Emancipation and the End of Slavery

by Sipress, Joel M.; Sipress, Joel M.; Voelker, David J.

• ISBN13: 9780190057077
• ISBN10: 0190057076
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-07-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Embracing an argument-based model for teaching history, the Debating American History series encourages students to participate in a contested, evidence-based discourse about the human past. Each book poses a question that historians debate--How democratic was the U.S. Constitution? or Why did civil war erupt in the United States in 1861?--and provides abundant primary sources so that students can make their own efforts at interpreting the evidence. They can then use that analysis to construct answers to the big question that frames the debate and argue in support of their position.

Emancipation and the End of Slavery poses this big question: How and why did emancipation become a goal of the Union war effort?

Author Biography

Joel M. Sipress received his PhD in US History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where he teaches US and Latin American History. He serves as coeditor of the Debating American History series with David J. Voelker.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Figures
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. The Big Question
II. Timeline
III. Historians' Conversations
Position #1: A Growing Tide of Freedom: The African American Role in Emancipation
Position #2: The Cautious Abolitionist: Abraham Lincoln and the End of Slavery
Position #3: "Decisive and Extreme Measures Must Be Adopted": Emancipation and Total War
IV. Debating the Question
A. Lincoln and Slavery
Dan Stone and Abraham Lincoln, "Protest in Illinois Legislature on Slavery" (1837)
Abraham Lincoln to Mary Speed (1841)
Abraham Lincoln, "Speech at Peoria, Illinois" (1854)
Abraham Lincoln to Joshua F. Speed (1855)
Abraham Lincoln, "Fragment Against Slavery" (1858)
B. Slavery and the Secession Crisis
Abraham Lincoln to William Kellogg (1860)
Abraham Lincoln to Alexander Stephens (1860)
Abraham Lincoln to James T. Hale (1861)
Abraham Lincoln to William H. Seward (1861)
Abraham Lincoln, "First Inaugural Address" (1861)
Joint Congressional Resolution on War Aims (1861)
C. The "Contraband" Issue
Correspondence Between Benjamin Butler, Winfield Scott, and Simon Cameron (1861)
Correspondence Between Benjamin Butler and Simon Cameron (1861)
First Confiscation Act (1861)
Major George E. Waring to General Henry W. Halleck (1861)
Testimony of Samuel Elliot (1873)
Susie King Taylor, Excerpt from Reminiscences of My Life in Camp (1902)
John Boston to Elizabeth Boston (1862)
Exchange Between General Ormsby M. Mitchel and Edwin M. Stanton (1862)
An Act to Make an Additional Article of War (1862)
D. Frémont's Proclamation
Frémont's Proclamation and Lincoln's Response (1861)
Lincoln to Orville H. Browning (1861)
Frederick Douglass, "General Frémont's Proclamation to the Rebels of Missouri" (1861)
E. Gradual Emancipation
Abraham Lincoln, "Annual Message to Congress" (1861)
Abraham Lincoln, "Message to Congress" (1862)
J.W. Crisfield, "Memorandum of an Interview Between the President and Some Border Slave-State Representatives" (1862)
F. The Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln, "Proclamation Revoking General Hunter's Order of Military Emancipation" (1862)
Gideon Welles, Excerpt from "The History of Emancipation" (1872)
Second Confiscation Act (1862)
Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley (1862)
Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and Final Emancipation Proclamation (1862-1863)
Frederick Douglass, "Men of Color, to Arms!" (1863)
Abraham Lincoln to Salmon P. Chase (1863)
Abraham Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges (1864)
F. B. Carpenter, Excerpt from Six Months in the White House (1866)
Abraham Lincoln to Charles D. Robinson (1864)
G. African American Spirituals
"We'll Soon Be Free
"Many Thousand Go"
"Go Down Moses"/"Father Abraham"
V. Additional Resources
Index