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Shawords

Quote#War

A law was made... allowing every person who owned twenty negroes to…

Quote bySamuel R. Watkins · 1839–1901

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "Co. Aytch" (1882), p. 38.

English (original)

A law was made... allowing every person who owned twenty negroes to go home. It gave us the blues; we wanted twenty negroes. Negro property suddenly became very valuable, and there was raised the howl of "rich man's war, poor man's fight." The glory of the war, the glory of the South, the glory and the pride of our volunteers had no charms for the conscript.

— Samuel R. Watkins

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