Chapter 16: We Must Free the Slaves or Be Ourselves Subdued
Despite the number of casualties in the Seven Days' War, the Southerners' morale rose again. Northern morale plummeted and Lincoln realized that stopping recruitment was a bad idea. He was afraid that implementing a draft would worry the public, so Seward made a plan to tell the public that they had to "volunteer" and defeat the rebellion once and for all. They began paying those who were in the army as an incentive to join. But in several areas, especially Irish Catholic neighborhoods, they met the draft with resistance. Now, the North would have to destroy their society and build a new one from scratch.
But, if McClellan's Peninsula campaign had worked, the war may have ended and the Union and the South would have been joined again and the South wouldn't have become so destroyed; slavery would have still existed. When Lee defeated McClellan, he only lengthened the war and ensured the destruction of slavery. After Lee's victory, the Union took a turn into a total war. (I don't quite understand why McPherson keeps pointing out what-if situations, but I suppose it enhances the narrative approach style he employs.)
Soon, the abolitionist movement began to show an influence. A radical among them, Wendell Phillips, lectured everywhere. Soon, Republicans were sure that the fate of the nation could not be separated from the fate of slavery. Many began preparing for universal emancipation and antislavery bills poured into Congress. Lincoln called in border-state congressmen to urge compensated emancipation and from then on, he would take on a more radical position.
On the other hand, the "copperhead" faction (part of the northern Democrats) opposed turning the Civil War into a total war, which would eventually destroy the old South instead of restore the entire Union. This term was coined by Republicans, since they felt that opposing the way the war was turning into was going against the Republicans and their way of life.
Key Terms:
Questions:
Despite the number of casualties in the Seven Days' War, the Southerners' morale rose again. Northern morale plummeted and Lincoln realized that stopping recruitment was a bad idea. He was afraid that implementing a draft would worry the public, so Seward made a plan to tell the public that they had to "volunteer" and defeat the rebellion once and for all. They began paying those who were in the army as an incentive to join. But in several areas, especially Irish Catholic neighborhoods, they met the draft with resistance. Now, the North would have to destroy their society and build a new one from scratch.But, if McClellan's Peninsula campaign had worked, the war may have ended and the Union and the South would have been joined again and the South wouldn't have become so destroyed; slavery would have still existed. When Lee defeated McClellan, he only lengthened the war and ensured the destruction of slavery. After Lee's victory, the Union took a turn into a total war. (I don't quite understand why McPherson keeps pointing out what-if situations, but I suppose it enhances the narrative approach style he employs.)
Soon, the abolitionist movement began to show an influence. A radical among them, Wendell Phillips, lectured everywhere. Soon, Republicans were sure that the fate of the nation could not be separated from the fate of slavery. Many began preparing for universal emancipation and antislavery bills poured into Congress. Lincoln called in border-state congressmen to urge compensated emancipation and from then on, he would take on a more radical position.
On the other hand, the "copperhead" faction (part of the northern Democrats) opposed turning the Civil War into a total war, which would eventually destroy the old South instead of restore the entire Union. This term was coined by Republicans, since they felt that opposing the way the war was turning into was going against the Republicans and their way of life. Key Terms:
- copperheads: a term invented by Republicans to liken the antiwar Democrats to the snake; soon it was applied to the entire Democratic Party; in 1863, some Peace Democrats also accepted the label.
- Wendell Phillips: helped found the American Antislavery Society in 1833; he was strongly against slavery and traveled the east coast, lecturing on it. (Fun Fact: He also knew Frederick Douglass and wrote the preface to Douglass's autobiography.)
- Thaddeus Stevens: Republican leader and one of the most powerful members of the United States House of Representatives; party leader in the House from 1861 until his death and wrote much of the financial legislation that paid for the American Civil War; supported abolition and reconstruction (a total war)
- Contrabands: slaves that were not "legally" freed; after the war ended, they used the confusion to seize freedom for themselves and escaped to the North.
- First Confiscation Act: (1861) any property belonging to Confederates used in war could be seized by federal forces; any slaves used by their masters to benefit the war would be freed.
- Second Confiscation Act: (1862) authorized seizure of all Confederate property and stated that slaves that came to Union lines were free forever; a tactic to get blacks to fight for the Union.
- compensated emancipation: slaveowners would be given money in return for setting all their slaves free.
Questions:
- Now, the book states that the Union finally turned to a total war, but it mentioned the exact same thing for a different battle (I think the Battle of Shiloh), so which battle was the actual one in turning the Union to a total war, or was it a collection of events that prompted them?
- I vaguely remember talking about this in class, but I can't quite remember... Were the contrabands also blacks that Union commanders seized and then kept in their camps?
Citations:
- McPherson, James M. "16: We Must Free the Slaves or Be Ourselves Subdued." In Battle Cry of Freedom, 490-510. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
- Accessed March 11, 2015. http://warhistorian.org/blog1/images/peninsula-campaign.gif.
- Accessed March 11, 2015. http://supremecourthistory.org/assets/06_a.jpg.
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