By The Exemption: Confederate Conscription and the ‘Twenty Slave’ Rule
The Exemption: Confederate Conscription and the ‘Twenty Slave’ Rule
Origin and Purpose of the 1862 Exemption
The Twenty Negro Law, also known as the Twenty Slave Law, was a controversial piece of legislation approved by the Confederate Congress on October 11, 1862, during the American Civil War. Its fundamental purpose was to address a perceived crisis in domestic security and plantation management by exempting certain individuals from mandatory military service. Specifically, the law permitted the exemption of one white male from Confederate military duty for every twenty or more enslaved persons owned on a plantation.
Addressing Manpower Shortages and Control
By the spring of 1862, the Confederate military was suffering from significant personnel shortages. The initial twelve-month enlistment contracts for many soldiers were expiring, and re-enlistment rates were lower than anticipated. To counter this, the Confederate Congress passed the First Conscription Act in April 1862, which mandated compulsory military service for all eligible white Southern men between the ages of 18 and 35.
However, even with exemptions already in place for essential civilian professions like transportation, communications, teaching, and medicine, the conscription effort still removed too many overseers and plantation managers. This left numerous large agricultural holdings solely under the supervision of white women, the elderly, or minors. Confederate leaders and plantation owners feared these groups lacked the authority or capacity to effectively maintain discipline or suppress potential uprisings among the enslaved population.
Political and Social Ramifications
The law was passed as part of the Second Conscription Act and came shortly after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This timing highlights the Confederacy’s heightened anxiety regarding domestic insurrection. The exemption was a direct response to the fear that with so many white men absent at the front lines, a widespread slave revolt could be imminent.
The Confederacy was the first entity in United States history to implement laws for compulsory military draft. The proportion of Confederate soldiers who were conscripts ultimately reached nearly double that of their Union counterparts. However, this legislation, particularly the Twenty Slave Law exemption, proved profoundly unpopular among many non-slaveholding Confederate soldiers and citizens. They viewed it as granting special privileges to the wealthy plantation class, leading to the bitter sentiment that it was a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.”
