Download Nov. 16 Emancipation

11/16/2015
Outline: Emancipation
1. McPherson v. Berlin
2. My argument
3. Grand strategy in the Civil War
4. The war stalemates
5. The search for alternatives to the battlefield
6. The offer of the enslaved
7. Congress moves first
8. Lincoln’s big moment
9. The political costs
10. Conclusion
Outline: Emancipation
1. McPherson v. Berlin
• James M. McPherson, "Who Freed the Slaves?" in Drawn
with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 192-207.
• Ira Berlin, "Who Freed the Slaves? Emancipation and Its
Meaning," in Major Problems in the Civil War and
Reconstruction, Michael Perman, ed., 2nd ed. (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1998), 288-97.
• Which argument did you find more persuasive? Why?
What did you like about each approach?
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The debate
• Classically posed historical debate
• McPherson: hopes to revise a revision
• So what is the “orthodox” or “traditional” view?
• The centrality of problem (question)-based history
• Problems in history are usually good, because they
help convey a sense of the “so what?”
• But not all problems are equal….
McPherson
• Successful prosecution of the war was the “sine
qua non” of emancipation
• Lincoln was the sine qua non of a successful war
• Thus Lincoln was the sine que non of emancipation
• Only Lincoln could’ve been elected (consequence)
• Only Lincoln would’ve waited for just the right
moment to pass the EP (intent)
• (The perils of counter-factual history)
Berlin’s response
• Berlin: “Had another Republican been in Lincoln’s
place, that person doubtless would have done the
same.”
• Is it really doubtless?
• Berlin: “Lincoln was a part of history, not above it.”
• Berlin: “Both Lincoln and the slaves played their
appointed parts in the drama of emancipation.”
• Berlin responds with his own vision rather than
respond to each point
• Which leaves room for us to do so…
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Outline: Emancipation
1. McPherson v. Berlin
2. My argument
Critiquing McPherson
• What is the role of great men in history?
• What is the role of great forces?
• Lincoln stated, "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess
plainly that have events have controlled me."
• McPherson’s case:
Lincoln’s election critical
Lincoln’s commitment to union critical
Lincoln’s timing critical (couldn’t be too early or too late)
The war was essential – only it permitted possibility of
Lincoln’s move, and total abolition of slavery
• Critical in the war was the fact of stalemate: only
stalemate justified escalation of war aims
•
•
•
•
Critiquing McPherson
• But what if the war hadn’t stalemated?
• McPherson and others wonder if the war had gone on
longer. But what if the war had been over more quickly?
What would the consequences of an early Union victory
have been?
• There would’ve been lots and lots of pressure to retain
slavery as part of an easy peace
• So why/how did the war stalemate?
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Critiquing McPherson
• Rael’s multiple sine qua nons:
• Slaves who yearn to be free, and who register that
desire through action
• The war, which creates the possibility of giving their
actions meaning
• A Union army and government capable of
• Understanding how slavery is implicated
• Delivering victory, and hence acting on that understanding
Lincoln fits somewhere in here
Crittenden resolution, adopted by U.S. House of Representatives, 22 July
1861
“the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the
disunionists of the Southern States now in revolt against the constitutional
Government, and in arms around the capitol; that in this national
emergency, Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion or resentment,
will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not waged
upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or
subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or
established institutions of those States; but to defend and maintain the
supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the
dignity, equality, and rights of the several States, unimpaired; and that as
soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease”
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Earl F. Mulderink, III, New Bedford’s Civil War (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012), 69..
A Letter from President Lincoln.; Reply to Horace Greeley, Aug. 22, 1862
“I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the
Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored the nearer
the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’ If there be those who would not save
the Union unless they could at the same time save Slavery, I do not agree
with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they
could at the same time destroy Slavery, I do not agree with them. My
paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to
save or destroy Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I
would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and
if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do
that. What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it
helps to save this Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the Union.”
Outline: Emancipation
1. McPherson v. Berlin
2. My argument
3. Grand strategy in the Civil War
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"War is merely the
continuation of policy
[politics] by other means.“
Prussian military theorist Carl von
Clausewitz
"politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics
with bloodshed."
Mao Zedong
Defining total war
• War is the continuation of politics by other means
• Relationship between means and ends
• Means = how war is fought
• Ends = what war is fought to achieve
• A range or scale of possibilities toward “totality”
Clausewitz theorized a relationship between means and ends
in war. How a war was fought should be related to why a war
was fought. Wars fought for “limited” ends should be fought
with “limited” means; wars fought for “total” ends could be
fought with “total” means. When means and ends fell out of
conjunction, political problems arose. Can you think of any
examples?
CSA strategic picture
USA strategic picture
• Fighting on/for native
soil
• Interior lines
• Default outcome =
independence
• Invasion required
• 1,200 mile front
• Victory of arms =
triumph of ideas??
• Enormous material
advantage
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Grand Strategy
• USA:
• Blockade the CSA
• Imposed Summer/Fall 1861
• Confederate blockade runners export/import
• Lunge for Richmond (new CSA capital)
• Split the CSA by controlling the Mississippi
• (Later) wage war on CSA economy and society
Grand Strategy
• CSA
• Capitalize on advantage of defense
• Internal lines
• Moral value of repelling invaders
• Wait for foreign recognition
• “King Cotton diplomacy”
• Break the Union will to fight
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The Confederacy relied on
“King Cotton” diplomacy,
hoping that British “Lords
of the Loom” would ally
with Southern “Lords of
the Lash”
Manpower
• Total population
• USA = 23,000,000
• CSA = 8,700,000 (whites)
• Total who served
• USA total = 2,100,000
served
• CSA total = 850,000
Outline: Emancipation
1.
2.
3.
4.
McPherson v. Berlin
My argument
Grand strategy in the Civil War
The war stalemates
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No battle emblematized the problem of stalemate more than the Union’s costly victory at
Antietam, Maryland in Sept. 1862. Despite the loss of a total of 27,000 troops (over
3,600 of which were killed), the battle achieved very little strategically. But Lincoln had
already begun considering alternatives to the battlefield.
Selected Battle Casualties
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Technological transformations
• Rifled musket with conoidal bullet and percussion
cap
• Fewer misfires, greater accuracy, longer range
• Deepens fire-swept zone, making offensive actions
costly
• Leads to stalemate on the battlefield
• War could not achieve political decision
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Casualties in Civil War, by Agent
Civil War Combat Deaths
Compared with Other Wars
Means and ends in war
• Carl von Clausewitz: political aims and military
means
• Initial aims of Civil War “limited”
• The problem of stalemate
• Escalation
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Outline: Emancipation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
McPherson v. Berlin
My argument
Grand strategy in the Civil War
The war stalemates
The search for alternatives to the battlefield
Lincoln’s approach to slavery
• Get slaveholding Union (border) states to relinquish
slavery on own
• Delaware, 1861: gradual, compensated
emancipation offer (rejected)
• March 1862: Congress will compensate any border
states adopting gradual emancipation (rejected)
• May and July offers rejected, too
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Lincoln on the need for border-state emancipation
"the war would now be substantially ended. . . . But you cannot divest them
of their hope to ultimately have you join them so long as you show a
determination to perpetuate the institution within your own states. . . .
break that lever before their faces"
"This government cannot much longer play a game in which it stakes all, and
its enemies stake nothing," the President scolded a New York Democrat who
requested leniency for Confederate slaveholders. "Those enemies must
understand that they cannot experiment for ten years trying to destroy the
government, and if they fail still come back into the Union unhurt.“
"a military necessity absolutely essential for the salvation of the Union. . . .
We must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued."
Outline: Emancipation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
McPherson v. Berlin
My argument
Grand strategy in the Civil War
The war stalemates
The search for alternatives to the battlefield
The offer of the enslaved
Union officer at Fort Pickens, Pensacola, Florida (March 1861)
“On the morning of the 12th instant four negroes (runaways) came to the
fort entertaining the idea that we were placed here to protect them and
grant them their freedom. I did what I could to teach them the contrary. In
the afternoon I took them to Pensacola and delivered them to the city
marshal to be returned to their owners. That same night four more made
their appearance. They were also turned over to the authorities next
morning.”
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Commander of the Department of Virginia [General Benjamin Butler] to
the General-in-Chief of the Army
[Fortress Monroe, Va.] May 27 /61
“I have therefore determined to employ, as I can do very profitably, the ablebodied persons in the party, issuing proper food for the support of all, and
charging against their services the expense of care and sustenance of the
non- laborers, keeping a strict and accurate account as well of the services
as of the expenditure having the worth of the services and the cost of the
expenditure determined by a board of Survey hereafter to be detailed. I
know of no other manner in which to dispose of this subject and the
questions connected therewith. As a matter of property to the insurgents it
will be of very great moment, the number that I now have amounting as I
am informed to what in good times would be of the value of sixty thousand
dollars. ”
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General John C. Fremont
Missouri (August 1861)
General David Hunter
GA, FL, SC (May 1862)
Outline: Emancipation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
McPherson v. Berlin
My argument
Grand strategy in the Civil War
The war stalemates
The search for alternatives to the battlefield
The offer of the enslaved
Congress moves first
Moves in Congress
• First Confiscation Act (July 1861): masters cannot
reclaim slaves used in aid of rebellion
• Second Confiscation Act (July 1862): slaves of
disloyal citizens “forever free”
• Militia Act (July 1862): authorizes Union army use
of slaves; formally frees them and their families
• Abolition of slavery in District of Columbia and U.S.
territories (April 1862)
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Rejoicing over abolition of slavery in District of Columbia, 1862
Outline: Emancipation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
McPherson v. Berlin
My argument
Grand strategy in the Civil War
The war stalemates
The search for alternatives to the battlefield
The offer of the enslaved
Congress moves first
Lincoln’s big moment
Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner: "under the war power the right
had come to him [Lincoln] to emancipate the slaves.“
In July 1861, the House resolved that "it is no part of the duty of the soldiers
of the United States to capture and return fugitive slaves.“
If war could not pursue politics through other means,
perhaps politics could be made to pursue war
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Preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation
September 22, 1862
Warned that emancipation would be declared the
following year unless the rebels subsisted
Final version goes into effect
January 1, 1863
The Emancipation Proclamation
• A presidential “executive order” that applied only
to military matters (President is Commander in
Chief)
• Not a law, because not produced by legislative
process
• That would’ve required Congress, but Congress not in
charge of military matters
• In a show of support, Congress endorsed the EP in
December 1862
• Preliminary draft – did it invite rebellion?
