Confederate Emancipation : Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War (Google eBook)

Bruce Levine James G. Randall Professor of History University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Oxford University Press, Nov 1, 2005 - Social Science - 272 pages

In early 1864, as the Confederate Army of Tennessee licked its wounds after being routed at the Battle of Chattanooga, Major-General Patrick Cleburne (the "Stonewall of the West") proposed that "the most courageous of our slaves" be trained as soldiers and that "every slave in the South who shall remain true to the Confederacy in this war" be freed. In Confederate Emancipation, Bruce Levine looks closely at such Confederate plans to arm and free slaves. He shows that within a year of Cleburne's proposal, which was initially rejected out of hand, Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, and Robert E. Lee had all reached the same conclusions. At that point, the idea was debated widely in newspapers and drawing rooms across the South, as more and more slaves fled to Union lines and fought in the ranks of the Union army. Eventually, the soldiers of Lee's army voted on the proposal, and the Confederate government actually enacted a version of it in March. The Army issued the necessary orders just two weeks before Appomattox, too late to affect the course of the war. Throughout the book, Levine captures the voices of blacks and whites, wealthy planters and poor farmers, soldiers and officers, and newspaper editors and politicians from all across the South. In the process, he sheds light on such hot-button topics as what the Confederacy was fighting for, whether black southerners were willing to fight in large numbers in defense of the South, and what this episode foretold about life and politics in the post-war South. Confederate Emancipation offers an engaging and illuminating account of a fascinating and politically charged idea, setting it firmly and vividly in the context of the Civil War and the part played in it by the issue of slavery and the actions of the slaves themselves.

What people are saying

User Review -

The book is riddled with a curious omission -- the desperate plans to enlist blacks was for one reason -- massive desertions by white soldiers. Jeff Davis himself spoke of it bluntly in Sept of 1864, admitting 2/3 of his soldiers had deserted or gone awol. In fact, he was effectively on a speaking tour to shame their families to send them back. If just half of the deserters returned, Davis promised, we can not lose. But they did not return, in fact, desertions grew more extreme, until literally there were often just imaginary forces, on paper only.
It was THEN that Southern leaders grew so desperate as to enlist blacks -- AS SLAVES. Not as free men. In fact, the act as passed says that -- the slaves "enlisted" were still slaves. It's true, Lee wanted an inducement of their freedom, but not because he was a nice guy, but because he wanted eager troops.
By the way, the black himself did not enlist -- his OWNER sent him, his OWNER was paid. IF you think they paid the slave anything, you don't know how it worked. Owners were to be notified of how many slaves they had to send. It wasn't like they had white men going around asking slaves ANYTHING. 

Review: Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves During the Civil War

User Review  - Mark Cheathem - Goodreads

Excellent look at why the Confederacy could not and would not embrace the emancipation of slaves until it was absolutely necessary; by then, of course, it was too late. Even the emancipation plan that ...

Contents

• The Puzzle of Confederate Emancipation: 1
• The Heresy and Its Origins 18611864: 16
• The Critics Indictment: 40
• Slaves and the Confederate War Effort: 60
• The LongTerm Plan: 89
• Enacting and Implementing New Policy 18641865: 110
• Could It Have Worked?: 129
• Confederate Emancipation in War and Peace: 148
• Acknowledgments: 165
• Notes: 169
• Sources Cited: 223
• Index: 243

Bibliographic information

• Title: Confederate Emancipation : Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War
• Author: Bruce Levine James G. Randall Professor of History University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0198033672, 9780198033677
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies