Devil's Punchbowl (Natchez, Mississippi)
The Devil's Punchbowl was a concentration camp created in Natchez, Mississippi during the American Civil War to control freed slaves.
Description[]
As Black slaves were freed during the war after the Emancipation Proclamation, Confederate Army soldiers pushed them toward the Union Army in order to slow the Union advance.[1] As a result, Natchez, Mississippi quickly grew in population from around 10,000 to over 100,000.
In order to control the large numbers of African Americans, the Union Army created a walled encampment at a location known as the Devil's Punchbowl, a natural pit surrounded by bluffs. Many of the captive ex-slaves died of starvation, smallpox, and other diseases.[2]
Criticism[]
Some have suggested that the stories have been embellished or fabricated by Confederate apologists intent on blaming the Union Army for atrocities.[3]
References[]
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- American Civil War prison camps
- Buildings and structures in Natchez, Mississippi
- American freedmen
- Military operations of the American Civil War in Mississippi
- African American stubs
- American Civil War stubs
- Mississippi building and structure stubs