Marengo County, Alabama: 1862.
Price: $1,500.00
Unbound. Manuscript Document Signed by L.H. Bartlett, Enrolling Officer, Marengo Co., Ala., December 20, 1862. Measuring 4” x 8½”. Light old folds, one nick at bottom edge, very good or better. A neatly written and fully legible document written out by Bartlett, granting J.W. Isler, who is “overseeing on his plantation of 20 negroes or more,” exemption from military duty. The Second Conscription Act, popularly known as the “Twenty Negro Law,” was enacted by the Confederate Congress on October 11, 1862. It exempted from military service one white overseer for every 20 enslaved people on a plantation. The purpose of this provision was to allow enough white men to stay home to defend against a domestic insurrection, particularly after President Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation, which could encourage the enslaved to rebel. The law was highly unpopular among the vast majority of poorer white Southerners, who fewer than 20 enslaved persons or none at all. A scarce primary source Civil War document from Alabama. A full transcript of the document is available.
Item #598092
