Dead Out For Secession
Many slaves were very aware of the political scene in 1860. They had opinions and they were willing to publicly declare those opinions. An interesting December account in a Tennessee newspaper observes the state of affairs in Mississippi:
A gentleman of this city, now travelling in Mississippi, says the Nashville Gazette, writes back to a friend as follows:
The further down I get, the more secession I see. Not content with wearing the blue cockade themselves, the people put them up on wagons, carriages, riding horses, etc. At one place where I stopped, all the negroes had them on. You may safely put Mississippi down as dead out for secession.