The "thousands" of black men who volunteered to fight for the south??? Damn. I live in Mississippi and i've never heard of this. Doggone it, why didn't they tell us this in school? This whole civil rights thing could have been avoided if we had only known that the black southerners were "rebels" too!!......... I have heard that confederate armies didn't generally take black prisoners. Anyone care to guess what that means?
    Yes, there were a few slaveowners who treated thier "property" decently. A few years back i was sitting under a shade tree with my neighbor at the time, an 82 year old black lady. She started telling me stories her grandfather, an adult slave at the time of the civil war, had told her like it was yesterday. I was astounded. It seems so far distant to us, but to this old lady it was real. Seems he was owned by a doctor and received education and some medical training. He had bought the land and built the house they were still living in. May i suggest a book to read, "Bullwhip Days, The Slaves Remember"? It's interviews with slaves still living in the 1930's. It's not real pretty but it's what the slaves saw and remembered.