Twenty Slave Law

The Twenty Slave Law, also known as the Twenty Negro Law, is a common name for a law adopted by the government of the Confederate States of America in April 1862 and later modified. Originally written to exempt certain professions critical to the war effort from military service, the law underwent a major update in October 1862 with the addition of certain overseers to the list of exempt professions. The addition of this job to the list created turmoil within the Confederate army and supported the idea that the conflict was a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight,” with the vast majority of Southerners who were actively serving in the military unable to take advantage of the exemption.

The total number of enslaved people in Arkansas increased from 47,100 in 1850 to 111,115 in 1860, a 136 percent increase in a single decade. Twenty-five percent of the total population of the state in 1860 was enslaved. About seventy-four percent of the enslaved population were held in bondage in counties located in the eastern and southern portions of the state. The average slaveholder in the state owned about ten enslaved people, with 11,481 slaveowners residing in the state. These figures do not include family members of slaveowners or overseers. About 17.5 percent of the white population either owned or had a family member who owned enslaved people. While many owners held just a few enslaved people, one person in the state owned more than 500, seven owned more than 200, and sixty-six owned more than 100.

At the opening of the Civil War, thousands of white men from across the state joined the Confederate military. With fewer men located in rural parts of the state, the white civilian population began to fear a slave revolt. A rumored rebellion in Monroe County led to the hanging of three of the enslaved people charged with participating, although no evidence survives to support the accusation.

After some success on the battlefield early in the war, the Confederate army needed to replenish its ranks in the spring of 1862. Faced with lower recruiting numbers, the Confederate government adopted conscription laws to draft men into the military. The first law, adopted on April 16, 1862, called for the conscription of all able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. An amendment to the law was adopted several days later that included a number of protected professions, allowing men working in those fields to avoid the draft. The occupations included work related directly to the war effort, public health, and education. Men selected as conscripts could also hire a substitute to take their place.

A modified conscription act adopted on October 11, 1862, expanded the eligibility of men selected for induction into the army to include those up to forty-five years of age. It also created a new protected classification for men to avoid conscription. The new classification allowed a white man to remain at home and oversee the enslaved population, with one man required to oversee twenty slaves. The law further detailed that smaller groups of enslaved people, located on plantations that were located near one another, could be counted as a single larger group.

The impact on the recruitment and conscription of white men would be most felt in the rural corners of the state, especially in the south and east, as the majority of the enslaved population lived in those areas, with fewer living in the north, west, and urban areas. As an example, Elisha Worthington of Chicot County owned 543 enslaved people in 1860, which could lead to at least twenty-seven white men receiving protected status and a conscription deferment. It is unclear exactly how many men received protected status due to the law, but a total of 5,555 men could be required to police the entire pre-war enslaved population, an amount equal to more than five full-strength infantry regiments in Confederate service.

It is important to note that it is impossible to determine the exact number of overseers necessary to meet the terms of the legislation, as several caveats existed, including the combining of the number of enslaved people on plantations located less than five miles apart to reach a minimum of twenty and the ease and frequency that plantation owners could move enslaved people among various properties. Even by combining smaller groups of enslaved people to reach a total of twenty, large numbers of men otherwise capable of potential military service became unavailable.

The changes in Confederate service proved to be very unpopular with the rank-and-file soldiers already serving in the field. With only a small percentage of Southern families owning at least twenty enslaved people, the vast majority of men serving in the army did not benefit, and the adoption of the law fueled the idea that the war was fought by poor men for the benefit of wealthy men to keep enslaved people in bondage.

Conscription laws in the South were generally unpopular, but the emphasis placed on efforts to continue the subjugation of enslaved people proved to be too much for many Confederate soldiers. In response to the outcry, Confederate authorities temporarily drafted at least some overseers before releasing them from active service so they could return to their plantation employment. John Brown, a civilian residing in Camden (Ouachita County), recorded in his diary that deep opposition to conscription existed in the community with much of the anger focused on the overseer exemption.

While draft resistance existed in Arkansas and other locations before the adoption of the Twenty Slave Law, the law made the situation much worse for the Confederate government as it struggled to retain troops in the field and induct more men for military service. It is impossible to determine how many men deserted from the Confederate military due to their opposition to the law, and the reasons for desertion for soldiers were often complicated. In February 1863, the Confederate army in Arkansas reported that approximately half of the men on the rolls were absent. Later events that year, including the capture of both Vicksburg and Port Hudson, saw even more troops desert in the face of ever decreasing morale.

The Twenty Slave Law impacted Confederate forces in Arkansas as it did across the Confederacy. Designed to protect the civilian population from an internal threat, ultimately it created discontent within the ranks.

For additional information:
DeBlack, Thomas. With Fire and Sword: Arkansas, 1861–1874. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2003.

Dougan, Michael. Confederate Arkansas: The People and Policies of a Frontier State in Wartime. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1976.

Moneyhon, Carl. The Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on Arkansas: Persistence in the Midst of Ruin. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993.

Robinson, Armstead L. “In the Shadow of Old John Brown: Insurrection Anxiety and Confederate Mobilization, 1861–1863.” Journal of Negro History 65 (Autumn 1980): 279–297.

Sacher, John. “‘Twenty-Negro,’ or Overseer Law: A Reconsideration.” Journal of the Civil War Era 7 (June 2017): 269–292.

Wish, Harvey. “Slave Disloyalty under the Confederacy.” Journal of Negro History 23, no. 4 (1938): 435–450.

David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University