Du Bois wrote that, as Union forces marched through the South, enslaved laborers escaped plantations, presenting themselves at army camps to join the fight.
So even DuBois, who was the first to characterize the initial liberation of the slaves as a General Strike, acknowledged that the “General Strike” was preceded by the encroaching Union Army encouraging them. They were already essentially free. Walking off the plantation was just the slaves claiming their new status as free people.
A General Strike implies organization, and that wasn’t strictly true. They didn’t plan for it, set a date, etc. When the Army got close, and everybody knew the region was inevitably going to fall, they walked off the job. If the Northern Army hadn’t shown up, would those slaves had done a General Strike on their own? Of course not, any “General Strike” was only as a result of the approaching army, and the recognition that the end was imminent anyway.
This wasn’t a General Strike, it was just the end of slavery. It’s like characterizing the closing of a company as a General Strike. It isn’t a strike, and all the workers walked off the job, the factory just closed, and everybody lost their jobs.
https://daily.jstor.org/did-black-rebellion-win-the-civil-war/
So even DuBois, who was the first to characterize the initial liberation of the slaves as a General Strike, acknowledged that the “General Strike” was preceded by the encroaching Union Army encouraging them. They were already essentially free. Walking off the plantation was just the slaves claiming their new status as free people.
A General Strike implies organization, and that wasn’t strictly true. They didn’t plan for it, set a date, etc. When the Army got close, and everybody knew the region was inevitably going to fall, they walked off the job. If the Northern Army hadn’t shown up, would those slaves had done a General Strike on their own? Of course not, any “General Strike” was only as a result of the approaching army, and the recognition that the end was imminent anyway.
This wasn’t a General Strike, it was just the end of slavery. It’s like characterizing the closing of a company as a General Strike. It isn’t a strike, and all the workers walked off the job, the factory just closed, and everybody lost their jobs.