Slave in Jefferson Davis' home gave Union key secrets

[Judi Lynn]

updated 47 minutes ago
Slave in Jefferson Davis' home gave Union key secrets

From Barbara Starr and Bill Mears
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- William Jackson was a slave in the home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. It turns out he was also a spy for the Union Army, providing key secrets to the North about the Confederacy.

Jackson was Davis' house servant and personal coachman. He learned high-level details about Confederate battle plans and movements because Davis saw him as a "piece of furniture" -- not a human, according to Ken Dagler, author of "Black Dispatches," which explores espionage by America's slaves.

"Because of his role as a menial servant, he simply was ignored," Dagler said. "So Jefferson Davis would hold conversations with military and Confederate civilian officials in his presence."

Dagler has written extensively on the issue for the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence . Video Watch the stories of slaves as spies »

In late 1861, Jackson fled across enemy lines and was immediately debriefed by Union soldiers. Dagler said Jackson provided information about supply routes and military strategy.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/20/spy.slaves/index.html

[EFerrari]

1. This is fascinating! Judi Lynn, have you been catching the reruns

of Henry Louis Gates' series "African American Lives"? He traces the ancestry of eight people including Oprah, Whoopie Goldberg and Quincy Jones, both tracking down ancestors and using DNA to identify where on the African continent their original ancestor(s) probably came from. Gates is one of the best storytellers, ever.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/profiles/index.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. No, I'm going to look for any remaining reruns. Wonderful link. Thank you. n/t

[geek tragedy]

2. So awesome on so many levels. n/t

[Cleita]

3. I see a movie script in this story. Fascinating! n/t

[Captain Hilts]

4. Very cool!

Reminds me of all the interns on Capital Hill waiting tables at La Brasserie, etc. and the big-time politicos talking as though the waitresses don't understand English. They understand all right!

[juno jones]

6. Had that experience myself bussing tables and washing dishes at a restaurant

in CA in the '80's'. The boss (who wasn't bad to work for) was a former Carmelite who was always trying to brown nose Clint Eastwood and his clique. Clint never ate at the restaurant, but a lot of his buddies did. They talked freely after hours in front of the 'menial' help and I heard some pretty hair-curling stuff at the time. Bunch of pretentious bastards and very wrapped up in themselves. I've always considered that the growing practice of hiring menial restaurant help that didn't speak much english was to facilitate this kind of open expression of bile.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Kicking.

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[struggle4progress]

8. We need more monuments to heroes like this. The South is littered with idiotic

memorials to people like Robert Lee, who strangely decided his loyalty to Virginia trumped his moral opposition to slavery. But some day, we'll have monuments to people like William Jackson

[noiretextatique]

9. fascinating...and sad

sad that this history is still routinely excluded from american history textbooks.
i was reading the book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" today to try to understand the defense of the New York Post cartoonist.
this book is still worth a read.
http://books.google.com/books?id=EtBV9_LRsWcC&dq=lies+my+teacher+told+me&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=ij-fSbW5K4m4sAPd3JTICQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPR9,M1