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Slavery, Civil War, and the“New Birth of Freedom”:Evolving Arguments forEmancipationNewberry Digital Collections for the ClassroomProfessional Development Programs for TeachersThe Newberry Library, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610(312) 255-3569 | www.newberry.org/teacherprogramsThe Newberry Digital Collections for the Classroom project is generously funded by The Grainger Foundation.

Slavery, Civil War, and the“New Birth of Freedom”:Evolving Arguments for EmancipationNewberry Digital Collections for Classroom UseIntroductionTo twenty-first-century Americans, the case against slavery may appear self-evident. Most of us have nodoubt about the profound injustice of a system in which some people are the property of other people.However, nineteenth-century opponents of slavery faced a quite different social consensus on the issue. Theyhad to make the case for abolishing an institution that dominated the economic and social structure of theSouthern states. They also had to address widespread anxiety about how the nation would integrate freedslaves into its social, political, and economic fabric. The documents that follow bring together arguments foremancipation written before, during, and after the Civil War. The collection allows students to trace theevolution of abolitionist arguments as well as to examine conflicts among writers over what emancipationwould entail.What arguments did writers make before the Civil War for the abolition of slavery? How did theyframe their appeals in moral, social, political, and economic terms?How did the war’s purpose shift from “saving the union” to destroying slavery?What would freedom mean for former slaves, for Southern society, and for the nation as a whole,according to various writers both before and after the war?Document 1William Lloyd Garrison. “Immediate Emancipation.” The American Anti-Slavery Almanac. Vol. 1, no. 1. 1836. p. 29.Newberry Call No. H 5836 .028During the nineteenth century, almanacs were very popular publications, widely read and used by literateAmericans. Each year, the American Anti-Slavery Society distributed an almanac containing poems, drawings,essays, and other abolitionist tracts. The intent of the almanac was to instruct readers in the horrors of slaveryand to persuade them to join the abolitionist cause. William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent abolitionist andthe founder and publisher of the Liberator, an antislavery newspaper published between 1831 and 1865.Questions to Consider1. Garrison begins his description of “immediate emancipation” by telling his audience what the termdoes not mean. Why would he use this rhetorical device? What objections to emancipation doesGarrison anticipate from his readers?2. According to Garrison, what will be the results of emancipation? Would freed slaves achieve fullequality with whites?

Document 2“A Mother’s Anguish.” The American Anti-Slavery Almanac. Vol. 1, no. 2. 1837.pp. 43–44.Newberry Call No. H 5836 .028Antislavery literature often portrayed the deliberate destruction of black families under the institution ofslavery. Slaves’ marriages were not legally recognized and people could be sold away from their spouses,children, and siblings at their owners’ wills. The following piece addresses the trauma that slavery inflicted onfamilies through the story of a slave who murders her children to prevent their being sold. A similar storyserved as the basis for Toni Morrison’s contemporary novel, Beloved.Questions to Consider1. Describe the portrayal of the slave mother in both the story and the image.2. How does the story represent the choices faced by the mother and the decision that she makes?3. While he acknowledges the horror of infanticide, Mr. S attempts to justify to his niece—and thereaders—the actions taken by the slave mother. What arguments does he make?4. How does this story support the arguments for emancipation voiced by groups such as the Anti-Slavery Society?Document 3“Oh Help the Contraband.” The Harp of Freedom: A New and SuperiorCollection of Anti-Slavery, Patriotic and “Contraband” Songs, Solos, Duets andChoruses. Part I. 1862.Newberry Call No. minus VM 1664 .A35 W32hIn 1861 the Confiscation Act declared that property used by the Confederate military, including slaves, couldbe confiscated by Union forces. This act was followed in March of 1862 with the Act Prohibiting the Returnof Slaves. Together, these acts not only created a new legal category for certain escaped slaves, but alsoprovided a common term, contraband, for referring to these slaves.Questions to Consider1. Who is the intended audience for this song?2. According to the lyrics, what do the contraband desire from the “people in the North”?3. What assurances do “the contraband” make to the people in the North in exchange for theirfreedom?

Document 4Abraham Lincoln. Letter to James Conkling. August 26, 1863. The Letters ofPresident Lincoln. 1863. pp. 20–21.Newberry Call No. E 5 .L6302During the Civil War, Union supporters in President Abraham Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois,asked him to speak at a rally on September 3, 1863. Lincoln could not attend, but wrote this letter to be readat the gathering by his longtime friend, James C. Conkling. This letter was also sent to the New York StateUnion Convention, which was held at the same time. In the letter, Lincoln defends his emancipation policy.At the beginning of that year, Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that “allpersons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be inrebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The proclamation alsoestablished that freed slaves would be allowed to serve in the Union army.Questions to Consider1. What arguments does Lincoln make for his authority to issue the Emancipation Proclamation?2. How will the Emancipation Proclamation contribute to the goal of saving the Union, according toLincoln?3. How does Lincoln present the Emancipation Proclamation as serving a military purpose? Why doyou think he felt compelled to make this argument? Does this rationale for the EmancipationProclamation support or conflict with the document’s moral significance?Document 5Thomas Nast. “General Sherman’s Rear Guard.” Harper’s Weekly.April 2, 1864. p. 212.Newberry Call No. folio A 5 .392Between November and December of 1864, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman conducted whatcame to be known as “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” As his army marched through Georgia, it destroyedcrops, land, and equipment that could aid the Southern cause. Along the way, hundreds of former slavesjoined the “rear guard” of the Union forces. The campaign ended when Sherman’s troops reached Savannah,Georgia, on December 21st.Questions to Consider1. Describe the different ways that African Americans are portrayed in the image.2. What kinds of relationships does the image represent between freed slaves and Union soldiers?3. How might this image have been used to further the arguments in favor of emancipation?

