Who Freed the Slaves? timeline

Transcription

1 Who Freed the Slaves? timeline November 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16 th president. He is the first Republican candidate to win the presidency. The Republican Party s Platform (statement of beliefs and priorities) argued that states should get to decide whether they have slavery or not, and that territories should not permit slavery. December 1860-May 1861: Eleven southern states secede. They take with them the labor of about four million black slaves. Blacks form the backbone of the southern economy: cotton, rice, sugar, dockwork, etc. March 4, 1861: Lincoln is inaugurated president. The following are excerpts from his inaugural address: Excerpt #1 Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern states that by the accession of a Republican administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming administration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause as cheerfully to one section as to another. Excerpt #2 I understand a proposed amendment to the constitution [see below] has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. 1

2 Proposed 13 th Amendment to the Constitution: No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State. April 1861: Confederate forces open fire on Ft. Sumter, in South Carolina, beginning the Civil War. Lincoln expects a short war to reunify the nation; he calls for 75,000 volunteers for three months. May 23, 1861: Three slaves Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker and James Townsend escape to the Union-controlled Fortress Monroe in Virginia. Their owner, a Confederate colonel, had planned to take them to Carolina for the purpose of aiding the secession forces there. When Colonel Mallory came to the fort to reclaim his slaves, Union General Benjamin Butler refused, claiming them as contraband of war. Since they were going to help the Confederacy, he could legally refuse under the rules of war. Since Virginia did not recognize itself as part of the United States, he claimed that they did not enjoy protection of its fugitive slave laws. Butler employed them to build fortifications. Within days, more slaves escape to Fortress Monroe. One week later, Butler received a telegram from Secretary of War Simon Cameron indicating that Butler s policy is approved. By the end of July, 900 slaves will enter Union lines at Fortress Monroe. May 26, 1861: Union General George B. McClellan promises to put down any attempted slave rebellion with an iron hand. June 1861: Baltimore, Maryland. Northern General Burnside returns two black slaves to their master because they had tried to escape to Union lines. This follows the official U.S. military policy of denial of asylum, that June 3, 1861: Major General Robert Patterson tells his Union troops in Virginia, You must bear in mind you are going for the good of the whole country, and that while it is your duty to punish sedition, you must protect the loyal, and, should occasion offer, at once suppress servile insurrection. July 1861: Congress passes the Crittenden-Johnson resolution, which states that the war was waged to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease. August 30, 1861: Union General Fremont in Missouri declares as free the slaves of all Confederate sympathizers in the state. President Lincoln orders him to modify the order to apply only to slaves involved in supporting the Confederate cause, stating that he should never have dragged the Negro into the war. It is a war for a great national object and the Negro has nothing to do with it. 2

3 October 1861: Major General John Dix of the Union army seizes two counties of Virginia. He orders that slavery is not to be interfered with, that the slaves are not to be given freedom by the northern armies. November 1861: Secretary of War Simon Cameron issues a report recommending emancipating slaves and allowing blacks to serve as soldiers in the US army. Lincoln ordered him to remove this passage from the report, and tried to block publication of Cameron s original. In January, 1862, Cameron would be replaced as Secretary of War. November 26, 1861: Lincoln proposes a plan for the gradual emancipation of Delaware s 1,800 slaves. The bill would require slaves to be freed over a period of time (between five and thirty-one years) and the federal government would pay the state of Delaware approximately $400 per freed slave. Lincoln envisioned that emancipated slaves would be encouraged to colonize outside the country, particularly Latin America or Africa and most of 1862: Free blacks in the North are not allowed to volunteer to fight with the Union army. The abolitionist Frederick Douglass criticizes this policy: [T]his is no time to fight with one hand when both are needed;...this is no time to fight only with your white hand, and allow your black hand to remain tied. By the beginning of 1862: Runaway slaves by the thousands are escaping from their masters and finding their way to the invading northern armies. Some generals decide to return the slaves, others decide to put them to work for the Union cause. 1862: The North is having great trouble winning the war. If France and England support the South, the North may be defeated. Lincoln finds it increasingly hard to get new recruits to fight. April 16, 1862: Congress passes, and President Lincoln signs, a bill abolishing slavery in Washington, D.C. The law frees the 3,100 slaves in Washington, D.C., compensates their owners $300 for each freed slave, and provides $100 for each freed slave who chooses to emigrate to another country. June 1862: Northern General Hunter, with only 10,000 men, must hold the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. He pleads with Washington for more troops. The War Department replies: You must get along as best you can. Not a man from the North can be spared. Against orders, Hunter begins using runaway slaves as soldiers. He writes: They are now eager beyond all things to take the field and be led into action. They are displaying great natural capacities in acquiring the duties of the soldier. July 4, 1862: Colonel Pryor of the North to residents in Virginia: I desire to assure you that the relation of master and servant as recognized in your state shall be respected. Your authority over that species of property shall not in the least be interfered with. To this end, I assure you that those under my command have orders to take up and hold any Negroes found running about the camp without passes from their masters. 3

