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The Civil War
FREEDOM
I. “Forever Free”
A.
The Civil War
began as a war to
restore the Union,
not to end
slavery.
B. President Lincoln said this:
“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
do it by freeing some of the slaves
and leaving others alone, I would
also do that.”
C. Addressing the Issue of Slavery
1.
2.
By mid-1862,
Lincoln wanted to
broaden the goals
of the war, and he
decided to free
slaves living in
the Confederacy.
In the four loyal
border states,
slaves would not
be free.
3. In Confederate
territory already
captured by the
Union, like New
Orleans, slaves
would not be free.
4. Lincoln wanted to
weaken the
Confederacy
without angering
slave owners in the
North.
5. Lincoln waited for
a Union victory to
announce his plan,
and Antietam gave
Lincoln his chance.
D. Issuing the Proclamation
1. January 1, 1863,
Lincoln issued the
Emancipation
Proclamation.
(Emancipate
means to set free.)
2. “On the 1st day of January, in the
year of our Lord 1863, all persons
held as slaves within any state
or…part of a state [whose]
people…shall then be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be,
thenceforward, and forever free.”
3. This never freed a
slave on January
1, 1863, but it did
change the
character of the
war.
a. Now fighting to
end slavery.
b. Keep Britain from
supporting the
South.
c. Union gets a wave
of support from
free African
Americans.
II. African-Americans Take Up
Arms
A. In 1862, Congress
repealed a law
forbidding AfricanAmericans to serve
as soldiers.
1. Free blacks, and
escaped slaves,
join the Union
army.
B. Black volunteers
joined all black
units and were
commanded by
white officers.
1. Earned half the
pay of white
soldiers.
2. 200,000 AfricanAmericans fought,
3,000 died.
C. Massachusetts was
one of the first states
to organize all black
regiments.
1. The 54th
Massachusetts
attacked Fort Wagner
near Charleston, and
fought the
Confederates in hand
to hand combat. Half
the regiment was
killed in the assault.
2. Secretary of War Stanton said:
African Americans “have proved
themselves among the bravest of the
brave, performing deeds of daring
and shedding their blood with a
heroism unsurpassed by soldiers of
any race.”
III. African Americans Behind
Confederate Lines
A. Despite the
Proclamation,
slaves still had to
work on
plantations while
whites were away
fighting. But many
slaves slowed
down their work in
the fields.
This was one way to
undermine the
South’s war
efforts. They knew
when Union troops
arrived in their
area, they would
be free.