Reconstruction Part Two: The Transformation of Union War Aims and the Emancipation Proclamation
Overview of Reconstruction Areas
Reconstruction is conceptually divided into specific areas, each with varying degrees of success:
Political Reconstruction: Considered to have been quite successful in restoring the governance of the states.
Economic Reconstruction: Also regarded as having achieved a high degree of success.
Social (Social-Racial) Reconstruction: Described as a "work in progress" and the most difficult of the three areas.
The difficulty in social-racial reconstruction arises because it requires changing the fundamental beliefs of the population.
Social-racial reconstruction became the focal point of the era, but understanding why it became the focus requires analyzing the nature of the Civil War itself.
The Nature and Origin of the Civil War
Cause vs. Subject: While slavery was the underlying cause of the Civil War, the war was not initially "about" slavery in terms of official Union policy.
The Election of :
Abraham Lincoln was elected on a platform that opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories.
The South viewed this as an inherent threat to their whole way of life, believing that if slavery did not spread, they would eventually be politically outnumbered and the North would abolish slavery entirely.
Secession and the Union Strategy:
The South seceded immediately after Lincoln was elected.
Lincoln maintained that secession was illegal and that the North's goal was to force the South back into the Union.
Consequently, the official purpose of the war at its start was the preservation of the Union, not the abolition of slavery.
The Strategic Importance of the Border States
The Stages of Secession:
The Deep Southern states, where "cotton is king," seceded first.
The Upper Southern states seceded second.
The Border States stayed within the Union.
Geographic and Identity Markers:
The border states included Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.
These states formed a literal geographic boundary dividing the North and the South.
They are described as being "a little bit South-like" because they were slave states, but also "a little bit North-like" because they were somewhat industrialized.
The Industrial Leverage:
Lincoln could not afford to lose the border states because their industrial capacity was critical.
If the border states had seceded and joined the Confederacy, their inclusion would have more than doubled the Southern factory output.
Losing these states was considered by Lincoln to be "tantamount to losing the war."
Maintaining Loyalty: To prevent these industrial slave states from seceding, Lincoln initially insisted the war was only about the Union and not about ending slavery.
The Transformation of Union War Aims
Defining the Transformation: The point of the conflict shifted from preserving the Union to ending slavery.
The Role of the Emancipation Proclamation: When Lincoln issued the Proclamation, he fundamentally changed the war's purpose.
Impact on Reconstruction: By making the war about ending slavery, Lincoln inadvertently dictated the focus of Reconstruction. Once the war ended, the North was obligated to address social-racial reconstruction as a consequence of abolition.
Pressure from the Enslaved: Lincoln was pushed toward this transformation by the actions of the slaves themselves, who had the most at stake in the conflict.
Slaves as Active Participants in the Conflict
Running Away as Rebellion: Slaves utilized the war as an opportunity to run away, which served as a form of rebellion against the Southern system.
Risk Mitigation during the War:
Prior to the war, running away was rare because success was unlikely; a slave in Alabama would have to travel all the way to a free state like Indiana, risking death, torture, or being maimed if captured.
During the war, the South was preoccupied with fighting, and the presence of invading Northern armies meant "freedom was getting closer."
Slaves only had to reach the encroaching Northern armies rather than traveling to the Northern border.
The Communication Network: Slaves maintained a communication network between plantations, allowing them to track the proximity of Northern forces and take the risk of escaping when the army was close enough.
Lincoln’s Strategic Quandary and the Military Tactic
The Dilemma of Runaways: Lincoln faced a difficult choice regarding runaway slaves reaching Union lines:
Accepting the slaves: This would alienate slave owners in the border states, likely causing them to secede and resulting in a lost war.
Rejecting/Returning the slaves: This would return the South's workforce, allowing them to continue picking cotton. The South sold this cotton to Europe (e.g., Great Britain) to buy weapons to kill Northern soldiers.
Development of the Solution: After initially doing nothing, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a specific military tactic.
The Proclamation as a Military Strategy:
Siphoning Labor: It encouraged slaves to run away or refuse to work, devastating the Southern economy and its ability to wage war.
Shifting Morale: It changed the moral character of the war. Northern soldiers became motivated by the cause of freedom and liberation, while Southerners were left fighting to preserve slavery.
Preventing Foreign Alliance: The South was seeking an alliance with Great Britain, which would have likely won them the war. Because Britain was morally opposed to slavery and had abolished it in its own colonies decades earlier, Lincoln's move to make the war about slavery effectively blocked Britain from supporting the South.
Selective Application: The Proclamation only applied to the Confederate states. The border states were specifically excluded to ensure their continued loyalty to the Union.
Black Participation in the Union Army
After issuing the Proclamation, Lincoln authorized the inclusion of Black soldiers in the Union Army.
Participation Numbers: By the end of the Civil War, approximately Black soldiers had fought for the North.
This provided a clear military advantage but also introduced a new set of social and legal issues for the upcoming Reconstruction era.