Slavery and Emancipation Flashcards
Evidence that slavery incompatible with northern ideas
Slavery was in many ways incompatible with Northern visions
Second Great Awakening incompatible with slavery
Incompatible with founding ideals of the republic
‘Slavery degraded labour, inhibited economic development, discouraged education, and engendered a domineering master class determined to rule the country in the interests of its backwards institution’ - 39
Evidence of importance of slavery to southern ideas
By contrast, slavery was central to the identity and economy of the South
Centrality to the region
Slave population of the US doubled every 26 years, in contrast to decrease worldwide
Centrality to the economy
Yield of raw cotton doubled every year after 1800
Southern cotton accounted for 3/4ths of the world’s supply
Charleston Mercury Quote 1858
“Underlying all of these differences was the peculiar institution”
Charleston Mercury 1858: ‘the North and the South…are not only two Peoples, but they are rival, hostile Peoples.”
Increasing anti-slavery sentiment in the North
Anti-slavery sentiment was increasing in the North
Growth of the Liberty Party
Publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
North less dependent on the slave economy
Election of Lincoln 1860
Evidence that slavery led to war
Evidence that slavery led to war
Slavery had been a contentious issue throughout the Antebellum period, resulting in several compromises on the issue:
Missouri Compromise (1820)
Wilmot Proviso (1850)
Compromise of 1850
Kansas - Nebraska Act (1854)
Dred-Scott case (1857)
Slavery and secession
Virginia and Tennessee, Those who voted for secession owned on average 11.5 and 6.5 slaves, and those against 4 and 2 respectively
Over 50% of the content in Georgia, Mississippi and Texas’ secession documents is concerned with slavery, S. Carolina’s shows greater concern for states’ rights
McPherson quote on slavery as cause
Support from Historians
‘Sectional conflict between North and South over the future of slavery’ was ‘the greatest danger to American survival’ - McPherson, 7
Freedmen enlisting in the North
Fighting and Freedom
Had long been a relationship between the two
War of Independence and War of 1812, some states such as S. Carolina offered freedom for service
Enlisting
Initial rush to enlist from freedmen, mostly in the North
Lincoln’s call for 75 000 in April 1861 didn’t require Black service; might have been anti-slavery, but not advocates of racial equality
Frederick Douglas: Colored men were good enough to fight under Washington. They are not good enough to fight under McClellan.
Initial opposition to arming slaves in the North
Factors preventing the arming/freeing of slaves
Wanted to preserve the loyalty of the border states (slave states) and the popular opinion of the North was against arming black americans
Archbishop J. Hughes: “we Catholics…have not the slightest idea of carrying on a war that costs so much blood and treasure just to gratify a clique of abolitionists”
Even more obscure but no less essential among northerners was the role of slavery. While there was considerable disapproval of the institution, racial prejudices were widely held, and few of the early enlistees sought the destruction of the slave system. - Glaathaar
‘huge and terrible and delicate issue’ - D blight
Increasing support for arming slaves in North
However, as war went on, became less feasible to keep slaves and not arm them
“until they shall strike down slavery, the source and center of this gigantic rebellion, they don’t deserve the support of a single sable arm, nor will it succeed in crushing the cause of our present troubles.”- Frederick Douglas
Slaves were crossing lines into the Union and were now under Union control
Some were incredibly positive about the possibility of arming slaves
Thomas Wentworth (would become officer in charge of 33rd coloured) praised his black troops
Any different policy in regard to the colored man, deprives us of his help, and this is more than we can bear. (Lincoln)
General in Chief Henry W. Halleck to Grant, ccthey can employ all the whites in the field. Every slave withdrawn from the enemy is equivalent to a white man put hors de combat [out of action]. “
Benjamin Butler and the Contraband Slave Law
Benjamin F. Butler and the ‘contraband’ Slave Law
May 1861, Three slaves escape to Fortress Monroe, Virginia
Confederate owner arrives under truce to retrieve them under the power of the fugitive slave law
