Devil's Punchbowl (Natchez, Mississippi) facts for kids

The Devil's Punchbowl was a concentration camp created in Natchez, Mississippi during the American Civil War to control freed slaves.

Description

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. Estimates claim from 2,000 to 20,000 formerly enslaved people died here in one year. Some scholars have suggested that the stories have been embellished or fabricated by Confederate apologists intent on blaming the Union Army for atrocities.