Barriers to A War of Abolition and Self- Emancipation

Union war aims didn’t include emancipation or abolition at first
- some “radical” Republicans wanted a war against slavery
- Lincoln and most other federal officials were unconvinced
key constitutional and political obstacles:
- Constitution sanctioned chattel slavery and guaranteed private property
- chattel slavery: most common form of slavery known to Americans which allowed people (considered legal property), to be bought, sold, and owned, forever
- President and Congress couldn’t abolish slavery themselves
- constitutional amendment necessary
- most of northern public didn’t support abolition
- US government needed to maintain loyalty of Border South states
Union policy at first: non-interference
- no aid to runaways
- respect civilian property (including slaves)

self-emancipation: act of an enslaved person freeing him or herself from the bondage of slavery
500,000 people fled slavery during the war
- many traveled to Union lines
- they forced Union leaders to act
Union leaders gradually embraced emancipation as a war strategy
- first, via decisions by field officers (often overturned)
- later, in official policies by Congress and War Department

May 1861, Fortress Monroe, VA
- 3 enslaved men fled work on rebel fortifications near Hampton Roads
- requested US Army’s protection
General Benjamin Butler declared them “contraband of war” and refused to return them to the rebels
- key legal loophole: enslaved labor was a Confederate war resource
- could be legally seized
May 30, 161, war department formalized Butler’s decision
first in a long chain of federal policy measures
limited scope:
- only for people fleeing work on rebel war efforts
- “contrabands” weren’t freed: used as labor for the US Army
by June 1861, 900+ enslaved people had fled to the Fortress Monroe
the “Grand Contraband Camp” at Fortress Monroe
- 25,000 residents by 1865 (5th largest city in rebel states
- largest of many similar sites

Note

5.0(1)

Chat with Kai