A few years ago, my daughter came home from school and said that they’d been learning about the American Civil War. The Civil War, she said, had been fought to free the slaves. I explained that while this is a popular myth and Politically Correct, in fact just the opposite is true — the Civil War was not fought to free the slaves, the slaves were freed to fight the war. That is, the slaves were freed as an act of war.
It is commonplace for schools to teach that the American civil war was fought over the issue of slavery. It was not. It was fought over the issue of secession. Both the Union and the Confederacy made it clear at the outset of the war that preserving the union was the issue. Abraham Lincoln was not about to let the union come apart while he was in office. As a result, we fought the bloodiest war in U.S. history.
Holding the union together was Lincoln’s foremost concern. Concerns about slavery were secondary. In fact, Lincoln was willing to protect slavery where it existed. He was in favor of enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, though he rejected the Crittenden Compromise, a proposed constitutional amendment which would have divided the whole continent into slave and free zones along 36 deg 30′ north latitude, because this would have permitted the extension of slavery to additional territories.
By the time Lincoln took office as the president of the United States, seven states had already seceded from the union. They would be joined by four more. Jefferson Davis, the provisional president of the Confederacy, set about assuming control of federal property, especially military installations such as Fort Pickens in Pensacola harbor, and Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. Fort Sumter was especially important. The Confederacy could not truly claim to be free of the Union while Charleston harbor, a key international port, was still under Union control. Fort Sumter thus became an important symbol of independence. Given too that South Carolina had been the first state to secede (on December 20, 1860) Lincoln was determined that Sumter would not fall.
Confederate authorities sought unsuccessfully to negotiate a peaceful evacuation of the Union garrison at Fort Sumter throughout March of 1861. Negotiations having failed, on April 12 Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter forcing its surrender the following day. This act is universally acknowledged as the start of the American Civil War. The taking of Fort Sumter had everything to do with secession and nothing to do with slavery.
Now that we know what the Civil War was about, let’s look at how the slaves were freed and particularly at the Proclamation of Emancipation issued by Lincoln and see what it was about. There were actually two Proclamations. The first, the Preliminary Proclamation (September 22, 1862), was simply a warning. It stated that 100 days hence, slaves would “be then, thenceforward and forever free” but only in those states that were still in rebellion against the Union as of January 1, 1863. Lincoln was threatening to free enemy slaves, not the Union’s slaves.
One hundred days later on January 1, 1863, as specified in the Preliminary Proclamation, the Proclamation of Emancipation was issued. The slave states that were loyal to the Union were exempted (or, as the Proclamation says, “left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.”). These included Tennessee (already under Union control) and portions of Louisiana, Virginia and West Virginia The Proclamation goes on to list the states and parts of states that were in rebellion and thus affected by the proclamation. “…to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, …” Slavery was still in effect in those slave states and portions of states loyal to, or under the control of, the Union. This hardly sounds like the principled act of someone opposed to slavery. So why did Lincoln issue the proclamation?
Lincoln made it clear that the slaves were being freed out of military necessity; The purpose was to deny to the Confederacy a portion of its productive peoples and thus hasten the end of the war. To quote Lincoln in the Proclamation of Emancipation: “as Commander-in-Chief … in time of actual armed rebellion… as a fit and necessary war measure for repressing said rebellion…” The proclamation, after proclaiming Confererate slaves free, then goes on to encourage those just freed to abstain from all violence and further invited them to join Union forces.
In other words, slaves were freed as a means (“war measure“) of fighting the war. The Civil War was not fought to free the slaves. And the Emancipation Proclamation did not outlaw slavery. It declared that certain, selected slaves, assets of the Confederacy, were free. Few, if any slaves were actually freed by the Proclamation since areas under Confederate control ignored the Proclamation.
So, Lincoln did not free the slaves over which he could exercise control, the Union slaves, but he did “free” slaves over which he had no control. Effectively, he freed no one.
The institution of slavery was finally ended with adoption of the 13th Amendment nearly three years later in December of 1865. Lincoln did not live to see it as he was assasinated in April of that year.
Lincoln is considered by some to have been a tyrant for his abuse of citizens’ civil liberties. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus in some areas as early as April 27, 1861, and throughout the nation on September 24, 1862. The Lincoln administration made over 13,000 arbitrary arrests.
Oh, and let’s not forget that Lincoln instituted military conscription, the first ever military draft in U.S. history. That’s involuntary servitude — slavery for white people.
Tyrant or not, Lincoln was no Great Emancipator.
Here’s the Emancipation Proclamation in its entirety:
By the President of the United States of America:
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States.
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-In-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for supressing said rebellion [emphasis added], do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Palquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebone, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Morthhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all case when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.