4 August 22, 1862: Lincoln realizes that whatever he does, the slaves are freeing themselves simply by running into the northern armies by the thousands. However, he still maintains that, My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to 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 that, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union. He worries that if he freed the slaves, the 20,000 Kentuckians fighting for the North would go over to the South, thus harming the cause of the Union. In addition to Kentucky, the slave states of Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware also did not secede. September 22, 1862: Lincoln announces the Emancipation Proclamation, which will take effect January 1, By the President of the United States: A PROCLAMATION. Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States. Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-In-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day 4

5 of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebone, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all case when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh. By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. 5

6 January 1, 1863: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect. Lincoln changes course; he allows active recruitment of free blacks into the Union army. In the South, slave resistance continues to grow. Slaves sabotage plantations, stop work, flee to Union lines, and volunteer to fight their former masters. Spring 1863: The Emancipation Proclamation swings English and French public opinion to the side of the Union. July 1863: Lincoln begins a draft to get enough soldiers to continue the war. Only white males no free blacks are to be drafted. Irish workers in New York City stage massive and violent protests. Riots kill between 400 and 1,000 people, mostly African Americans. Property damage is over $1 million. Riots also break out in other northern cities. Workers and poor whites protest the draft and the provision of the law that allows wealthy people to hire substitutes or to buy their way out for $300. Many who cannot afford a substitute are concerned that this is a rich man s war and a poor man s fight. July 1863: The Massachusetts 54th Infantry, a black regiment under the command of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, leads the attack on the Confederate Fort Wagner in Charleston, S.C. They fight courageously. Over half the regiment dies in battle. June 27, 1864: An officer under General Ulysses S. Grant, commenting on the performance of the 20,000 black soldiers under his command in Virginia says, The problem [of finding troops to fight] is solved. The Negro is a man, a soldier, a hero. August 19, 1864: Lincoln, fairly convinced that he would lose his reelection campaign in November, calls Frederick Douglass to the White House. Douglass recounted the event twenty years later in his autobiography: President Lincoln did me the honor to invite me to the Executive Mansion for a conference on the situation... The main subject on which he wished to confer with me was as to the means most desirable to be employed outside the army to induce the slaves in the rebel states to come within the federal lines. The increasing opposition to the war, in the North because it was being made an abolition war, alarmed Mr. Lincoln, and made him apprehensive that a peace might be forced upon him which would leave still in slavery all who had not come within our lines. What he wanted was to make his proclamation as effective as possible in the event of such a peace. He said, in a regretful tone, `The slaves are not coming so rapidly and so numerously to us as I had hoped.' I replied that the slaveholders knew how to keep such things from their slaves, and probably very few knew of his proclamation. `Well,' he said, `I want you to set about devising some means of making them acquainted with it, and for bringing them into our lines.' He spoke with great earnestness and much solicitude... He said he was being accused of protracting the 6

7 war beyond its legitimate object and of failing to make peace when he might have done so to advantage. He was afraid of what might come of all these complaints, but was persuaded that no solid and lasting peace could come short of absolute submission on the part of the rebels He saw the danger of premature peace, and, like a thoughtful and sagacious man as he was, wished to provide means of rendering such consummation as harmless as possible. I was the more impressed by this benevolent consideration because he before said that his object was to save the Union, and to do so with or without slavery. What he said on this day showed a deeper moral conviction against slavery than I had ever seen before in anything spoken or written by him. I listened with the deepest interest and profoundest satisfaction, and, at his suggestion, agreed to undertake the organizing of a band of scouts, composed of colored men, whose business should be... to go into the rebel states, beyond the lines of our armies, and carry the news of emancipation, and urge the slaves to come within our boundaries... ``I refer to this conversation because I think that, on Mr. Lincoln's part, it is evidence conclusive that the proclamation, so far at least as he was concerned, was not effected merely as a `necessity.' March 17, 1865: In an act of desperation, Confederate President Jefferson Davis calls for forming a black army to fight for the South. The Confederate Congress approves drafting 300,000 black slaves for combat, and implies that those who volunteer will gain their freedom. The war will end before any of these men will be formed into regiments. April 9, 1865: General Robert E. Lee surrenders, leading to various Confederate surrenders over the next two months, ending the Civil War. 7