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“To Call on All the Blacks”

Chapter 3 closely examines the experiences of the Shenandoah Valley’s African Americans during the Civil War’s first year. Initially, enslaved people believed that Union general Robert Patterson’s army, which entered the northern Shenandoah Valley in the late spring of 1861, might liberate them. However, as this chapter shows, the Valley’s enslaved learned that Patterson enforced Union policy at the conflict’s outset, which precluded Union soldiers from aiding enslaved people flee enslavers. Despite Patterson seizing freedom seekers and either returning them to enslavers or locking them up in the jail in Martinsburg, those who desired freedom remained undaunted. Freedom seekers hoped that offering something of value to Patterson, either labor or services as spies, might soften Patterson’s position, but it did not. Additionally, this chapter examines the efforts of some soldiers in Patterson’s army to defy his orders and aid freedom seekers. Finally, this chapter highlights the reaction of the Valley’s enslaved population to passage of the First Confiscation Act and the stories of enslaved people who fled to Harpers Ferry in late 1861 and early 1862, seeking refuge with Patterson’s replacement in the Shenandoah Valley, General Nathaniel P. Banks.