"We are by birth citizens of South Carolina, in our veins in the blood of the white race in some half, in the others much more, our attachments are with you, our hopes of safety and protection is in South Carolina, our allegiance is due alone to her, in her defense we are willing to offer up our lives and all that is dear to us, we therefore take the liberty of asking the privilege of volunteering our services to the State at this time, where she needs the services of all her true and devoted citizens. We are willing to be assigned to any service where we can be made useful."

From the petition of eighty-two black Charlestonians, offered to the state of South Carolina through the Mayor of Charleston just one month after secession. Printed by Wilbert L. Jenkins in Seizing the New Day: African Americans in Post-Civil War Charleston (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998), p. 22-23. "Within a matter of days, two other nearly identical petitions had been submitted to the mayor of Charleston and then forwarded to the state legislature, where no action was taken." (Ibid. p. 182).