U.S. Civil War: Loyal Slaves Who Stayed

Many slaves were loyal to their masters, having known no other life.  Slaves  heard descriptions of "savage Yankees" from their masters and feared the Yankees.

Of course, slaves could not forget their status as property, no matter how well their owners treated them.  Some suffered incredible cruelty.  

Many slaves rapidly departed at the first notice of emancipation.  However, it would be too simplistic to say that all masters and slaves hated each other.  Faithful slaves truly helped their mistresses survive through the onslaught of the war and its aftermath.  

They hid valuables from the plundering Yankees, in wells and swamps. They outwitted the ransacking soldiers and  foragers when they could. Human beings who live and work together are bound to form relationships of some kind, and some masters and slaves genuinely cared for each other. 

The following account is from the diary of Nancy Saussure,"Old Plantation Days; Being Recollections of Southern Life Before the Civil War".  It relates the story of Hugh Bailey, wounded at the battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia.  His family thought he was dead, as they heard no news of him.  A family slave nursed the wounded Hugh.

“An old negro, his body servant, had carried him off by stealth to a hut in the woods...to hide him from the Yankees.

He had no medicine, no doctor, no help, the master was ill for a long time from his wounds and with a slow fever, and through it all Uncle Reuben never left him except at night to forage for both... He was in a strange country; he could not leave his charge, alone and desperately ill”.