ser-

vice.

6

In

general, manumission

gave military

commanders

greaterflexibilityin

employing

slavesassoldiers.

Consequently,

thedifferencebetween

being

aslaveora

freedmansometimes

had

significance

andatothertimesdidnot.

Note, however,

that

onlyslaveswithfreedomofactionhadmuchchancefor

manumission; a

galleyslave

hardlyrequired

freedom torow

hard--thelash

probably

workedmore

efficiently.

The United StatesCivil War

presented some

outstanding

examples

ofthe

loyalty

ofslaves.

Althoughslavery

itself

lay

at

theheartoftheissuebetweenNorthand

South,

bothslaveand

free

Negroes

intheSouthaided

theConfederatecause,however

contrary

thisrantothe

generalinterestsofNegroes.

Quarles

suggests

threereasonsforthe

help

thatfree

Negroesprovided:

local

patriotism

anda"senseof

communityresponsibility,"good

wages,

andthe

hope

ofan

improved

status

throughloyal

ser-

vice.

.8

Of

course,

many

slaveandfree

Negroes

also

fought

for

theUnion, andsome

Negroesin the Confederate

army

de-

serted.

29

23.Rome:K/ihne,

p.

189.

BritishWestIndies:Handler,

pp.

110-11.

24.Croiset

argues

this

point

forAthenswithG.

Foucart,Delibertorumcon-

ditione
apudAthenienses(Paris,1896);Garlan,
p.

48,

compares

slaves

fighting

on

landandatsea;

Hay,pp.67-69,recordstheConfederatedebatesonthis

topic.

25.Greece:Croiset,

p.68;Sargent,

pp.

208-09,212;

Notopoulos,p.

353;

Garlan,p.48.Rome:Rouland,
p. 21

n.3;

Halkin,p.48;Duff,p. 141 n.2.

Early

Islam:

AA,5:300;Khalifa,

p.

574 TMaw,

p.

72.U.S.:

Hay,p.

70.

26.Greece:

Westermann,

p.

18;Garlan,

pp.

45,48.Rome:

Halkin,pp.45-46;

Rouland,
pp.46,48,51-52.
Early

Islam:T,1:1543;AA,4b:49;Ibn

.Habib,pp.

228-29;ITB,2:106.Peru:Bowser,
p.

9.

Venezuela:Lombardi,

p.

37.U.S.:AR,

pp.ix,60,79,84,183-85.In 1635 theFrenchenlistedslaves
onSt.Kitts,prom-

isingthemeventualmanumission,butdidnot
carrythrough(Buckley,p.3).

27.

Boulvert,p,230.

28.CW,

pp.38-39.

One

Negrolaboreris

reported

tohavesaid,"Wewould

rather
fight

forourown

whitefolksthanfor

strangers"(Hay,p.

64).

29.

CW,chap.10;

Wiley,chap.

15;CW,

pp.116-17;Hay,p.

37.