Lincoln and Compensated Emancipation in Kentucky

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Lincoln and Compensated Emancipation in Kentucky On March 6, 1862, Abraham Lincoln introduced a bold and far-reaching proposal to Congress, suggesting that compensated emancipation be offered to border state slaveholders if they were to adopt "gradual abolishment of slavery." If pursued, Lincoln argued, compensated emancipation would ultimately end the war, as the Confederacy would lose all prospects for securing the allegiance of Kentucky and the other border states. The majority of border state congressmen, however, rejected the proposal. "The undersigned Representatives of Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee, Delaware, and Maryland in the two houses of Congress have listened to your address," they noted. Although the group repudiated the "dangerous heresies of the Secessionists," they challenged the practicality of the proposed legislation, claiming there was not "the remotest possibility that the States we represent would join in the rebellion." Furthermore, they argued, compensated emancipation would result in "a radical change of our social system." The right to hold slaves was "a right appertaining to all the states," which could "cherish or abolish the institution" at their own discretion. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. That measure, combined with the 1865 ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, ended slavery in America. No compensation was offered to slaveholders in the Confederate states or the loyal border states such as Kentucky. The uncompensated emancipation of slaves contributed to mixed feelings about Lincoln in Kentucky lasting well into the twentieth century. Through its signature exhibition, Beyond the Log Cabin: Kentucky's Abraham Lincoln, the Kentucky Historical Society is now exploring the complex relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his native state. Beyond the Log Cabin: Kentucky's Abraham Lincoln is on display through June 9, 2009, at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in Frankfort. Abraham Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation, The Strobridge Lith. Co., ca. 1888 Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Four Roads to Emancipation: Lincoln, the Law, and the Proclamation Dr
Copyright © 2013 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation i Table of Contents Letter from Erin Carlson Mast, Executive Director, President Lincoln’s Cottage Letter from Martin R. Castro, Chairman of The United States Commission on Civil Rights About President Lincoln’s Cottage, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, and The United States Commission on Civil Rights Author Biographies Acknowledgements 1. A Good Sleep or a Bad Nightmare: Tossing and Turning Over the Memory of Emancipation Dr. David Blight……….…………………………………………………………….….1 2. Abraham Lincoln: Reluctant Emancipator? Dr. Michael Burlingame……………………………………………………………….…9 3. The Lessons of Emancipation in the Fight Against Modern Slavery Ambassador Luis CdeBaca………………………………….…………………………...15 4. Views of Emancipation through the Eyes of the Enslaved Dr. Spencer Crew…………………………………………….………………………..19 5. Lincoln’s “Paramount Object” Dr. Joseph R. Fornieri……………………….…………………..……………………..25 6. Four Roads to Emancipation: Lincoln, the Law, and the Proclamation Dr. Allen Carl Guelzo……………..……………………………….…………………..31 7. Emancipation and its Complex Legacy as the Work of Many Hands Dr. Chandra Manning…………………………………………………..……………...41 8. The Emancipation Proclamation at 150 Dr. Edna Greene Medford………………………………….……….…….……………48 9. Lincoln, Emancipation, and the New Birth of Freedom: On Remaining a Constitutional People Dr. Lucas E. Morel…………………………….…………………….……….………..53 10. Emancipation Moments Dr. Matthew Pinsker………………….……………………………….………….……59 11. “Knock[ing] the Bottom Out of Slavery” and Desegregation:
[Show full text]
Reparations in the Caribbean and Diaspora Prilly Bicknell-Hersco
Reparations in the Caribbean and Diaspora Prilly Bicknell-Hersco Introduction Millions of people have been victim to violent and inhumane social injustices, many of them based on racial and cultural hierarchies. The Nazi Holocaust or the colonization of North America through the genocide of indigenous populations are examples of such instances. When these victims have no direct claim on those who committed the harm, the victims turn to the government for reparations. It can be said that the enslavement of Africans in the Caribbean is another painful and violent injustice, yet few reparations, if any at all, have been paid out to those most affected by the transatlantic slave trade. In 2013, CARICOM released an official request for Reparations for the Native Genocide and Slavery from the United Kingdom and the other European colonies. The discussion of reparations for slavery has ignited debate worldwide. Transformative justice is a philosophical way of handling conflict and violence. It looks to provide immediate safety, long-term healing, and reparations for victims. Transformative justice attempts to hold those who commit the violence accountable by ending the immediate abuse, committing to avoid abuse in the future, and offering reparations for past abuse. “For reparations to be meaningful, or at least for them to be meaningfully transformative, there needs to be a focus on both the process and outcomes of reparations programs. Moreover, reparations programs need to consider what the intended recipients want and need” (Evans and Wilkes 139). This thought process has led officials to take different approaches to provide reparations, including different policies and procedures beyond exclusively financial payments.
