Slavery at the West Point of the Confederacy: the Little Round House

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Little Round House

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Question 1

What are the militaristic features of the architecture of the Little Round House and how were they used?

A	Crenellations for sharpshooters, large windows for cannons, and an open roof for 360 degree views of approaching threats.
B	Crenellations for defensive positioning in battle and a round shape to mirror the form of the drums played by soldiers.
C	Crenellations and height for seeing, hearing and alerting at a distance, and large windows for observation of approaching armies.
D	Crenellations for strategic surveillance and large windows with leaded frames to confine but also put on display prisoners of war.

Question 2

What was the purpose of United States General John T. Croxton’s attack on the University of Alabama’s campus on April 3, 1865?

A	To destroy the military school and anything on the campus that might aid the Confederate cause in the Civil War.
B	To take over the campus and return the school to its pre Civil-War status as a university.
C	To free the rented slaves that worked on the campus.
D	To provide arms to the rented slaves who were laboring on the campus, including Gabi and Crawford, the members of the drum corps.

Question 3

Who were the rented slaves identified on the historical marker next to the Little Round House?

A	Ben, possibly the first enslaved person purchased by the university’s trustees and sold in 1861.
B	Gabe, Crawford, and Neal, all members of the drum corps that were stationed at the Little Round House.
C	Moses, Jack, and Isaac, individuals enslaved by the university after Ben, the first slave purchased by the school, was sold.
D	The slaves whose names are unknown but who worked as lab assistants at the university.

Question 4

Which of these statements about enslaved labor in the years leading up to and during the United States Civil War is false?

A	Many enslaved people worked on plantations, performing either agricultural or domestic labor.
B	Enslaved people were restricted from learning to read and write but provided essential labor to building and maintaining educational institutions, such as universities.
C	Enslaved people were actively members of the Confederate army and were typically given weapons to fight alongside white soldiers.
D	The names of individual enslaved laborers were often not prioritized in documenting or commemorating historical events of the time.

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Key points

The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa was converted into a Confederate military school at the start of the U.S. Civil War. The Little Round House was essential to the alert system for the campus in the case of an attack. It also housed munitions.
This and many other universities and institutions throughout the U.S. were built and sustained by the labor of enslaved people, yet their names and efforts are often left out of dominant narratives or public commemoration. Historians today are consciously looking to redress this balance of who is identified and celebrated in our understanding of the nation’s past.

Go deeper

The Hallowed Grounds Project: Race, Slavery and Memory at the University of Alabama (Dr. Hilary N. Green)

Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth by Kevin M. Levin, University of North Carolina Press, 2019

More to think about

Look around your daily environment and ask yourself, “What am I not seeing?” What stories about the history of your university or community privilege the efforts of white leaders and overgeneralize or even omit the essential contributions of enslaved people or other undervalued laborers? What stories would you like to see have greater prominence and recognition? How can you contribute to making these stories more visible?