brought them along to war; a sizeable
percentage of officers, especially early in
the conflict, did bring a slave with them,
but this declined significantly as the war
dragged on. As an
institution, slavery
was irrevocably
weakened after
the Emancipation
Proclamation, and
by the last year of the war, many
slaves—even those in unconquered
areas of the South—refused to work, or
had no incentive to do so, as the
majority of white men had left home.
White female or black overseers,
increasingly common by 1864, could not
maintain discipline, and as slavery
began to die so, too, did the remaining
economic power of the Confederacy.AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE WARAs the Confederate army lost more and
more fighting men, the idea of enlisting
slaves into the ranks was finally accepted
by the Confederate Congress in Richmond.FIRST PROPOSALS REJECTED
Certain Rebel generals, including Richard Ewell,
Patrick Cleburne, and, ultimately, Robert E.
Lee, proposed at different points in the war that
the Richmond government grant freedom in
return for slaves’ military service. Even
President Davis offered a bill in November 1864
extending emancipation to future enlisted slaves,
but Congress refused to consider it.CONGRESS ACCEPTS BLACK TROOPS
By February 1865, facing imminent defeat, and
with the powerful backing of both Lee and
Davis, the Congress grudgingly agreed to a
limited form of emancipation for slaves who
fought. Some companies of black
Confederate soldiers were actually drilling in
the streets of Richmond right before the city
fell 314–15 ❯❯, but it was too little, too late.working. After “deductions” for food,
housing, and clothing, most earned
absolutely nothing, and therefore lived
an existence akin to slavery. Local
military laws that forbade blacks from
being unemployed forced many of
them back into the cotton or cane
fields, or otherwise face imprisonment.
By the last 18 months of the war,
under pressure from both Northern
abolitionists and missionaries who
were outraged at the “wage slavery”
that existed in the Union-occupied
South, both Congress and the Union
army began to change their policies.
Land was the key issue behind this
new direction.
Through various pieces of legislation,
or under the supervision of Yankee
generals, almost 20 percent of the
former Confederate territory captured
by the Union was given to African-
Americans. The prominent abolitionist
Wendell Phillips wrote, “Let me
confiscate the land of the South, and
put it into the hands of Negroes
and the white men who fought for
it, and I have
planted a Union
sure to grow as an
acorn to become
an oak.” However,
the question
remained whether the freedmen would
be able to hold on to any land they had
gained after the war was over.
Black Confederates
The vast majority of blacks under
Confederate control were slaves who,
either by coercion or suggestion,
remained on plantations or farms until
liberated by invading Union forces. It is
difficult to determine how many wished
to stay with their masters, serving in the
army as servants, teamsters, or laborers,
or remain at home as fieldworkers and
house servants. Few Confederate-
enlisted men owned slaves and so never
AFTER
Slave woman in the South
In this 1866 painting by Winslow Homer entitled Near
Andersonville or Captured Liberators, a black woman
looks on as captured Union troops, her potential
liberators, are marched off to Andersonville Prison.
Escaping to relative freedom
Escaped slaves were placed in camps which followed the
Union army and both men and women found work
helping the officers and soldiers. However, for many the
reality of life away from the plantations was harsh.The number of
African-Americans
who fought for their freedom in the war.
About one-third of them died.180,000