Topic: the Counsel of Lincoln and Sherman BACKGROUND ESSAY
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Topic: The Counsel of Lincoln and Sherman Grades 8-12 BACKGROUND ESSAY With the country on the brink of a Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 inaugural address underscored that his duty as president was to the preservation of the Union. But as slavery started to unravel in the Confederacy, the North kept pressure on Lincoln to transform the Civil War into a fight for freedom - with Black and white abolitionists, liberal congressmen, and Black congregations asking him to heed the call. Lincoln wasn’t initially convinced that Black people and white people could live together peacefully as equals and considered the deportation of emancipated slaves from the United States as a possible path forward. To persuade the Black community of his plan, Lincoln wanted to convince their spiritual leaders, understanding that they wielded great influence in their communities. So in August 1862, Lincoln invited a delegation of five free Black clergymen to the White House. But these men rejected Lincoln’s proposal to remove the formerly enslaved from America. They rightfully saw this as the land of their birth and the country that they had helped to build. This was their home and their future. What African Americans wanted was freedom and equality in their home country. On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which served as a warning to the rebels, "That… all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." Furthermore stated that this freedom would be recognized and maintained by the government "which will do no act or acts to repress such persons... in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." On January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which stated, “All persons held as slaves in the rebel states shall be henceforward and forever free.” The Counsel of Lincoln and Sherman | The Black Church: This is Our Story. This is Our Song In The Black Church, historian Reginald F. Hildebrand says that the enslaved saw a connectedness between the Emancipation Proclamation and the story of Exodus, in which God liberates the enslaved Israelites. “This is a confirmation that their prayers have been answered, that God has heard. The story of the deliverance of the Israelites is being played out again. The magnificent trumpet tones of Hebrew scripture, transmuted and oddly changed, became a strange new gospel.” The freedom of the formerly enslaved helped to provide needed momentum in the Civil War. By the war’s end, 179,000 Black soldiers had served the Union’s forces, including sixty percent from Confederate states. By the fall of 1864, the South was in shambles. After conquering Atlanta, Union General William T. Sherman began his famous March to the Sea, leading some 60,000 troops, including thousands of the formerly enslaved, through Georgia to frighten the civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. With the end of the war in sight, General Sherman was interested in planning a future for the tens of thousands of Black refugees that were grappling with their newfound freedom. Much like Lincoln did three years earlier, General Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton sought counsel from a group of trusted leaders in the Black community - twenty Baptist and Methodist ministers. For the meeting, the Black ministers selected Garrison Frazier, a 67-year-old ordained minister and a former slave, to be the chief spokesperson. Frazier was asked to represent the common sentiments of the twenty ministers. Sherman was seeking to remedy the inequities of slavery while reunifying the nation and posed questions to the ministers on how to plan for the future. At the meeting, Frazier makes it clear that the path forward is through the distribution of land to the formerly enslaved. "The way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor–that is, by the labor of the women and children and old men; and we can soon maintain ourselves and have something to spare." Persuaded by Frazier, General Sherman issued Special Field Order Number 15, declaring that all abandoned rebel lands from Charleston, South Carolina to the Saint Johns River in Florida would be distributed to the formerly enslaved in parcels of 40 acres. Historian Paul Harvey remarks, “This idea of 40 acres and a mule, it’s understood by the freed people as a promise that they will have this land because they had been the ones working it all along, after all.” However, with Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, chaos ensued and plans for Reconstruction began to fall apart. President Andrew Johnson pardoned thousands of white plantation owners The Counsel of Lincoln and Sherman | The Black Church: This is Our Story. This is Our Song and reversed General Sherman's Field Order. And with that, the promised land was restored to those who had declared war against the United States of America. VOCABULARY ● Emancipation Proclamation: An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 that that all persons that are held as slaves are henceforth free ● Reconstruction: The period following the Civil War from 1865–1877) in which attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and reunify the country DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: ● Why did President Lincoln decide to free the slaves before the war ended? ● What was Lincoln worried about? ● Why did Lincoln seek the counsel of Black clergy? ● Why did General Sherman seek the counsel of Black ministers? ● How might history be different today if these Black ministers had not had the opportunity to counsel Lincoln or Sherman? ACTIVITIES Activity 1: Building an Emancipation Timeline As a class project, you will construct a timeline on emancipation. Although we could begin chronicling this history as early as 1619 when the first slave ship arrived in the English colony of Virginia, we will begin this timeline at the start of Abraham Lincoln's presidency (March 4, 1861) through the ratification of the 15th Amendment of the Constitution (February 3, 1870). Notably, there are many different events, speeches, elections, laws, and battles that shaped the history of this era. This will not be complete and comprehensive but may serve as an opportunity to consider the large and vast nature when exploring the history of slavery and emancipation and the many people and institutions that were involved. Divide the class into small groups to focus on a period of time or a year from March 4, 1861 - February 3, 1870. Students will consider events, meetings, laws, etc that helped to shape or contribute to the fight for emancipation. As a class, you will regroup and contribute to a large, shared timeline. As the timeline is filled, you will share, explore similarities of events. Consider the following: ● How does this event impact - even in a small way - the fight for emancipation? ● Does this event advance or impede the fight for emancipation? ● What key people or institutions were involved in this event? ● The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are known as the Reconstruction Amendments. The 13th Amendment outlaws slavery. Why are the other two amendments important in The Counsel of Lincoln and Sherman | The Black Church: This is Our Story. This is Our Song the history of the fight for the rights of African Americans and the history of emancipation? A suggested resource to use with this activity: ● http://www.americanabolitionists.com/lincoln-chronology-on-slavery-and-emancipation.ht ml Some key dates for consideration. You might elect to initially add these as a teacher when discussing the activity, asking students to find other important events. Or you can ensure that these are added in by students or the teacher at the end: ● March 4, 1861: Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the United States ● April 12, 1861: Start of the Civil War ● August 14, 1962: Black clergy meet with Abraham Lincoln ● January 1, 1862: The Emancipation Proclamation ● January 12, 1865: General Sherman meets with Black clergy, seeking their counsel on Reconstruction ● April 9, 1965: Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, leading to an end of the Civil War ● April 15, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is assassinated ● December 6, 1865: The 13th Amendment is ratified ● July 9, 1868: The 14th Amendment is ratified ● February 3, 1870: The 15th Amendment is ratified An extension or parallel activity could involve researching key people that were involved in these historic events. Activity 2: The Emancipation Proclamation Have your students review the Emancipation Proclamation individually (available at the National Archives). Resume as a class, and read the document, breaking at each paragraph to deconstruct the meaning. Take notes as you move through the document. Once the discussion is finished, consider some of the following: ● The Emancipation Proclamation does not mention Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, or Missouri. These states were border states that were not part of the Confederacy but did have slaves. Why did Lincoln choose not to address this? What happened in those states? ● Why do you think Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves before the war ended? How might that have helped his war effort? The Counsel of Lincoln and Sherman | The Black Church: This is Our Story. This is Our Song Abraham Lincoln had received counsel from Black clergymen who urged him to consider the freedom and equality of emancipated slaves and African Americans the month before he issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. After the class has viewed the clip and reviewed the Emancipation Proclamation, have students compose a letter to Abraham Lincoln in August 1862, from the perspective of one of the Black clergymen.