Black History Month

In honor of Black History Month, I thought it appropriate to talk about the part African-Americans played during the Civil War. Everyone knows that President Lincoln signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. What they likely don't know is that he had no intention to free slaves in northern states, or states that he had jurisdiction in. In fact, in his home state of Illinois, freed slaves were disallowed, and Lincoln did nothing to reverse the fact.

During the War Between the States, the Union army enlisted black soldiers. However, most of those poor guys were forced to hard labor, and didn't engage in battles. By the war's end, African Americans constituted less that one percent of the U.S. population, yet made up 10 percent of the Union army. Altogether, 180,000 black men enlisted, which was more than 85 percent of those eligible.

On the Confederate side, General Patrick Cleburne advocated enlisting slaves to fight for the cause in return for their freedom. But after he was killed in 1864, the idea fizzled until it was again raised in November 1864 by President Jefferson Davis. The Confederate Congress authorized enlisting 300,000 black soldiers in March 1865, but the war ended the following month. Speculation arises that if the war had ended sooner, Lincoln probably would not have signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law. The Confederacy missed the opportunity to tap into their largest source of manpower, and were thus so outnumbered that they were doomed to fail.

Black America (And How It Almost Never Was)

We all know that the Civil War evolved into a war to end slavery. But that isn't how it began. Although he was an abolitionist at heart, President Lincoln was against freeing the slaves. His main intention was to preserve the Union, period. He thought it would be best for the nation if slavery was allowed to exist in slave states, and free states remained free. This had to do with westward expansion, as the South wanted to keep slavery in newly established states for free labor purposes.

Lincoln originally opposed emancipation, and refused to move on the slavery issue. "I would do it if I were not afraid that half the officers would fling down their arms and three more States would rise," he said. "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; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."

The President backed a plan that called for paying slave owners $400 for each slave that was freed. He also favored sending the freedmen to separate colonies in Africa and South America. In essence, he wanted to do to them what was done to the American Indians. Because Frederick Douglas spoke so adamantly against it, Lincoln was forced to back down on that issue.

Freeing the slaves was essentially an act to undermine the Confederate economy, and although Lincoln personally felt slavery was wrong, he avoided emancipation until the Union had a decisive victory, which didn't happen until the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) in 1862. That fall, he made his Emancipation Proclamation public, and on January 1, 1863, it was put into effect. That is, only in the southern states, where Lincoln really had no influence. In fact, the proclamation didn't apply to slaves in northern states, and in Illinois, Lincoln's home state, freed blacks weren't allowed into the state at all.