Butler reasoned that the law only applied inside the Union
–> Set precedent for runaway slaves to be received as contraband
–> July 1861, 1000 ‘contrabands’ runaway to Fortress Monroe
Impact of Butler and the Contraband law
Didn’t impact racial attitudes in North
Did Highlight the military potential for slaves/their use to Confederacy
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War (JCCW) accepted the idea of arming black americans
War:Confiscation Act, August 6th 1861
Official policy of ‘denial of asylum’: slaves to be returned if the owner was disloyal to the union
They carved out the first path for wartime emancipation and set a precedent for military employment - Glaathaar
John C. Fremont’s attempts to arm slaves
John C. Fremont
30th August, takes over control of Missouri, declares martial law, declares death penalty for Confederate guerrillas caught behind Union lines
Declares that the slaves of Confederate sympathisers in Missouri are free
–> Lincoln writes telling him to moderate his ideas:
If he executes guerillas, South will do the same in retaliation and the North may lose the support of Southerners in the Union/with Union sympathies
Any action on slaves must conform to first confiscation Act of August 4th
- Key in the fall of Fremont
General Hunter’s attempt to arm slaves
Gen. David Hunter’s abolition in S. Carolina, Georgia and Florida, May 9th 1862
Union commander ‘Department of the South’ (S. Carolina, Georgia, Florida’ issues abolition order without consulting Lincoln (c.f. Fremont)
Lincoln, who first hears in papers, revokes order 10 days later.
Not antislavery as such, but rather an exercise of authority. Lincoln preferred a ‘gradual emancipation’
Grant: Not only was Hunter’s announcement also rejected by Lincoln, but the aggressive manner in which he went about recruiting blacks for the Union army served only to alienate the very people whom he was attempting to help
Jim Lane’s arming of slaves
Early successful attempts to arm northern slaves
Jim Lane
Raises 1st Kansas Coloured Volunteers, in 1862 without the consent of the US War Department
Officially sanctioned slave regiments
Officially sanctioned regiments
General Rufus Saxton authorized to “arm, equip, and receive into the service of the United States” up to 5,000 black volunteers in August 1862
May 1863, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island
the War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops, headed by C. W. Foster
Why were slaves armed?
Reason that slaves were armed
Not for idealistic reasons Douglas supported
Necessary for aiding Union war effort and weakening the Confederacy
To appease foreign opinion
Attitudes to Black soldiers in the Union army
Attitudes to black soldiers in the Union army
Racist prejudices both for and against the idea
Some didn’t want to put black men on an equal footing
Others thought better for a black man to die than a white man
“Sambo’s Right to be Kilt” - song
Lincoln’s view: I thought that whatever Negroes could be got to do as soldiers leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do, in saving the Union.”
Views on fighting for freedom
there will be some black men who can remember that …they have helped mankind on to this…while, I fear, there will be some white ones unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it
George E. Stephens, 54th Massachutes (coloured regiment): “the proper field for colored men”
The fact that blacks had shown that they could fight in no way diminished the prejudice they experienced in the Union army
After Fort Pillow, some increased support from Northern public
Attitudes of Black soldiers in the Union army
Attitudes of Black Soldiers
Optomistic
1st Arkansas: We have done with hoeing cotton, we have done with hoeing corn/ We are colored Yankee soldiers, now, as sure as you are born;
Pessimistic
NY Black man: “nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by entering the lists as combatants.”
In this regard, African-Americans during the Civil War had a far more expansive, optimistic, and demanding vision of the nation’s future than many whites did. - Grant
Black soldiers in the Union army, demographics
Black soldiers in action - Demographics
200 000 served in Union army
Grant estimates: By the end of the war this number had risen to some 186,000, of whom 134,111 were recruited in the slave states.
Perhaps as many as one in every ten or twelve men in the navy, or nearly 10,000, were black.
forty major engagements and 449 lesser firefights.
