Paper short abstract:

During the American Civil War, slavery was eroded by the power of those with knowledge of water. This paper explores the archival tension inherent in studying the officially invisible wartime role played by formerly enslaved Black pilots engaged in “following the water for myself,” as one put it.

Paper long abstract:

During the American Civil War, slavery was eroded by direct action enabled by those who had an intimate knowledge of coastal landscapes and navigation. But that knowledge system is subterranean in the archive, and those who possessed and nurtured it rendered to near-total invisibility. This paper explores the archival tension inherent in studying the wartime role played by formerly enslaved Black pilots and other workers on the waves collectively engaged in “following the water for myself,” in the words of one. It attempts to reconcile the space between the silence of the "official" archive produced from above about the riverine and coastal operations of the Union military, and the world-making archive produced, in part, from below through the testimony of subaltern actors. Their voices reveal an understanding of power and how water might be used; how the natural environment might fundamentally alter the social environment of slavery. Water, a fundamental resource for the productive economy during the time of slavery, was the same resource that undid it in a time of war, but only those who knew the water intimately could accomplish such a significant, yet hidden, feat. Diving into this tension through the stories of two Black pilots and their social networks from the Santee River delta in South Carolina, the paper highlights the deep and difficult duality of story presentation versus story production.