A rejected alternative: Union policy and the relocation of southern "contrabands" at the dawn of emancipation

Journal of Southern History

Volumn 69, Issue 4, 2003, Pages 765-790

  Voegeli, V Jacque ^a  

^a VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34547729898     PISSN: 00224642     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/30040096     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. Among those who say that racial concerns influenced Union policy toward the freedpeople are V. Jacque Voegeli, Free but Not Equal: The Midwest and the Negro during the Civil War (Chicago, 1967), 104-12
2. George M. Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817-1914 (New York and other cities, 1971), 166-67
3. Peter J. Parish, The American Civil War (New York, 1975), 255-56
4. Stephen B. Oates, With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln (New York and other cities, 1977), 340-42
5. William L. Barney, Battleground for the Union: The Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1848-1877 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1990), 187
6. Charles P. Roland, An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War (Lexington, Ky., 1991), 100
7. Though there is no close examination of any aspect of this episode, for brief treatments of Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew's rejection of black resettlement see Henry Greenleaf Pearson, The Life of John A. Andrew: Governor of Massachusetts, 1861-1865 (2 vols.; Boston and New York, 1904), II, 67-68
8. Voegeli, Free but Not Equal, 58-59, 119
9. Louis S. Gerteis, From Contraband to Freedman: Federal Policy Toward Southern Blacks, 1861-1865 (Westport, Conn., and London, 1973), 23-24
10. Herman Belz, A New Birth of Freedom: The Republican Party and Freedmen's Rights, 1861 to 1866 (Westport, Conn., and London, 1976), 83
11. Berlin et al., Slaves No More, 114-15
12. Berlin et al., eds., Freedom, Ser. I, Vol. II, 28-29
13. All but Pearson agree that Andrew's action reflected opposition to black migration. While Berlin argues that it contributed to the Lincoln administration's decision to utilize the freedpeople in the South, Belz denies that northern opposition to "large-scale" black migration was a "crucial factor in the evolution of Union freedmen's policy." Belz, Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era (New York and London, 1978), 60-61 (quotation on p. 61)
14. John A. Dix to Edwin M. Stanton, September 12, 1862, in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (70 vols. in 128; Washington, D.C., 1880-1901), Ser. I, Vol. XVIII, 391; hereinafter cited as Official Records
15. Robert Francis Engs, Freedom's First Generation: Black Hampton, Virginia, 1861-1890 ([Philadelphia], 1979), 27-35
16. Engs, Freedom's First Generation, 34-36
17. Francis P. Blair Sr. to John A. Dix, November 29, 1861
18. Dix to Francis P. Blair Sr., December 4, 1861, Dix Papers
19. Voegeli, Free but Not Equal, 17, 34
20. Martin Lichterman, "John Adams Dix: 1798-1879" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1952), 494-500
21. Sidney David Brummer, Political History of New York State during the Period of the Civil War (New York, 1911), 213-14
22. Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860 (Chicago, 1961), 94, 105-11
23. Foreign immigrants, mainly Irish, made up 21 percent of the state's population, but their loyalties and the Republicans' lack of need for their votes confined their influence to the Democratic Party. Though an estimated 71.9 percent of the Roman Catholics in Massachusetts voted for other presidential candidates in 1860, Lincoln won 62.8 percent of the popular vote in the state. Dale Baum, "The 'Irish Vote' and Party Politics in Massachusetts, 1860-1876," Civil War History, 26 (June 1980), 120-22
24. On Republican and radical ascendancy see Baum, The Civil War Party System: The Case of Massachusetts, 1848-1876 (Chapel Hill and London, 1984), 55-72, 211-12
25. On population see Population of the United States in 1860: Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census, Under the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior (Washington, D.C., 1864), 227, 616-23
26. Pearson, Life of John A. Andrew is comprehensive
27. Often more discerning is John M. Hamrogue, "John A. Andrew, Abolitionist Governor, 1861-1865" (Ph.D. dissertation, Fordham University, 1974)
28. Pearson, Life of John A. Andrew, II, 12-48
29. James M. McPherson, The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Princeton, 1964), 160, 202
30. See also John A. Andrew to Charles Sumner, April 30, 1862, Andrew Papers, reel 35
31. Boston Daily Journal, October 6, 1862
32. Charles G. Leland, "What to Do with the Darkies: A New and Original Plan for Saving the Union on Southern Principles," Continental Monthly, 1 (January 1862), 84
33. Leland, "Our War and Our Want," Continental Monthly, I (February 1862), 116
34. For treatment of the opposition to the expansion of the free black population of New England see Joanne Pope Melish, Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and "Race" in New England, 1780-1860 (Ithaca, N.Y., and London, 1998), chap. 5
35. Worcester Spy, August 21, 1862
