Slavery and the War

SLAVERY AND THE WAR

The institution of slavery was changed in two ways by the war. In the first place there was a degree of de facto emancipation in that wherever Federal armies held Southern ground, slaves would leave their masters. These "contrabands"Ð'--first named as such by Benjamin ButlerÐ'--had a shadowy legal status and this was partly a function of political considerations, Lincoln not wishing to get too far out ahead of public opinion with respect to making the war unpopular by turning it into a war against slavery and not wishing to alienate the border states as well.

When General Fremont officially emancipated the slaves of Missouri, Lincoln made him rescind the order. However, it became a fact of life that many black people, having left their masters, were never forced to return and some army units disobeyed orders by not returning "contrabands" to their masters when told to do so (McPherson 354-7).

The Emancipation Proclamation spelled the doom of chattel slavery in the United States even though it did not apply to slaves in states loyal to the Union. It did, however, extend de jure free status to all those "contrabands" who had run away from masters in Confederate states. Of course it did nothing for those black people who were toiling on ground under the control of the Confederate government. It was a joke of the times that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in states Lincoln did not control and kept them slaves in the states he did control.

But the Emancipation Proclamation was as far as Lincoln could go. There was widespread resentment in the Federal army concerning it (Williams 240) and a more radical step might have resulted in a dangerous degree of disaffection. And, as mentioned above, Lincoln could not afford to lose the support of the slave holding states still in the Union.

Moreover, though not officially the end of slavery in the United States, the Emancipation Proclamation made it inevitable that that would come if the Federal side one the war. Neither economic or political realities would have permitted slavery's continuance in a few states after it had been eliminated in the Confederate states. Lincoln had argued before the war that slavery should be put in the ultimate course of extinction and that is precisely what the Proclamation did.

Finally, blacks fought with distinction on the Union