Blacks & the Civil War: Emancipation & Agency

1. Blacks & the Civil War: Emancipation & Agency African American History Unit 5: Revolt and Migration: Self Determination and Agency

2. President Lincoln’s Aims (April 1861) • Lincoln was most concerned with preserving the Union. • After Fort Sumter was attacked in April of 1861, four more states, (NC, VA, TN and AK) had seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. With this secession there were only four slave states that were still part of the Union (DE, MD, KY and MO). Lincoln, thus was very fearful of interfering with slavery as he desperately wanted to keep these four border states as part of the Union. • Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 men to enlist in the military for ninety days of service to the national government. All black men who volunteered were rejected.

3. United States after the fall of Fort Sumter

4. Rally Robin • Quick Review of what we’ve learned so far. • Turn to the person next to you. • Take turns sharing one fact you know about the process of secession until time is called. • You will share for about 30 seconds. • Then, I’m going to call on a few people to share with the whole class.

5. Black Men Volunteer and are Rejected “We are concerned in this fight and our fate hangs upon its issues. The South must be subjugated, or we shall be enslaved. In aiding the Federal government in whatever way we can, we are aiding to secure our own liberty; for this war can only end in the subjugation of the North or the South.” Anglo-African (a black NY newspaper) “Our feelings urge us to say to our countrymen that we are ready to stand by and defend our government as equals of its white defenders, to do so with ‘our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor,’ for the sake of freedom, and as good citizens; and we ask you to modify your laws, that we may enlist,- that fill scope may be given to patriotic feelings burning in the colored man’s breast.” -Resolution Drawn up by Black Bostonian soldiers

6. Black Men Volunteer and are Rejected • Black men in Philadelphia volunteered to infiltrate the South to incite slave revolts, but were turned down. • In Washington, Jacob Dodson, a black employee of the U.S. Senate wrote a letter to Secretary of War Simon Cameron shortly after the fall of Fort Sumter volunteering the services of local black men. • “I desire to inform you that I know of some 300 reliable colored free citizens of this city who desire to enter the service for the defense of the city.” Cameron curtly replied: “The Department of War has no intention at the present to call into service of the government any colored soldiers.”

7. Timed Pair Share • Take a moment and think of your own answer to the question: • Why do you think the Union did not immediately enlist Black soldiers considering they were fighting the Southern slaveholding states? • Pair with a classmate. • Each partner gets 30 seconds to share their answer. While one person shares, the other listens. If you cannot fill the whole 30 seconds, your partner should ask you clarifying questions. • Then I’ll call on a few people to share what their partner said.

8. Union Policy Towards Confederate Slaves • When the war began many slaves began to free themselves. However, many Union military officers seemed to be more interested in Confederate slave owners. • “Not only will we abstain from interference with your slaves, but we will, with an iron hand, crush any attempt at insurrection on their part.” –General George B. McClellan • Later on at a Union fort, General Benjamin Butler, a union general declared runaway slaves, “contraband” meaning that they did not have to be returned but had to work on union fortifications.

9. “We are free?!” • Soon after Butler’s declaration, over 1,000 slaves fled to Fortress Monroe, a Union fort in Virginia. Even though they were considered to be “contraband,” many did not see themselves this way. To many runaway slaves, crossing Union lines meant freedom. • In response, Congress passed the First Confiscation Act which said that only slaves who were used by their masters to benefit the Confederacy were to be freed if captured. • Instantly, John C. Fremont exceeded the act by freeing all slaves belonging to Confederates in Missouri. • President Lincoln quickly countermanded the order and told Fremont that only slaves actively used to aid the Confederate war effort were to be freed. Lincoln worried that Fremont would drive Missouri or Kentucky into the Confederacy. • Frederick Douglass commented that “To fight against slaveholders, without fighting against slavery, is but a half-hearted business, and paralyzes the hands engaged in it…”

10. Timed Pair Share • Take a moment and think of your own answer to the question: • What do the differences in policy of Congress, some Union Army leaders and President Lincoln indicate about public opinion in the North? • Pair with a classmate. • Each partner gets 30 seconds to share their answer. While one person shares, the other listens. If you cannot fill the whole 30 seconds, your partner should ask you clarifying questions. • Then I’ll call on a few people to share what their partner said.

11. These black Virginians are freeing themselves. Regarded by Northern white authorities as contraband, they are crossing the Rappahonnock River in August of 1862 shortly before the battle of Antietam and Abraham Lincoln’s decision

12. Lincoln’s Initial Position • For more than a year Lincoln remained reluctant to strike against slavery. He believed that the solution was compensated emancipation of the slaves followed by their colonization outside of the US. • In 1862, at Lincoln’s urging, Congress voted to provide funds to “any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery.” He imagined slaveowners being compensated for freeing their slaves. • Lincoln hoped to eliminate slavery from the border states as he thought it would make those states less likely to join the Confederacy. (KY, DE, MD, MO) • The proposal was ultimately rejected by border states. Lincoln then warned that they might have to accept uncompensated emancipation. • To Black Americans and abolitionists Lincoln’s refusal to immediately abolish slavery was tragic.

