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

by Bruce Levine

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.

Genres: History, Civil War, American History, American Civil War, Nonfiction, War, Historical

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2005

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Debunks every "black confederate" myth. It shows the near impossibility of confederate emancipation and that "emancipation" would only prop up the remains of slavery and the race system.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative, readable and well-researched if somewhat poorly edited history of Confederate emancipation that allows Cleburne and other Confederates to speak for themselves.

In a thorough and well-written narrative Levine describes the context and origins of the Confederate debate, the main figures, and their motives. The most important motive of the proponents of emancipation was simply military necessity, given Confederate manpower shortages and how the idea was resisted by many Confederates, especially the planter class. These men were not enlightened abolitionists of any kind; they were simply willing to go to great lengths to ensure Confederate independence (and keep the majority of slaves in bondage while doing so)

The “emancipation,” of course, was not a proposal to end slavery but a proposal to control it. Although poorly though out, the basic goal was to emancipate enough slaves to compensate the Confederacy’s manpower shortages. If this allowed the Confederacy to somehow win the war, of course, the majority of slaves would still be kept in bondage. While there were some proponents of complete abolition, they were decidedly a minority.

Levine describes how many Confederates were willing to send their sons off to war but were unwilling to do the same for their slaves. Such figures as Robert E. Lee and Judah Benjamin and, of course, Patrick Cleburne were proponents of the idea. When the Confederates did come around to enlisting blacks, the effort was halfhearted at best, and resistance to the measure was always strong. Many slaves also doubted the sincerity of those who were promising freedom. When blacks did enlist, they eagerly surrendered to Union lines rather than fight. Levine also disputes the idea that Davis or even Lee were hostile to slavery in principle: "they certainly did not eagerly await its early demise."

There are only a few problems. Levine’s constant references to the “Cleburne-Davis” proposal do not always emphasize the differences between the two men’s views, and Levine writes that if the Confederates somehow won the blacks who enlisted would receive a “minimal amount of personal liberty,” without ever expanding on what he means. The grammar is quite shoddy in places. And according to Levine the US secretary of war was one Henry M. Stanton and George Thomas defeated Joe Johnston at Franklin and Nashville (huh?)

A balanced, readable and well-organized work.

[Mark Cheathem]

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 was enacted at the end of the war was weak and left white southerners' in control of the future of slaves.

[Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Summer APUSH Review

Note: I didn’t read the whole book, but read enough to get a good feel for the author’s writing style, way of presenting information, credibility, and thoroughness in examining various viewpoints.


What was the real purpose of the Civil War? Honestly, though? Many Southerners seemed to think it was to preserve slavery, but others started to rush for higher, mightier reasons to frame their last attempt at victory, namely the emancipation of the slaves in return for military service, as supportive of, not contradictory to, the purpose they had been fighting the war for all these years.

In the Confederate Emancipation, Bruce Levine examines many parties’ point of view through use of selections from primary documents as to the reason the slaves were emancipated for the war effort, how different social classes viewed the policy, and how this undermined traditional views on racial equality in the United States. He also demonstrates why the emancipate-arm policy failed to win the war for the South.

Was the war truly a result of the division of the United States into two hostile, internally uniform camps? Not exactly, Levine shows. He takes a step further than some other examinations of the war by bringing to light the diverse ideologies of people within the South itself about slavery and the purpose of the war they were fighting for, and how the lack of uniformity in purpose caused the once-powerful South to collapse in battle and principle. This helped the author dig even deeper into the issue of the people’s point of view of the emancipate-and-arm policy the South put into practice (a new policy for me) and why it failed to turn the war’s progress around.

