Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Why did Page take a stand?
Seeking an answer to the Confederate question
Article of November 16, 2000
For quite some time, I have been collecting data that may offer help
in answering the question regarding the intentions of Page County
Confederates (in excess of 1,000 men) as they went off to war. Many believe
that the Confederate cause was focused on the preservation of slavery.
Then too, there are many that take the stand that it was defense of
states rights and defense of the home from Northern aggression. Quite
actually there were several factors that played into the ultimate formula
for war. But before we begin, remember first that we have the mind-set
of 20th/21st century individuals and it is simply not that of
individuals in the midst of war in the 19th century.
Over the past several months, I have dug deep into several different
resources in order to get a better perspective of Page's stand with the
Confederacy. However, there are some peculiar points to bring out
regarding the county's support for secession and the "Confederate cause."
First of all, county records show that slavery existed in the county
and slaves were a key issue to the ultimate militarization of the county
thirty years prior to the American Civil War. In the wake of Nat
Turner's efforts in the Tidewater region in 1831, county records indicate
that the county reacted upon fear when it established a "policing force"
and militia.
Moving ahead on "fast-forward" to 1861, the question is posed as to
whether or not slavery had remained the primary issue for military
mobilization. From 1840 to 1860, slavery in the county had gone on a
roller-coaster ride, increasing from 791 slaves and 189 owners in 1840 to 957
slaves and 230 owners in 1850. However, in the last decade before
secession, that number had actually dropped to 850 slaves and 184 owners in
1860. Slavery was, by the numbers, actually on a decline in Page County
on the eve of the war.
Ironically, Peter Bock Borst, a New Yorker by birth and only a most
recent resident of Page County, represented Page in the 1860 secession
convention. Borst was a son-in-law of the prominent slaveholder, Mann
Almond. Obviously, Almond's seven slaves were not an earth-shattering
number, but he apparently had an influence on Borst's purchase of one slave
by 1860 and the hiring of 4 others. Despite this, Borst's actions in
the convention were not as a "hot-head" secessionist. His first vote on
April 4, 1861 was actually against secession (although I've seen one
source that disputes this). On April 17 however, just five days after
the bombardment of Ft. Sumter and two days after Abraham Lincoln's call
for 75,000 troops, his opinion had changed, like several others, and he
voted for secession. Again, however, less than a week later, a
referendum vote was made by the citizens in Page County. As a whole, Page
nearly swayed against secession with a peoples' vote of 520 for and 430
against. The Ordinance had passed with an extremely narrow margin.
Furthermore, considering that the county had 184 slaveholders in 1860
(and hesitantly assuming that all of them had voted and voted for
secession) that left at least 336 who had been "influenced" either by
slaveholder's or by Lincoln's call for troops to put down the "insurrection"
that was "too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of
judicial proceedings." The act was, to many in the South, an act of
tyrannical proportions equal to that of King George III on the eve of the
American Revolution 86 years before. To many Southerners, and quite likely
many Page County citizens, a second war for American Independence was at
hand.
A forthcoming article will be more in-depth in examining the social
status of Page's officers and soldiers.
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