Emancipation and the Impact of War

1. Social Revolution

   1. Emancipation

      1. Many northerners were opposed - many feared an influx of migrants that would take their jobs

      2. Race riots broke out in several northern cities

      3. Radical Republicans, however, wanted emancipation as a war goal

      4. Lincoln decided to move carefully, and to frame emancipation as a military necessity

   2. Emancipation legislation

      1. First Confiscation Act - Aug 1861 - authorized seizure of property, including slaves, used to support rebellion

      2. April, 1862 - Slavery abolished in Washington, DC

      3. June, 1862 - Slavery abolished in the Federal territories

      4. Second Confiscation Act, July 1862 - Declares captured slaves forever free

      5. First Emancipation Proclamation, Sep. 1862 - gave South 100 days to surrender and keep slaves

         1. Lincoln did not expect a surrender

         2. But saw this as a way to prepare political opinion in the North for emancipation

      6. Second Emancipation Proclamation - Jan. 1, 1863

         1. freed all slaves in rebel territory

         2. made the Union cause more popular overseas

         3. made it easier to recruit large numbers of Black soldiers for the Union Army

      7. Thirteenth Amendment - Jan 31, 1865 - freed all slaves

      8. Continues the attack on heredity power begun during the Revolution

      9. After nearly 80 years, Federal government out of business of protecting slavery

   3. Impact of War on slavery

      1. Even without the Emancipation Proclamations, slavery was clearly disintegrating

      2. With most slave owning men at war, ability to discipline slaves was limited

      3. War depravation created a greater sense of co-dependency and undermined the power of slave owners

      4. Due to manpower shortage, Confederacy to put slaves in the Army late in the war, though none ever saw combat

      5. War also opened the door for escape - as much as 20% of the slave population fled

   4. Women

      1. United States Sanitary Commission - 1861

         1. Run and staffed largely by women

         2. Supplied troops with food, medicine, etc.

         3. Shattered idea of separate spheres - put many women near front lines

      2. Manpower void - women filled in as 2 1/2 million men went to war

      3. Leads to creation of National Women's Suffrage Association (1869)

2. Politics

   1. State sovereignty destroyed

   2. 14th Amendment places broad restrictions on state power for first time 

   3. 15th Amendment meant to ensure votes to ex-slaves

   4. Destruction of planter power

      1. Gone for four years

      2. 14th Amendment permanently disenfranchises high officials of Confederacy

   5. Growth of Federal power

      1. For war revenue, creates first income tax, imposes luxury and estate tax

      2. Markets U.S. Treasury bonds

      3. Creates first national currency

      4. Large scale drafts (1863 in Union, 1862 in South)

   6. Growth of Executive power

      1. Lincoln very much commander in chief

      2. Declares territory under martial law

      3. Suspends writ of habeas corpus - holds 15,000 without trial

         1. A crackdown on Union sympathizers in Maryland led the Chief Justice Taney to challenge Lincoln

         2. In Ex parte Merryman (1861), court rules only Congress could suspend habeas corpus - Lincoln ignored the Court.

3. Economic Revolution

   1. Northern victory means South can no longer block pro-industry policies

   2. Protected market - high tariffs continue through 1890s

   3. North will have more access to Western markets than South

   4. Cheap labor - Federal Immigration Act of 1864 continues policy of free immigration

   5. Reliable money supply

      1. National paper money for first time

      2. New federal bank chartered

   6. Reliable transportation

      1. Union promotes railroad building - transcontinental

      2. Will be key to opening up Asian markets

   7. Tax and tariff policy will burden poor the most

   8. Bond policy will help wealthy

   9. Republican alliance with industry cemented