At the beginning of the war, Southerners in general were fighting for their right to maintain slavery, which was the primary reason for the South’s prosperity due to a climate conducive to plantations. However, this type of agriculture needed a big labor force to keep it up; so, slaves were brought in from Africa, and the Americans created elaborate racial justifications to use humans as forced laborers, essentially putting white men on a pedestal and Africans as their inferiors. They even went so far as to argue that there were benefits for the slaves themselves, thinking of the masters as spiritual/moral guides, almost mini-gods that would guide their flock, in a way. However, as the Union started adding previous slaves-turned-refugees to their army, already bigger than that of the South, and made its way further and further into Southern territory with sound military victories, the Southern generals started to worry. Levine demonstrates the deteriorating confidence of the military authorities with references to personal letters and conflicting political presentations, despite their outward display of high spirits and morale, and how that pushed the highest leaders to adopt a new outlook on the previously shunned emancipate-and-arm policy as a way to win the war, and even on the war’s purpose itself as at least saving the South’s liberty (which they claimed “had been” the original cause of the war), even at the expense of their beloved slavery.

However, the common soldiers that were actually fighting the war were opposed to fighting side by side with slaves, which would go against their deeply ingrained racial beliefs. It also contradicted what they believed they had been fighting and dying for all these years, which created even more discontent with the new policy. This led many troops to reject it, resulting in random application of the policy at best, which didn’t allow a significant enough difference to be made to change the tide of the war.

Levine also veers from the discussion of the differences among the Southerners to include the slaves’ perspective on the slave-master relationship, which had long differed from what the slave-owners had believed it to be. His thoroughness in examining all viewpoints helped me gain perspective on the inside forces at work during the war, such as that of the slaves, which isn’t as frequently documented as the published speeches of military and political officials tend to be in my experience. The slaves had long been discreetly keeping their general hatred of slavery to themselves, which led the slave-owners to “confirm” to themselves their previous notion that the slaves were attached to their masters out of the great loyalty and gratitude they supposedly had for them. However, when slaves started escaping north for protection and freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect by Lincoln, the haze the slave-owners had been living in started to dissolve. Levine shows through frequent quotes by the land-owners and slaves how the masters came to realize that the slaves prized freedom, not slavery, and military officials finally understood that the only way they would convince the slaves to join their armies, which were greatly outnumbered by the North’s, was to offer them the same thing the North did, their freedom.

However, Levine goes on to show that their epiphany as to the slaves’ real feelings dawned on the South too late in the war to create a strong enough effect. Levine shows through quotes from previous slaves that they had long realized the difference between their masters and the North through communication “vines,” and they wanted to fight for their general liberty, not the slavery of their families and fellow slaves for their own liberty. The slaves also proved their racial equality to their former masters when they were recruited by the Northern military. They fought as well as, if not better in some cases, as their white peers, and caused even Southern military officers to admit their ability to fight extremely well, something they had denied the possibility of in the past.

Levine thoroughly examines the issue of the emancipation of slaves with frequent reference to primary sources, including quotes from soldiers, generals, land-owners and their wives, and even slaves from the Civil War era. His writing style however, while not as dry as a textbook, is somewhat dense with his numerous/sometimes redundant quotes. I realize he wants to securely back up his claims, but he strays so far away from paraphrasing that the book starts to become a collection of quotes categorized in an outline ordered by topic. This format also lent to the somewhat confusing presentation of the author’s argument in this book. While I learned a lot and was well-convinced of his credibility and fair presentation of most of the views involved, the choice of topic-based, over chronologically ordered, made a mess of things before it cleared them up in the next chapter. I often ended up realizing something was more obvious once I was introduced to another important aspect in a chapter when the situation had been a tangle of different opinions from various newspapers and parties before in the previous chapter. Overall, though, this was an informative and insightful book, even for someone not very familiar with the era, and worth the read for some perspective on the Southern people and their mindset/beliefs during the Civil War era.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read to dispel the common myth perpetuated by southerners, that emancipation was favored by many southerners. By delving into the viewpoints of reluctant politicians and stubborn planters, Levine shows the failure of a necessary southern emancipation (it would have turned the tides of war) against the monetary interests and social stratum of southern society. Levine could be more concise with his verbiage, but the overall message was effective.

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A number of conservatives who defend the Confederacy, and claim that the Civil War wasn't fought over slavery, kept talking about all the "Black Confederate soldiers." When the Confederacy was losing, they were actually desperate enough to consider the idea, but of course it never happened.

