Benjamin Butler applied the concept of “contraband of war” to African Americans who fled slavery and sought refuge with the U.S. Carey, acting as Mallory’s agent, told Butler he was obligated to return the slaves under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Carey appeared under a flag of truce, demanding the return of Mallory’s slaves. Benjamin Butler faced what was perhaps the most surrealistic spectacle of the war, when Confederate Maj. The process of ending slavery began with a small event: the arrival at Fortress Monroe in Virginia of three slaves owned by Confederate Col. Wartime events, however, quickly overtook policy and forced the administration to take a position on slavery and emancipation. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”įocused on preserving the nation at the time of his first inaugural address, Lincoln promised to do nothing to harm slavery: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.
its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.”Īlexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president, made virtually the same point: “Our new government is founded. In his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln recalled, “All knew that” the “peculiar and powerful interest” in slaves “was somehow the cause of the war. Secession and the Civil War were about slavery and race. A school at the Freedmen’s Village in Arlington, Virginia, educated African American children and adults who escaped from owners in Confederate states.
0 kommentar(er)