Preliminary draft of EP, issued 9/22/62
“… on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a
State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall
be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the
United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such
persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”
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The Emancipation Proclamation
• Declared slaves free in designated areas (mostly) under
Confederate control
• EP immediately freed only a fraction of the millions it
declared free – apx. 20,000-50,000 slaves in designated
areas under Union control
• For most, actually enforcing freedom required US
military presence
• Some enslaved people didn’t learn of their freedom for
months or years later
• “Juneteenth” announcement in Texas, June 1865
• Provided for enlistment of freed slaves into Union
forces
The counties in red were covered by the Emancipation Proclamation. Those in blue
indicate slaveholding counties not covered by the EP.
Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
“… I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me
vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of
actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States,
and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this
first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixtythree, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full
period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and
designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively,
are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: …. [list of
affected areas follows]
“I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States,
and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive
government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”
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Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
“And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all
violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all
cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
“And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will
be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions,
stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
“And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the
Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind,
and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”
The Emancipation Proclamation
• Established a precedent for freedom not easily
rescinded
• Lincoln on a proposal to return black soldiers to slavery:
“I should be damned in time & in eternity for so
doing. The world shall know that I will keep my faith to
friends & enemies, come what will.”
• Established legal basis for continued acts of
liberation, including 13th Amendment
• Broadened the purpose of the war, but at a cost
Outline: Emancipation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
McPherson v. Berlin
My argument
Grand strategy in the Civil War
The war stalemates
The search for alternatives to the battlefield
The offer of the enslaved
Congress moves first
Lincoln’s big moment
Opposition
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Critics of emancipation
• Ohio Congressman Samuel Cox:
• "Your anti-slavery crusade adds to the rebel army day
after day thousands of soldiers”
• Fosters “a St. Domingo-insurrection” by placing "the
saber, the musket, and the torch in the hands of the
enfranchised African”
• "King Lincoln”
• "crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism.”
Politics in the Union
• Clement L. Vallandingham
• Ohio Democrat arrested May 1863 for incendiary antiUnion speeches
• Sentenced to imprisonment for the duration
• Becomes anti-Lincoln cause celebre
• Lincoln banishes to Confederate lines; Vallandingham
continues his campaign in exile in Canada
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Cjdraf~1:
Anti-Draft Rioters, New York City: The Union draft triggered controversy throughout the
North, but nowhere was the tension greater than in New York City. That stronghold of
Democratic sentiment erupted into three days of anti-draft rioting in July 1863, shortly
after the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Before Union troops restored order,
black homes and institutions were burned, and nearly 100 African Americans were
killed in the largest civil insurrection in the nation’s history.
In the election of 1864, Republicans
re-formulated their ticket. Running
as the Union Party, they ditched
Maine Republican Hannibal Hamlin,
and added instead Andrew Johnson,
a Jacksonian from the nonslaveholding region of Tennessee. It
was a fateful choice.
The recalcitrant General McLellan ran on a peace
platform that would have left slavery in tact
throughout much of the South.
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Outline: Emancipation
1. McPherson v. Berlin
2. My argument
3. Grand strategy in the Civil War
4. The war stalemates
5. The search for alternatives to the battlefield
6. The offer of the enslaved
7. Congress moves first
8. Lincoln’s big moment
9. Opposition
10. Conclusion
The final end of slavery
• West Virginia enters union as free state, 1863
• Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware
• Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee
• Thirteenth Amendment
• Intended to guarantee constitutionality of Emancipation
Proclamation
• January 1865 passes Congress
• December 1865 ratified by states
• Come to the screening of “Lincoln” on Monday night!
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1865)
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
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Take-aways
• Emancipation happened not through a revolution
in racial attitudes or moral sentiment. It happened
because Union victory in the war required it.
• Union victory required it because the war
stalemated. And the war stalemated because of
technological developments caused by
industrialization.
• The road to emancipation was long and circuitous
in the US, but (as in other places where it
happened) it ultimately owed to slave behavior and
antislavery sentiment. (Come to my talk on Thrs.)
Who cares?
• How emancipation happened mattered
• Emerged through exigencies of war, not through a
revolution in racial sentiment
• Before the war: both sections suffused with racial
prejudice and ideas of white supremacy
• War: military need creates emancipation
• After the war: the fate of the freedpeople??
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