Bruce Levine both explodes the lies and also examines the small amount of truth (plans not carried out) that these conservates were trying to construct a bizarre narrative from.

While there are hundreds of books explaining the origins of the Civil War, probably the best is Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson.

Another key book is The Civil War in the United States by Karl Marx, writings by Marx and Engels which among other things describe the big difficulties the secessionists had because of Unionism, especially in areas with poor white farmers. Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877: The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction explains why so many Americans still don't understand what the Civil War was about, although the civil rights/Black power movements which ended Jim Crow certainly awakened many to the facts. For that story, again, there are many books, but despite the King-centric character (I'm more a Malcolm X supporter), I think Taylor Branch's three volume America in the King Years is excellent, including on Malcolm X. You can supplement his books with Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power.

[Jeffery James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read in the dry and academic tone you would expect from a book with the tagline, "Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves During the Civil War." The introduction explains that the book will spend most its space addressing misconceptions about the Confederate plan to free slaves-namely that this plan is somehow "proof" that the South's desire to protect slavery wasn't the root cause of the Civil War. Levine presents a well written, and convincing, thesis that is informative. The book also gives the reader a pretty decent historiography of the "Lost Cause" interpretation of the Civil War and Reconstruction in the introduction and conclusion. The nicest thing I could say about this book is that if you're only going to read one book about Confederate emancipation policy, this should be the one.

[Aaron Urbanski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book discusses numerous struggles: The Confederacy's fight against the Union; African Americans' fight to achieve emancipation from chattel slavery; the Old South's fight with democracy; and the modern war over what to do with the proof that wealthy slave owners had complete control over southern politics. Levine proves these strands of history are so intimately linked that breaking one would require the telling of a different story.

[Phillip Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look at the last ditch attempt by the failing Confederacy to recruit black soldiers and why the attempt failed so pathetically. Highly recommended.

[R.E. Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an able and frank study of the Confederate wartime emancipation debate. As such, it punctures a several popular myths along the way. For example, if most people are aware of the Confederate emancipation debate, they think it was a last desperate gasp at the end, but it wasn't. Far-sighted prominent army officers and politicians were arguing for the freeing and enlistment of blacks from the very beginnings of the war. It's just the the opposition to the measure was fierce, widespread, cut across all social and class lines, and was ultimately impossible to overcome. Many such minor bits of conventional wisdom are debunked, all of it with vast piles of evidence.

The main service the book does is to connect what Southern "arm the slaves" proponents envisioned for the future of an independent South with what actually happened in the American South: namely, an evolution into a Jim Crow or even an outright apartheid state. This connects the wartime intentions of some within the Confederacy to the Jim Crow regime that Southerners actually gradually constructed and vigorously maintained between the 1880s and the 1950s. It's all one continuous train, briefly interrupted by Reconstruction and brought to an end only by the Civil Rights Movement.

The book is not without its warts. I found the copy editing to be a little sloppy (in the Kindle version anyway), but not to the point of distraction. At a few points the book was repetitive, but overall the message was clear and powerfully delivered. Although not perfect, it is still a great book. Don't let the haters fool you into thinking otherwise, since the proof is right here that 90% of them haven't even read the thing.

[David Lucander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read, but densely packed. Very thoroughly researched, and full of great quotes pulled from sources like old Confederate newspapers. This book definitely informs Levine's "Fall of the House of Dixie" (read it a week or so ago), but it's for a more scholarly audience. Makes a compelling case that the Civil War was all about slavery, and manages to do so in a linear fashion even though the book is ostensibly about Confederate plans to arm and free a number of slaves for their cause.

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written and deftly argued book that more than any other shows the South's utter commitment to slavery. Cleburne, Lee, Davis, and Benjamin look less like progressives and more like Southern patriots who could think outside the narrow confines of slavery while still supporting black racial inferiority.

[Jason S · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, but it got significantly repetitive in spots. Argues persuasively that Confederate hesitation to use slaves as soldiers after 1862 was proof that the war was all about slavery, as it anyone still believes that.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting to read about a topic that could have easily changed the course of American History.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book. Nothing I had ever considered before, but it made a lot of sense.

[Jennie Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read