[Show full text]
Freedom and Unfreedom in the “Garden of America:”
FREEDOM AND UNFREEDOM IN THE “GARDEN OF AMERICA:” SLAVERY AND ABOLITION IN NEW JERSEY, 1770-1857 by James J. Gigantino II (Under the Direction of Allan Kulikoff) ABSTRACT This dissertation examines abolition in New Jersey between 1770 and 1857. It argues that the American Revolution did not lead white New Jerseyans to abolish slavery. Instead, the Revolutionary War and the years following it reinforced the institution of slavery in the Garden State. This dissertation first focuses on the factors that led New Jersey to pass the Gradual Abolition Act of 1804, specifically the rise of Jeffersonian Republicanism and the influence of Quaker abolition activists and then examines the elongated abolition period which followed the enactment of gradual abolition, beginning with the role of the children born under the law, those who I call slaves for a term. The role these children played in early national America challenges our understandings of slavery and freedom. Instead of a quick abolition process, slaves and slaves for a term in New Jersey continued to serve their masters in significant numbers until the 1840s and then in smaller proportions until the eve of the Civil War. The existence of slavery in a free state challenges our understanding of the rise of capitalism in the early republic as well as the role the North played in debates over nationwide slavery issues beginning in the 1820s. This long-standing relationship to slavery helped prevent the formation of a strong abolitionist base in the 1830s and influenced Northern images of African Americans until the Civil War. Abolition in the North became very much a process, one of fits and starts which stretched from the Revolution to the Civil War and defined how Americans, white and black, understood their place in the new republic.
[Show full text]
Slavery and Emancipation In
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School The College of the Liberal Arts HOUSEHOLDS BUILT ON SHIFTING SANDS: SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION IN THE LOYAL WESTERN BORDER STATES A Dissertation in History by Anne Y. Brinton © 2011 Anne Y. Brinton Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2011 The dissertation of Anne Y. Brinton was reviewed and approved* by the following: William A. Blair The College of the Liberal Arts Research Professor Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Anthony E. Kaye Associate Professor of History Nan E. Woodruff Professor of History Lovalerie King Associate Professor of English and Women’s Studies and Director of the Africana Research Center David G. Atwill Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii ABSTRACT This dissertation engages with recent scholarship on the slaveholding household and on struggles over the terms of labor as slavery underwent its internal collapse. Slavery stood at the crux of Border State political economies and political identities on the eve of Civil War. Vigorous markets in hiring and sale distributed widespread access to enslaved labor, disrupted black familial and social life, and stood as a terrain of struggle across which both white and black identities were articulated. Border State emancipation, no less traumatic than its Confederate counterpart(s), nonetheless took a different path. Recent scholars have observed that in much of the Confederacy, wartime emancipation was neither secure nor absolute. In the loyal Border States, it was more fraught yet. Slaves and ex-slaves struggled to navigate the overlapping terrains of federal policy, civil law, and the market in their labor as they began to lay the material and ideological foundations of free households.
