Under policies instituted by the Confederacy, white Virginians and North
Carolinians surrendered control over portions of their slave populations
to state authorities, military officials, and the national government to
defend their new nation. State and local officials cooperated with the
Confederate War Department and Engineer Bureau, as well as individual
generals, to ensure a supply of slave labor on fortifications. Using the
implementation of this policy in the Upper South as a window into the
workings of the Confederacy, Jaime Amanda Martinez provides a social and
political history of slave impressment. She challenges the assumption
that the conduct of the program, and the resistance it engendered, was
an indication of weakness and highlights instead how the strong
governments of the states contributed to the war effort.
According to Martinez, slave impressment, which mirrored Confederate
governance as a whole, became increasingly centralized, demonstrating
the efficacy of federalism within the CSA. She argues that the ability
of local, state, and national governments to cooperate and enforce
unpopular impressment laws indicates the overall strength of the
Confederate government as it struggled to enforce its independence.