Emancipation

On

Emancipation Policy (Garraty, 1994)

Textbook
The cost of war in blood and money was changing the way ordinary people in the North felt about slavery.  Anger at southerners more than sympathy for slaves caused this change…Gradually Lincoln came to the conclusion that the United States should try to free all slaves.  He would have preferred to have the states buy the slaves from their owners and then emancipate or free them.  This idea was known as compensated emancipation. But Lincoln was a clever politician.  He knew that many citizens would oppose paying anything to rebels and slave owners.  Others still objected to the freeing the slaves for the sake of doing away with an evil institution.  Lincoln therefore decided to act under his war powers.  He would free slaves not because slavery was wrong but as a means of weakening the rebel government.  This proclamation stated that after January 1, 1863, "all persons held as slaves with any States...in rebellion against the United States, shall be...forever free."  Notice that Proclamation did not liberate a single slave that the government could control.
John A. Garraty, The Story of America (Austin:  Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1994), 569-570.
Date Event
Danish government plans a ten-year abolition in the Danish West Indies but local slaves demand immediate freedom
Union General Benjamin Butler declares slaves as "contraband of war"
President Lincoln signs the First Confiscation Act authorizing the seizure of slaves aiding the Confederacy
General John C. Fremont declares martial law in Missouri and orders emancipation of slaves in the state
President Lincoln orders General John C. Fremont to modify his emancipation mandate in Missouri
In Hampton, Virginia, Mary Smith Peake teaches her first classes for "contrabands"
U.S. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles authorizes the enlistment of runaway slaves into the naval service
Moncure Conway publishes "The Rejected Stone" arguing for emancipation
In Missouri, Major General John C. Frémont resigns as head of the Western Department of the Army
Mary Smith Peake, teacher of classes for "contrabands," dies of tuberculosis in Hampton, Virginia
President Lincoln suggests to Congress ways gradually to end slavery in the United States
A new Article of War forbids the military to return escaped slaves to their former owners
In Cincinnati, Wendell Phillips is forced from the stage as he attempts agitate for abolition and disunion
Abolitionist lecture in Burlington, New Jersey ends in chaos and a barrage of rotten eggs
The United States Senate passes President Lincoln's suggested resolution to help end slavery gradually
On a party line vote, the U.S. Senate votes to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia
In Rockville, Maryland Unionists meet to denounce the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia
In Washington D.C., the House passes the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia
Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia
Union forces advance on Stafford County, Virginia
Without authority, Union General David Hunter declares all slaves in three states "forever free"
In the Virginia Senate, Senator R. R. Collier opens debate on the centrality of slavery to the South
President Lincoln declares void Union General David Hunter's South Carolina declaration of emancipation
President Lincoln signs the Second Confiscation Act authorizing freedom for confiscated slaves
Moncure Conway becomes co-editor of "The Commonwealth, " an anti-slavery journal
In Washington, the Senate votes to strike down the color bar on railroad cars in the District of Columbia
Frederick Douglass speaks at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn
General John Schofield replaces abolitionist General Samuel Curtis in the Department of the Missouri
The Army creates the Bureau of Colored Troops to oversee the creation of African-American regiments
The 54th Massachusetts leaves Boston for active service in South Carolina
General Hunter takes his leave after an eventful year as head of the Department of the South
Missouri Convention is hammering out a resolution to end slavery and compensate slaveowners
In New Orleans, leading Creole citizen Captain Andre Cailloux is given a hero's funeral
In Baltimore, the first Catholic Church exclusively for the use of African-Americans is dedicated
In Boston, Rebecca Davis Lee graduates as the first female African-American medical doctor
The U.S. Congress funds "separate but equal" schools for black children in the District of Columbia
In Washington D.C., the U.S. Senate votes to repeal all remaining Federal Fugitive Slave Acts
The U.S. Senate votes to ban exclusion from testifying in United States courts on grounds of race
The House of Representatives upholds Senate on banning exclusion from U.S. courts on grounds of race
In Philadelphia, black leaders meet with city transport companies to demand desegregation of their streetcars
In Washington D.C., the House of Representatives passes the Thirteen Amendment outlawing slavery
In Philadelphia, white streetcar riders vote overwhelmingly to keep black citizens from city streetcars
