Chapter 14: A Birth of Freedom: A Civil War (1861-1865)

14.1 Alexander H. Stephens, The Cornerstone of the Confederacy (1861)

Stephens on the Blacks as Slaves

• Alexander H. Stephens believes that the blacks are %%innately suited for the condition of slaves%%
• He offers several arguments to support his claim
  • Positive Good: Slavery is not only legal and constitutional, but it is also a good thing
  • It is a system of race control
  • The south’s economy rests on slavery
  • A black person is not equal to a white man
• Stephens felt that the fundamental flaw of the constitution is that it assumed the equality of races

14.2 Marcus M. Spiegel, Letter of a Civil War Soldier (1864)

Spiegel on “the Horrors of Slavery”

• Marcus M. Spiegel - was a union soldier fighting in the Civil War who earned the rank of colonel
• In his letter to his brother-in-law, he makes it clear that he is in favor of the abolition of slavery
• Spiegel began to see how the institution of slavery operated
• His letter demonstrates how those in favor of slavery likely %%had no idea of its true essence%%

Spiegel on his Anti-Slavery Viewpoint

• He was reluctant to oppose states’ rights and make their laws regarding slavery

14.3 Samuel S. Cox Condemns Emancipation (1862)

Cox on the Emancipation of Slaves

• Cox believed that emancipating slaves would %%endanger the liberties of white northerners%%
  • It would lower the wages of the whites and be a burden on Northern Industry

Cox on the Freed Slaves

• Samuel Cox anticipates that formerly enslaved people would be %%permanently segregated from whites%% because of racial prejudice

14.4 Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address (1863)

Lincoln on the Foundation of the Nation

• Lincoln dated the nation's foundation from 1776 (the date of the Declaration of Independence) rather than 1787 when the Constitution was written.
• It was in 1776 that entitled them to a permanent place in the %%pantheon of benefactors of all mankind%%
• Men had labored to establish and secure a political system based on the premise of human equality and %%dedicated to the enjoyment of liberty for all%%

Lincoln on the Civil War

• Abraham Lincoln believed that the Civil War brought America a “new birth of freedom“
• During the war began the nation’s efforts to come to terms with the destruction of slavery and to define the meaning of freedom

14.5 Frederick Douglass on Black Soldiers (1863)

Douglass on the Purpose of Black Service

• Douglass believed that Black service served as an advantage to %%men of color%%
  • They would gain self-respect, self-defense skills, and an undeniable justification for the rights of citizenship

14.6 Letter by the Mother of a Black Soldier (1863)

Mrs. Johnson on Slavery

• Mrs. Johnson wrote a letter addressed to the president where she emphasized that for every captured black soldier enslaved, a %%Confederate prisoner would be put to hard labor for the duration of the war%%
• She believed that slavery was no better than robbery and letting slaveholders live on stolen labor

Mrs. Johnson’s Tone in her Letter

• She used a directive yet mellow tone
• She urged President Lincoln to do what was right by treating black and white soldiers equally

14.7 Abraham Lincoln, Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore (1864)

The Essential Difference between Northern and Southern Definitions of Freedom

• Northern Freedom - Every man is free to do what he wants with himself
• Southern Freedom - it is up to the white man what he wants to do with his slaves
  • They did not want to be controlled by the federal government
• It was Liberty vs. Tyranny

Purpose of Lincoln’s Metaphor

• In his speech, he used the metaphor of the wolf and the sheep and the differences in views of liberty
  • The shepherd took the wolf from the sheep’s throat
  • The sheep was black and this represents how races cannot settle on commonality when it comes to liberties and freedoms
  • Everyone thinks they are entitled to certain things

14.8 Mary Livermore on Women and the War (1883)

Inequality of Men and Women in Status and Achievement

• Mary Livermore argued that women’s lack of education perpetuated the idea that women could not be equal with men

Livermore’s Understanding of Women’s Freedom

• She argued that the ability to pursue education and take on the responsibilities of citizenship was freedom

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