Assignment Task:
Purpose:
From the first shots of the Civil War, the institution of slavery began to crumble. Many enslaved people fled to Union lines and sought refuge. White U.S. officers and soldiers responded in complicated ways, but escapes continued. And within a few months of Fort Sumpter, Congress passed the first of a series of laws allowing refugees, deemed "contraband," refuge. It was not until September 22, 1862, with Lincoln's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation that abolitionism became a war aim.
From January 1, 1863, the U.S. military made war on slavery and enslaved people continued to escape to Union lines. In many ways, that fight continued through the mid-1870s - in Congress, in the courts, and state legislatures, but also at churches, on farms, at workplaces, and in schools.
Use these literary:
Chapters from the American Yawp for this unit
The Civil War (Chapter 14)
Reconstruction (Chapter 15)
Primary Sources from the Unit:
General Benjamin F. Butler reacts to self-emancipation, 1861
William Henry Singleton, a formerly enslaved man, recalls fighting for the Union, 1922
Freedmen discuss post-emancipation life with General Sherman, 1865
Jourdon Anderson writes his former enslaver, 1865
Charlotte Forten teaches freed children in South Carolina, 1864
Task:
Writing an essay engaging the following prompt:
Did enslaved people emancipate themselves during the Civil War or were they freed by the Union Army and the policies of the federal government? Or was it some combination of the two? And how did that process of emancipation continue into the Reconstruction Era? Did it remain primarily a story of self-emancipation or did government action continue to be central?