Emancipation Flashcards
(30 cards)
When was the Emancipation Proclamation declared?
1st January 1863
What did the Emancipation Proclamation state?
Declared that all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory would be free
When was the Second Confiscation Act passed?
July 17th 1862
What did the Second Confiscation Act state?
It declared slaves on Confederate property ‘forever free’ and allowed Union forces to seize rebel property, including slaves.
How did the Emancipation Proclamation change Union war aims?
It gave the war a moral purpose towards ending slavery, not just Union preservation.
What other act undermines the Emancipation Proclamation’s importance?
The Second Confiscation Act, it did not free slaves who had not previously been entitled.
What was the role of the Union Army in emancipation?
Protected runaways and offered a pathway to freedom
What does James MacPherson argue is the long-term importance of the Union Army?
The Emancipation Proclamation was reliant on the victory of the Union Army for it to be enforced
What limits the importance of the Union Army?
Freeing slaves during the war is not the same as the legal abolition of slavery as an institution.
Regarding Lincoln, what theory does Ira Berlin outline?
‘Top down theory’ or ‘great white men’
How does Ira Berlin undermine Lincoln’s importance?
Questions ‘would any other Republican leader have done the same?’ (political necessity not moral conviction)
What is Ira Berlin’s closing argument on Lincoln?
“abolition can’t be seen as the work of a single individual”
Why can Lincoln be deemed important as an individual?
Abolition hinged on Lincoln’s re-election in 1864
How does Benjamin Butler’s letter demonstrate the importance of the Union Army?
Highlights escaped slaves who were fleeing to freedom at Fort Monroe
What is the main argument regarding the role of slave agency?
Enslaved people acted at every possible opportunity to influence their freedom (consistent and sustained)
How does Ira Berlin articulate slave agency?
“prime movers” who were “gnawing at the Confederacy from within
Where did eight runaways present themselves to Union forces in 1861?
Fort Pickens (Florida)
How does Benjamin Butler’s letter demonstrate slave agency?
It shows that slaves would be protected by the Union Army if they fled to its ranks (seen as contraband)
How does slave agency fit in to the ‘event vs process’ debate on emancipation?
Enslaved people used their own agency to turn events into progress towards emancipation
Provide a quotation from the Emancipation Proclamation.
“all persons held as slaves … shall be then , thenceforward, and forever free”
What did James MacPherson say about the Emancipation Proclamation?
It gave emancipation ‘direction and purpose’
How does the Benjamin Butler letter demonstrate that the Union Army would protect runaway slaves?
They were now seen as ‘contraband of war’ not to be returned to Confederacy, set precedent for many more to flee
Who was Benjamin Butler?
A general in the Union Army
Why did some enslaved people decide to stay with the Confederacy?
They believed they would be rewarded for their loyalty
