Chapter 14 The Coming of Emancipation

September 22, 1892-afer victory at Antietam, Lincoln issues Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

-Warned if South did lay down its arms, he would decree abolition • Initial northern reaction was not encouraging 1862 election, Democrats made opposition to emancipation their campaign centerpiece

How was abolition rolled out

Abolition in America was immediate, not gradual • Slaveholders were not compensated for property loss

Lincolns Evolving policy

August 1861, MO Union Commander John C. Fremont decreed freedom of slaves •Lincoln rescinded it-feared of impact on border states - November 1861, proposed border states adopt program of gradual emancipation - December 1862, signed agreement with shady entrepreneur to colonize former slaves in Haiti

How did Slaves take actions that helped whites move toward emancipation

Blacks called war the "freedom war" • Escaped slaves consisted of whole families • Passed military intelligence and detailed knowledge of Southern terrain

The Emancipation Proclamation

Declaration issues by President Abraham Lincolnfl the preliminary proclamation on September 22, 1862, freed the slaves in areas under Confederate control as of January 1, 1863, the date of the final proclamation, which also authorized the enrollment of black soldiers into the Union army • Did not liberate all slaves because its legality derived from the president's authority as military commander-in-chief to combat the South's rebellion Did not apply to loyal border states-never seceded Did no apply to areas of the Confederacy occupied by Union soldiers (TN, parts of VA and LA) Applied to most of South's slaves-3 million men, women, children • Because they were still in Confederate territory, they waited for Union victory

ENlisting Black Troops

Enlisting blacks into troops was one of the most radical provisions in proclamation-administration had feared • Whites would be unwilling to serve with blacks • It would alienate border states remaining in Union • Fify-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers helped end doubts that blacks couldn't withstand battlefield pressures • Company of free blacks from North-commanded by Robert Gould Shaw (from wealthy Boston family) • July 1863 attack on Fort Wagner, SC--nearly ½ the unit + Shaw died • Most black soldiers were emancipated slaves who joined the Union troops in the South • Union forced seized plantation lands in Mississippi Valley •General Lorenzo Thomas raised 50 regiments of black soldiers (76,000 men) • Another large group formed at border states exempt from Emancipation Proclamation Enlistment here was only route to freedom Here, Congress expanded proclamation to liberate families of black military service members

The Black Soldier

For many black soldiers, service was a liberating experience o Many became leaders of the Reconstruction Era • Black soldiers were treated as unequal in army • Segregated units, sometimes under abusive white officers • Paid $10 a month v. $16 a month that whites were paid o Assigned more to labor than combat o Could not raise to rank of commissioned officer (until very end of war) • Thanks to black military service, Republicans (in last 2 years of war) came to believe that emancipation must bring with it equal protection of the laws, regardless of race • Granting of retroactive pay to black soldiers in 1865 • 186ffi, Lincoln urged governor of Union-occupied Louisiana to give part suffrage to black military members

"The COntrabands"

General Benjamin F. Butler adopted plan (first in Virginia) of treating escaped slaves as contraband of war-property of military value subject to confiscation - "The contrabands": Slaves who sought refuge in Union military camps or who lived in areas of the Confederacy under Union control

The Radical Republicans

Group within the Republican Party in the 1850s and 1860s that advocated strong resistance to the expansion of slavery, opposition to compromise with the South in the secession crisis of 1860-1861, emancipation and arming of black soldiers during the Civil War, and equal civil and political rights for blacks during Reconstruction o Slavery must become target of the war

Summer 1863, Lincoln concluded emancipation has become political and military necessity

Lack of military success Hopes that emancipation would bring slaves in to join Union army changing Northern opinion Hoped this would change Britain's recognition of southern independence

COngressional Policy Against SLavery

March 1862, Congress prohibited army from returning fugitive slaves Abolition in District of Columbia -compensated slaveowners Second Confiscation Act-liberated slaves of disloyal owners in Union-occupied territory + Slaves who escaped to Union lines

Lincolns initial stance on slavery

• Believed it was irrelevant to war • His focus was keeping border slave states in the Union-Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and building broadest base of support in North for war effort Feared emancipation would drive border states (2.6 mill. Population) to Confederate side and alienate conservative Northerners