13. Lincoln Moves towards Emancipation • Summer of 1862- “We must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued. The slaves were undeniably an element of strength to those who had their service, and we must decide whether that element should be with us or against us.” –Abraham Lincoln • Emancipation would “strike at the heart of the rebellion.” • Lincoln was advised by secretary of state William H. Seward to not issue a proclamation until a major union victory. If the emancipation was announced at this point in time it was believed that the act would appear as a desperate measure.

14. Lincoln Delays Emancipation “Abraham Lincoln is no more fit for the place he holds than was James Buchannan… The country is destined to become sick of McClellan and Lincoln, and the sooner the better. The one plays lawyer for the benefit of the rebels, and the other handles the army for the benefit of the traitors. We should not be surprised if both should be hurled from their places before the rebellion is ended.” –Frederick Douglass “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 do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” -Abraham Lincoln (August 1862)

15. The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation • Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued on September 22nd, 1862. It came just five days after the Union victory at Antietam. • This first proclamation, however, freed no people. It instead required that any slave in states or parts of states still in rebellion on January 1st, 1863 would be freed. • In other words, Confederate states were given 100 days to return to the Union. If they did not, their slaves would be freed. If they did return, their slaves would remain in bondage. • Many northern abolitionists such as Garrison and Douglass were actually afraid that a Confederate state would rejoin the Union and thus deny freedom to that state’s slaves.

16. The Emancipation Proclamation • Then, on January 1st, 1863 Lincoln issued the actual Emancipation Proclamation. It was not the first step toward freedom, considering since 1861 several thousand slaves had already freed themselves. • Even though many blacks were thrilled by this, the document lacked the eloquence that documents such as the Declaration of Independence had. • The Emancipation did not grant freedom to slaves in the four border states that were still part of the Union, and areas of the Confederacy that were now controlled by the Union. Therefore, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people would still remain in slavery. • “As a fit and necessary measure for repressing said rebellion… I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforth shall be free.” –Emancipation Proclamation.

17. Effect of the Proclamation on the South • The Emancipation Proclamation destroyed any chance that Great Britain or France would assist the Confederacy. No longer could these countries be affiliated with a nation that relied on slavery as its opponent attempted to abolish it. • Black people in the south became aware that a Union victory in the war meant freedom, and thus became less likely to work for the Confederacy. • Even more slaves ran away, especially when the Union army approached on them. • “We do know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We- even we here- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve.” –Abraham Lincoln

18. Rally Robin • Turn to the person next to you. • Take turns sharing one fact you just learned about how Lincoln’s opinion and policy changed during the course of the Civil War. • You will share for about 30 seconds. • Then, I’m going to call on a few people to share with the whole class.

20. Black Men Fight For the Union • Black men had fought both in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. • At the beginning of the Civil War, black men were not allowed to fight. • However, the Emancipation Proclamation authorized the enlistment of black troops in the Union Army.

21. The 54th Massachusetts Regiment • In January 1863, governor John A. Andrews of Massachusetts received permission to raise a black regiment. The Black Committee was formed to help Andrews create this regiment. The committee consisted of prominent northern black men such as Frederick Douglass. • These leaders thought that by serving in the military black men would prove that they deserved to be treated as equals. • Lincoln, who was once opposed to the enlistment of black troops was now very enthusiastic about the idea. • “ The bare sight of 50 thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi, would end the rebellion at once.” • -Abraham Lincoln • Robert Gould Shaw was selected to command the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Shaw opposed slavery and became determined to prove that black men could fight well.

22. The Assault on Battery Wagner • Since the Fall of Ft. Sumter, Union leaders had been determined to retake the fort. However, Battery Wagner, a heavily fortified installation guarded the entrance to harbor in which Fort Sumter was located. • Colonel Robert G. Shaw, volunteered the Massachusetts 54thregiment to lead this risky attack. This is the story told by the movie “Glory” with Denzel Washington. • On the evening of July 18, 1863, more than 600 black men attacked Battery Wagner. After a courageous effort Shaw was killed and the 54th suffered heavy losses. It nonetheless became a defining moment of the Civil War, demonstrating to skeptical white people the determination of black troops.

23. The Fort Pillow Massacre • The Civil War’s worst atrocity against black troops occurred at Ft. Pillow in Tennessee on April 12, 1864. • Nathaniel Bedford Forrest, a future founder of the KKK, and his Confederate regiment slaughtered black troops after they had surrendered. • Lincoln’s cabinet decided to only to punish those responsible for the killings, if and when they were apprehended. However, they would never be punished. • Many black Union soldiers however did retaliate by murdering several Confederate prisoners in Virginia while shouting, “Remember Fort Pillow!” “Ah, Wagner saw their glory, and Pillow knew their blood,That poured on a nation's altar, a sacrificial flood.” –Unsung Heroes, Paul Laurence Dunbar

24. Whole Class Discussion • Why was the record of service of Black soldiers so important? • Why do you think so many Black men volunteered to serve and fight?