Not the best photocopy, so probably an even worse scan, but consider the following…
The caption reads… “Love of master means more than freedom to William Slaughter. Slaughter refused to accept freedom under the emancipation proclamation and remained the servant of W.D. Colvin of Culpeppper, Va. The two attend all Confederate reunions together.”
Now, I know that one of my most recent posts addressed how slaves would bluff their owners into thinking they were “good and faithful servants”. Then you have this post at John Miller’s War Returns to South Mountain blog in which it is pointed out that Carlton McCarthy William S. White (Richmond Howitzers) observed captured “Negro cooks” returning to the Confederate army, after having been captured by the Union army while in Pennsylvania…
A few of our Negro cooks, who were with our wagon train when it was captured by the enemy, escaped and returned to camp today. Certainly they were the happiest fellows I ever saw and were greeted with loud cheers by our men. A chance for freedom they had, but they preferred life and slavery in Dixie to liberty at the North.
Then, we have this post from Andy Hall’s blog.
So, again, returning to the photo of William Slaughter and W.D. Colvin… thoughts?
* Though the image was not the objective of my search, I discovered the photo recently while perusing of The Daily Mail (Hagerstown). This particular image appeared in an issue from the 1920s.
Cenantua's Blog 
Kevin
June 17, 2010
Thanks for posting this Robert.
Robert Moore
June 17, 2010
Considering your current path of research, I thought you would find it of interest. 🙂
John Miller
June 17, 2010
Robert, It is complicated. I about fell over when I came across that Richmond Howitzer account. There is another story, but I don’t have the rights to post the photograph of the Georgia men with a Slave. But to sum it up, he fought in the Western Theater of the war and his master was captured. The servant continued to serve his master’s friends. After the war he returned to his Georgia Coast Plantation life and lived with his formal master. I will find out the story and pass it along to you when I see my buddy at Antietam.
Dick Stanley
July 28, 2010
Human relationships are always more complicated than politics. Why wouldn’t the cooks have wanted to go home to a life they knew and understood, with relatives and others they loved, rather than risk all on a gamble for freedom in a strange environment?
Robert Moore
August 9, 2010
I never said that human relationships aren’t complicated. Yet, your statement reinforces the argument that I regularly make here, in that we, today, need to recognize that people then were not monolithic and need to be understood through a broad range of possibilities. Claiming 100,000 or whatever the number of “black Confederates” impedes that ability to think broadly. Just as I could say there were 400,000 Southern Unionists… I can’t say such a thing in such unbending form. It’s much more complicated in regard to this as well.
Dick Stanley
August 9, 2010
Oh, indeed, the past was at least as complicated as the present. And much of the past’s complications, since they weren’t written down, probably are lost to us.
Robert Moore
August 9, 2010
“And much of the past’s complications, since they weren’t written down, probably are lost to us.”
Agreed… and this is also the foundation for many, today, to try and “fill in the gaps” of knowledge with history that “works” for them to make the story fit their perception of events… which is, of course, hugely problematic. In many areas, these recently generated perceptions are accepted as if they were perceptions of those from the past… and it is “true” history.