Jim Limber

Jim Limber

Michael T. Griffith

2003

@All Rights Reserved

Few people know that Davis and his wife informally adopted a mulatto (half-white-half-black) orphan during the war. For those who care to know, the child looked like a young African-American boy, except that his skin was slightly less dark than the skin of most other black children; his facial features and hair were clearly African-American. Mrs. Davis rescued the young boy from a cruel guardian and brought him with her to live at the Confederate White House in Richmond. His name was Jim Limber. Davis and his wife raised him as one of their own children. Jim Limber and the other Davis children played together as normal siblings. Even in family letters, Jim's new family spoke lovingly of him, and he expressed his love for them.54

Jefferson Davis went to the Richmond courthouse to file the necessary papers for Jim Limber's freedom. Davis wanted to be certain that the guardian who had abused Jim could never regain custody of him. When Davis learned that a group of boys down the street had been a little mean to young Jim, he personally went to talk to them about it. By all accounts, the boy was happy and loved in the Davis home.55

Much to their sorrow, the Davises were forced to give up custody of Jim Limber after a vicious Union officer threatened to take the boy from them and to raise him to hate the South. Rather than see Jim Limber in this man's custody, Varina Davis asked family friend and Union general Rufus Saxton to take the child, and he agreed to do so. Years later, Jefferson Davis was still trying to find out about the boy's welfare.56

Attitude Toward Slavery

Although Davis defended slavery prior to and during the war, he also admitted slavery had its "evils and abuses."57 Davis believed that slavery, administered in a Christian manner, would prepare the slaves for eventual freedom and full equality with whites.58

One reason that Davis disputed the abolitionist portrayals of slaveowners as vicious brutes who constantly abused their slaves was that he treated his slaves with the utmost respect. His first overseer was his friend and personal servant, James Pemberton. He permitted his slaves to accumulate property.  He set up a system where any of his slaves who were accused of wrongdoing were tried and sentenced by a jury of other slaves. He gave gifts to each slave on special occasions like birthdays and weddings. Even during the war, he sent thousands of dollars to his brother, Joseph, in order to ensure that his slaves were properly provisioned. He expressed concern over the fate of his slaves in letters. In an amazing and telling show of trust, Davis armed his slaves when his plantation was threatened by a band of white criminals who were trying to make a cut-off behind his plantation.59

Support for Emancipation

Toward the end of the war Davis led the fight to grant slaves their freedom in exchange for military service. When the Confederate Congress began to debate a bill that would allow slaves to serve in the army, Davis insisted that slaves who performed this service be granted their freedom, even if they didn't serve in combat roles. Davis wrote to Governor William Smith of Virginia that he promised ". . . to seek legislation to secure unmistakably freedom to the slave who shall enter the Army with a right to return to his old home when he shall have been honorably discharged from the Military Service."60

The Confederate Congress proceeded to pass a bill that permitted slaves to be enlisted into the army, but the bill did not guarantee emancipation. In response to this, Davis tried to ensure that emancipation would be rewarded for faithful military service "by having the War Department regulations governing the enlistment of slaves require that masters consent to freedom before slaves could be enrolled."61 Davis could have easily just signed the bill and done nothing more, but he didn't. Instead, he went out of his way to try to ensure that slaves would receive emancipation for faithful military service.

It should be mentioned that in late 1864, Davis was prepared to abolish slavery in exchange for European diplomatic recognition in order to save the Confederacy. Davis informed Confederate congressional leaders of his intentions, and then sent Duncan Kenner to Europe to make the proposal. Davis even made Kenner a minister plenipotentiary so as to ensure he could make the proposal to the British and French governments and that it would be taken seriously.62