Document 6Abraham Lincoln. Letter to Albert Hodges. April 4, 1864. In Horace Greeley,Greeley on Lincoln. 1893. pp. 69–70.Newberry Call No. E 5 G 8153Abraham Lincoln wrote this letter at the request of Albert Hodges, a Kentucky newspaper editor. In it,Lincoln restates thoughts that he had voiced in conversation with Hodges and two prominent Kentuckypoliticians. The letter illuminates Lincoln’s changing position on the question of emancipation.Questions to Consider1. What differences does Lincoln present between his personal position on slavery and the position thathe takes as the president of the United States? Why does he make this distinction? What does he seeas his primary obligation as president?2. What does Lincoln mean by the metaphor of amputating a limb to save a life? Why do you think hechooses a metaphor of the body?Document 7A.R. Waud. “The Freedmen’s Bureau.” Harper’s Weekly. July 25, 1868. p. 473.Newberry Call No. folio A 5 .392The Freedmen’s Bureau was a U.S. federal agency established at the end of the Civil War to aid freed slavesand refugees in the South. The agency assisted newly freed slaves in obtaining clothing, food, jobs, andhousing. It also established schools for freed slaves. The Freedmen’s Bureau faced significant oppositionfrom white Southerners, especially for establishing its own court system to bypass Southern civil courts,which were presumably biased against African Americans. In 1869 the Freedmen’s Bureau was disbanded.Questions to Consider1. Describe and compare the appearances of the men on the left side and the right side of theillustration. What emotions do their faces and postures express?2. How does the man in the middle, the representative of the Freedmen’s Bureau, appear? What is hedoing? What is the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau, according to this image?

Document 8W.E. Burghardt Du Bois. “Of the Dawn of Freedom.” The Souls of BlackFolk. 1903. p. 38.Newberry Call No. H 5837 .244W.E.B. Du Bois was a prominent black intellectual, writer, and activist who famously declared, “The problemof the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.” He criticized the position of another importantblack leader, Booker T. Washington, who had argued that accommodation of post-Reconstruction racialsegregation would bring incremental progress to the race. Du Bois, in contrast, advocated immediate, fullpolitical and social equality for African Americans. “Of the Dawn of Freedom” provides a history ofReconstruction and, specifically, the Freedmen’s Bureau. Du Bois explains that many whites, particularly inthe South, questioned the necessity as well as the constitutionality of the agency. Their argumentsinadvertently bolstered the case for black enfranchisement: If African American men could vote, they wouldnot need the protection of the Freedmen’s Bureau. They could defend their own interests.Questions to Consider1. According to this passage, what were social conditions like in the South following the Civil War?2. Why did the nation face “a choice between suffrage and slavery”? What would be the effects of “thegranting of the ballot to the black man”?3. What are the ramifications, according to Du Bois, of the dissolution of the Freedman’s Bureau andthe enactment of black male suffrage? Why does he see the black race as “sacrificed in its swaddlingclothes on the altar of national integrity”?

Document 1: William LloydGarrison. “Immediate Emancipation.” The American Anti-Slavery Almanac.Vol. 1, no. 1. 1836. p. 29.Newberry Call No. H 5836 .028

Document 2: “AMother’s Anguish.” The American Anti-Slavery Almanac. Vol. 1, no. 2. 1837. pp. 43–44.Newberry Call No. H 5836 .028

Document 2: “AMother’s Anguish.” The American Anti-Slavery Almanac. Vol. 1, no. 2. 1837. pp. 43–44.Newberry Call No. H 5836 .028

Document 3: “Oh Help theContraband.” The Harp of Freedom: A Newand Superior Collection of Anti-Slavery, Patriotic and “Contraband” Songs, Solos,Duets andChoruses. Part I. 1862.Newberry Call No. minus VM1664 .A35 W32h

Document 4: Abraham Lincoln. Letterto James Conkling. August 26, 1863. The Letters of PresidentLincoln. 1863. pp. 20–21.Newberry Call No. E 5 .L6302

Document 5: Thomas Nast. “General Sherman’s Rear Guard.” Harper’s Weekly. April 2, 1864. p. 212.Newberry Call No. folio A 5 .392

Document 6: Abraham Lincoln. Letterto Albert Hodges. April 4, 1864. In Horace Greeley, Greeley onLincoln. 1893. pp. 69–70.Newberry Call No. E 5 G 8153

Document 7: A. .R. Waud. “ The Freedmen’s Bureau.” Harper’s Weekly. July 25, 1868. p. 473.Newberry Call No. folio A 5 .392

Document 8: W.E. Burghardt Du Bois. “Of the Dawn of Freedom.” The Souls of Black Folk. 1903. p. 38.Newberry Call No. H 5837 .244