Rochester (NY) Douglass's Monthly, "A Negro Confederacy," March 1861

            A NEGRO CONFEDERACY

The Rochester Express, in speaking of the probability, at a future day, of a great negro confederacy in the Southern States, says:

The negroes are seceding very fast. We do not mean the individual ‘secessions’ by the Underground Railroad, which still continue, and which are nothing new, but rather their recent general stampede out of the Union, on account of Lincoln’s election. Two or three weeks ago, nearly three hundred and eighty-five thousand of their number were formally voted out of the Union in South Carolina, and day before yesterday, the same thing was done to three hundred and ten thousand in Mississippi, We know, of course, that these proceedings were accomplished by white men, who fondly delude themselves with the idea that they are the real masters in those States, an illusion which may do very well for the present, but which negroes will dispel, as soon as they see fit to do so.

If any one doubts that the negroes are the real masters of the States which have so far seceded, and are in fact, by far the most important part of the secessionists, let him look at the comparative white and slave population of those States:

                                             Whites.            Slaves.   

South Carolina…………….274,000          385,000

Mississippi………………...295,000          310,000

                                              ––––––           ––––––

       Total…………………..569,000          695,000

There are thus in the two States which have already seceded, 126,000 more slaves than whites. When Florida secedes, as she has done, it will decrease this negro majority only a little, adding 47,000 to the white, and 39,000 to the slave population. But as these are the figures of the census of 1850, since than the whites, it is fair to assume that in the three States mentioned, there is at present a slave majority of at least 150,000.

Under these circumstances, the negroes of the Cotton States have certainly a most captivating prospect opened before them. With a fine soil, and a climate suited to their wants, and above all, with the control of what the Southern people have always called ‘the great staple of the world,’ the negro confederacy could hardly fail of becoming an important power, as it certainly will become the Utopia and paradise of negroes throughout the world.