In South Carolina, teenaged domestic slave Amy Spain is hanged for proclaiming herself free
Landing in Galveston, Union General Gordon Granger decrees that slavery in Texas is at an end.
Alabama's African-Americans hold their First Freedmen's Convention at Mobile
After thirty-five years of anti-slavery efforts under William Lloyd Garrison, the Liberator ceases publication
In Boston, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society rejects a proposal to disband since its work is done
In Washington, Frederick Douglass leads a delegation of African-American leaders to the White House
In Indianapolis, angry Indiana Democrats condemn Congress and support President Johnson.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court rules that male Wisconsin African-Americans have the right to vote
A large force of nightriders terrorize African-American homes throughout Marion County, Kentucky.
- The "Indiana Colored Convention" is meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In Massachusetts, Republicans win smashing victories in the fall state elections.
Date Title
Charles Jones Jenkins, "Inaugural Address as governor of Georgia (excerpts)" December 14, 1865, Milledgeville, Georgia
Abraham Lincoln to John A.J. Creswell, March 7, 1865
Newark (OH) Advocate, “The Impending Danger,” July 5, 1861
Gen. John Fremont, Declaration of Martial Law in Missouri, August 30, 1861
Abraham Lincoln to John Frémont, September 2, 1861
Abraham Lincoln to Orville Hickman Browning, September 22, 1861
Brigadier General John W. Phelps, Proclamation to "The Loyal Citizens of the Southwest," December 4, 1861
Flag Officer William W. McKean to Gideon Welles, Concerning Brigadier-General Phelps' Declaration, December 27, 1861
President Abraham Lincoln, Signing statement for the Bill to Abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia
Major-General Mansfield Lovell, General Order 17, May 3, 1862
Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation Revoking General Hunter's May 9, 1862 Order of Military Emancipation, May 19, 1862
Abraham Lincoln to John M. Schofield, Monday, June 22, 1863, Washington, D.C.
Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation---First Draft, Washington, DC, July 22, 1862
Abraham Lincoln, Remarks on Colonization to African-American Leaders, August 14, 1862
Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley, Washington, DC, August 22, 1862
Abraham Lincoln, Reply to Emancipation Memorial Presented by Chicago Christians of All Denominations, September 13, 1862
Abraham Lincoln, Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862
Abraham Lincoln to Hannibal Hamlin, September 28, 1862
Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862
Green Adams to Abraham Lincoln, Wednesday, December 31, 1862, Washington D.C.
Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, Washington, DC, January 1, 1863
John T. Cuddy to John H. Cuddy, January 16, 1863
The Retaliatory Act, Confederate Congress, May 1, 1863
Abraham Lincoln to Nathaniel Prentice Banks, August 5, 1863
Charles Sumner to Abraham Lincoln, August 7, 1863
Stephen Duncan to Mary Duncan, August 25, 1863, Natchez, Mississippi.
Abraham Lincoln to James C. Conkling, August 26, 1863
Abraham Lincoln to Salmon Portland Chase, September 2, 1863
Abraham Lincoln to Andrew Johnson, September 11, 1863
Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 8, 1863
Abraham Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges, April 4, 1864
Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1864
Theodore M. Pomeroy to Elizabeth L.W. Pomeroy, February 1, 1865
Orlando Brown, An Official Fourth of July Address to the Freedmen of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, July 4, 1865
Alabama State Convention, "Debate on ending Slavery," October 20, 1865, Montgomery, Alabama
Andrew Johnson, "Remarks to the First Colored Regiment of the District of Columbia," October 10, 1865, Washington D.C.
Colored People's Convention of South Carolina, Address of the Colored State Convention to the People of the State of South Carolina, November 24, 1865, Charleston, South Carolina
"Resolutions," First Freedmens' Convention, Mobile, Alabama, November 28, 1865
Ulysses S. Grant to Andrew Johnson, December 18, 1865, Washington, DC
Edward McPherson, Description of "An Act to Amend the Criminal Law of South Carolina," December 19, 1865
Transcript, Meeting between President Andrew Johnson and a Delegation of African-Americans, White House, February 7, 1866
Frederick Douglass, et al, to Andrew Johnson, February 7, 1866
Benjamin Brown French to Andrew Johnson, February 8, 1866
John H. Brinton to Andrew Johnson, West Chester, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1866
E.J. Bantz to Andrew Johnson, February 25, 1866
"Colored Suffrage in Wisconsin," Chicago Tribune, March 29, 1866
An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and to furnish the means for their Vindication, April 9, 1866
Address of the Colored Convention of Indiana to the Citizens of Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana,
How to Cite This Page: "Emancipation," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/36416.