Civil War Emancipation

 Although the U.S. Civil War started as an attempt to preserve the Union, the issue of slavery was always the pivotal cause of the conflict. Southerners feared that Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860 was the first step in dismantling the peculiar institution of the South. They believed that Republican claims limiting slavery and opposing its expansion into the new western territories were merely the prelude to abolitionist goals. Northern war aims, however, gradually changed as emancipation became part of the slow transformation of life in the South with the advance of Union armies.

 

Early Steps toward Slave Emancipation

 

The first hint of emancipation took place at Fort Monroe in 1861 when several slaves left Confederate lines and sought asylum from Union general Benjamin Butler. Confederate officers, under a flag of truce, demanded the return of the slaves, citing the Fugitive Slave Law. Butler, a lawyer in private life, replied that the runaway slaves were “contraband of war.” The now freed slaves were given the opportunity to work for the Union army, with pay, and fully emancipated.

 

Butler’s precedent encouraged other slaves to cross over battle lines and seek freedom in Union occupied territory. In March 1862, Congress passed a law that prohibited the military from returning fugitive slaves. The Second Confiscation Act emancipated any slaves within the confines of Union occupied territory.

 

The Seeds of General Emancipation in 1862

 

Union policies allowing for gradual emancipation were tempered by fears that any move toward a general emancipation of Southern slaves would alienate pro-Union sympathizers in the South. Lincoln had not forgotten that the Election of 1860 revealed pro-Unionist attitudes in the South, identified with the Constitutional-Unionist Party.

 

Additionally, Lincoln researched colonization possibilities. Options included transporting freed slaves to Central America or the Caribbean. Some 5,000 former U.S. slaves were sent to Haiti but most of them soon left. Another option included a compensated emancipation, perhaps based on the Russian model of 1861.

 

The Emancipation Proclamation

 

By the end of 1862, Lincoln had finished the Emancipation Proclamation. The document freed all slaves within the rebel territories at the time of signing. It did not free slaves in Border States. Lincoln publicized the proclamation months before signing it, using it as an ultimatum against the Confederacy. In essence, if the South returned to the Union, Lincoln would not sign the document.

 

But the South kept fighting. Lincoln’s first official act in 1863 was signing the Emancipation Proclamation. Southerners saw this as confirmation of their initial fears regarding Lincoln and the Republicans. Northern Democrats criticized Lincoln for deviating from the original war aims. What they failed to see was that the Proclamation was not motivated by abolitionist concerns. The document was as much a part of the strategy of war as any military action.

 

Facing the Realities of Emancipation

 

The Emancipation Proclamation opened the door to hitherto radical notions regarding former slaves. These questions included a Constitutional definition of citizenship, extending the franchise to black men, and increasing the use of blacks in the military. 180,000 blacks served in the Union army with great distinction.

 

Civil War emancipation was gradual, but by the end of the conflict a transformation in the South had radically altered the social landscape. Although it would take over 100 years for African Americans to fully experience the social and political fruits of emancipation, the events that began in 1861 began the long overdue process.

 

Sources:

 

Gabor S. Boritt, Lincoln the War President (Oxford University Press, 1992)

William K. Klingaman, Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation 1861-1865 (Viking Penguin 2001)

Page Smith, Trial By Fire: A People’s History of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Volume 5 (McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1982)

Published first November 26, 2009 in Suite101 by M.Streich. Copyright