They were inured to the plain ration, to labor and fatigue, and to
subordination, and had long been accustomed to working together under
the immediate direction of foremen.

Two questions of importance naturally arose at this period: First, did
the American slave understand the issue that had been before the
country for more than a half-century and that was now dividing the
nation in twain and marshalling for deadly strife these two opposing
armies? Second, had he the courage necessary to take part in the
struggle and help save the Union? It would be a strange thing to say,
but nevertheless a thing entirely true, that many of the Negro slaves
had a clearer perception of the real question at issue than did some
of our most far-seeing statesmen, and a clearer vision of what would
be the outcome of the war. While the great men of the North were
striving to establish the doctrine that the coming war was merely to
settle the question of Secession, the slave knew better. God had hid
certain things from the wise and prudent and had revealed them unto
babes. Lincoln, the wisest of all, was slow to see that the issue he
himself had predicted was really at hand. As President, he declared
for the preservation of the Union, with or without slavery, or even
upon the terms which he had previously declared irreconcilable, "half
slave and half free." The Negro slave saw in the outbreak of the war
the death struggle of slavery. He knew that the real issue was
slavery.

The masters were careful to keep from the knowledge of the slave the
events as well as the causes of the war, but in spite of these efforts
the slave's keen perception enabled him to read defeat in the dejected
mien of his master, and victory in his exultation. To prevent the
master's knowing what was going on in their thoughts, the slaves