36. Voegeli, Free but Not Equal, 17, 24-25, 34-35
37. New York Tribune, August 7, 1862, p. 8
38. and August 8, 1862, p. 4
39. Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (9 vols.; New Brunswick, N.J., 1953-1955), V, 370-75
40. The proposed constitution failed in Illinois. Voegeli, Free but Not Equal, 17
41. On emancipation sentiment see Edith Ellen Ware, Political Opinion in Massachusetts during the Civil War and Reconstruction (New York, 1916), 83-109
42. Judith Phyllis Saunders, "The People's Party in Massachusetts during the Civil War" (Ph.D. dissertation, Boston University, 1970), 97-188
43. Richard H. Abbott, Cotton and Capital: Boston Businessmen and Antislavery Reform, 1854-1868 (Amherst, Mass., 1991), 72-112
44. For arguments elsewhere on black immigration see Voegeli, Free but Not Equal, 7, 13-25
45. On the Democratic press and the Whiggish Boston Daily Courier see Saunders, "People's Party in Massachusetts," 143-46
46. Pittsfield Sun, May 8, 15, 1862
47. Saunders, "People's Party in Massachusetts," 146-47
48. Andrew Leete Stone, Emancipation: A Discourse Delivered in Park Street Church on Fast Day Morning, April 3, 1862 (Boston, 1862), 10
49. Boston Liberator, April 25, 1862, May 9, 1862
50. Franklin B. Sanborn, Emancipation in the West Indies (Concord, Mass., 1862), 15
51. Haverhill Gazette, June 6, 1862, p. 6
52. Boston Liberator, April 4, 1862, p. 2 (first quotation)
53. Newburyport Daily Herald
54. New York Herald, August 7, 1862, p. 1 (fourth quotation)
55. E. H. Derby, "Resources of the South," Atlantic Monthly, 10 (October 1862), 508-9 (fifth quotation on p. 508)
56. New Bedford Mercury, August 5, 1862 (sixth quotation)
57. On the Republican convention see Saunders, "People's Party in Massachusetts," 201-4
58. Bolles to Andrew, October 6, 1862, Executive Correspondence
59. On the reaction to the transportation of black men, women, and children into Illinois see Brace Tap, "Race, Rhetoric, and Emancipation: The Election of 1862 in Illinois," Civil War History, 39 (June 1993), 101-25
60. For antiabolitionist criticisms of emancipation see Boston Pilot, October 4, 1862, p. 4
61. Boston Herald, September 26, 1862, p. 4
62. Boston Daily Courier, October 4, 1862, p. 1
63. and Pittsfield Sun, October 1, 1862
64. and Boston Evening Transcript, October 8, 10, 1862
65. Boston Commonwealth, October 4, 1862, p. 3
66. Charles Sumner, The Works of Charles Sumner (15 vols.; Boston, 1874), VII, 226-27
67. Voegeli, Free but Not Equal, 63-64
68. George Livermore, An Historical Research Respecting the Opinions of the Founders of the Republic on Negroes as Slaves, as Citizens, and as Soldiers. Read before the Massachusetts Historical Society, August 14, 1862 (Boston, 1862)
69. Alexander H. Bullock to Andrew, October 15, 1862, Andrew Papers, reel 15
70. Boston Evening Transcript, October 21, 1862, p. 1
71. John A. Poor to Andrew, October 22, 1862, Andrew Papers, reel 15 (quotation)
72. Boston Daily Journal, October 21, 1862, p. 4
73. Boston Daily Advertiser, October 18, 1862, p. 2 (first quotation)
74. Charles G. Leland, "Editor's Table," Continental Monthly, 2 (October 1862), 490-91
75. Boston Liberator, October 17, 24, 31, 1862
76. Boston Evening Transcript, October 15, 28, 30, 1862
77. Francis L. Capen to Andrew, November 5, 1862, Andrew Papers, reel 15 (final three quotations)
78. Boston Daily Evening Traveller, October 30, 1862
79. The correspondence was discussed or published in Boston Daily Courier, October 31, 1862
80. Newburyport Daily Herald, November 4, 1862
81. Worcester Spy, November 4, 1862
82. Kenneth C. Martis, The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989 (New York, 1989), 114-17
83. Washington National Intelligencer, November 5, 1862, p. 3
84. Philadelphia Ledger
85. quoted in Washington National Intelligencer, December 9, 1862, p. 2
86. New York Evening Post, November 7, 1862, p. 2
87. Dubuque Daily Times, November 13, 1862, p. 2
88. Springfield Illinois State Journal, November 13, 1862, p. 2
89. The Boston Liberator
90. and the Boston Commonwealth belatedly published Andrew's reply to Dix's proposal prefaced by Republican praise. Liberator, November 21, 1862, p. 1
91. Commonwealth, November 29, 1862, p. 4
92. Andrew to Francis P. Blair Sr., November 8, 1862, Blair Family Papers
93. Abstract of the Census of Massachusetts, 1865, p. 234
94. Dix to Stanton, November 22, 1862, in Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XVIII, 461
95. Bird to Andrew, November 15, 1862, Andrew Papers, reel 15 (second quotation)
96. William Cohen, At Freedom's Edge: Black Mobility and the Southern White Quest for Racial Control, 1861-1915 (Baton Rouge and London, 1991), 87-93
97. Voegeli, Free but Not Equal, 107-12, 122
98. Teacher Lucy Chase complained from Norfolk that "we," the "representatives" of the North, were telling their charges that "There is work for you now, at the North, but you mustn't go there. There'll be work for you here, at the South, when the war is over! !" Chase to My Dear Friends, July 1, 1864, in Henry L. Swint, ed., Dear Ones at Home: Letters from Contraband Camps (Nashville, 1966), 118
99. Basler, ed., Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, V, 534-36; VII, 191 (quotations)