[Show full text]
Slavery in Kentucky: a Civil War Casualty Lowell H
The Kentucky Review Volume 5 | Number 1 Article 4 Fall 1983 Slavery in Kentucky: A Civil War Casualty Lowell H. Harrison Western Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/kentucky-review Part of the United States History Commons Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits you. Recommended Citation Harrison, Lowell H. (1983) "Slavery in Kentucky: A Civil War Casualty," The Kentucky Review: Vol. 5 : No. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/kentucky-review/vol5/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Kentucky Libraries at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Kentucky Review by an authorized editor of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Slavery in Kentucky: A Civil War Casualty* Lowell H. Harrison Slavery existed in Kentucky from its first days of settlement, and the 1792 constitution recognized and protected the institution. The state's slave population increased more rapidly than the white population until 1830, when it reached 24 percent of the total. The percentage declined to 19.5 in 1860, although the 225,483 reported that year was the largest number in the state's history. While 28 percent of the white families owned slaves in 1850, only 5 of the 38,385 individual owners held as many as 100. The average owner held 5.4 slaves, the smallest number in the slave states except for Missouri.1 Antislavery sentiment also existed in Kentucky from its early days of statehood, but the opponents of slavery were able to accomplish little.
[Show full text]
"I Held George Washington's Horse": Compensated Emancipation in the District of Columbia
Washington History in the Classroom This article, © the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., is provided free of charge to educators, parents, and students engaged in remote learning activities. It has been chosen to complement the DC Public Schools curriculum during this time of sheltering at home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Washington History magazine is an essential teaching tool,” says Bill Stevens, a D.C. public charter school teacher. “In the 19 years I’ve been teaching D.C. history to high school students, my scholars have used Washington History to investigate their neighborhoods, compete in National History Day, and write plays based on historical characters. They’ve grappled with concepts such as compensated emancipation, the 1919 riots, school integration, and the evolution of the built environment of Washington, D.C. I could not teach courses on Washington, D.C. Bill Stevens engages with his SEED Public Charter School history without Washington History.” students in the Historical Society’s Kiplinger Research Library, 2016. Washington History is the only scholarly journal devoted exclusively to the history of our nation’s capital. It succeeds the Records of the Columbia Historical Society, first published in 1897. Washington History is filled with scholarly articles, reviews, and a rich array of images and is written and edited by distinguished historians and journalists. Washington History authors explore D.C. from the earliest days of the city to 20 years ago, covering neighborhoods, heroes and she-roes, businesses, health, arts and culture, architecture, immigration, city planning, and compelling issues that unite us and divide us.
[Show full text]
The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER TEACHERTEacHER LESSOLESSONN PlanPLAN The DisTricT oF ColUMbiA CoMpeNsATed EMANcipATioN AcT of 1862 Introduction The 150th anniversary of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 occurred in 2012. This bill was introduced to Congress to end slavery in the District of Columbia. Many citizens and members of Congress alike noted that the legality of slavery in the District of Columbia was inconsistent with the ideals and aspirations of the nation. Congress approved the bill and President Abraham Lincoln signed the act. This activity features the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 and other primary and secondary sources that tell the story of Congress’s role in this first major step towards the freeing of enslaved African Americans. While intended for 8th grade students, the lesson can be adapted for other grade levels. 1 TEACHER LESSON PLAN: THE D.C. COMPENSATED EMANciPATION ACT OF 1862 CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER TEACHER LESSON PLAN National Standards United States History National Standards Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877) Standard 2: The cause and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people. Civic and Government Standard What are the Roles of the Citizen in American Democracy? • What is citizenship? • What are the rights of citizens? • What are the responsibilities of citizens? • How can citizens take part in civic life? Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, grade 8 Reading Informational text 1, 2, 3, 4 Speaking and Listening 1, 3, 4 Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, grade 8 Reading 1, 2, 4, 6 Writing 2, 4, 5 Learning Skills Reading, building vocabulary, analyzing documents, group discussions, internet research, presentation, and writing Essential Question The Compensated Emancipation Act was an important legal and symbolic victory.
[Show full text]
Factors That Led to the Emancipation Proclamation
Factors That Led To The Emancipation Proclamation primogenial.Munificent Henderson Confounding squire, and his unthought-of blazes bemeans Dexter slatting never antiquing ostensibly. tunefully Justificatory when AnselMorly dodgingtwines his very fothergilla. illicitly while Whitby remains unmethodised and But the factors that led to the emancipation proclamation Lincoln wanted and have practical results from freeing the slaves. South station in a raft of rebellion. The frame was furious over the proclamation. Slave he is becoming one seen very serious magnitude. Seward and Welles were your first speechless, then Seward referred to possible anarchy throughout the leader and resulting foreign intervention; Welles apparently said nothing. Does News Media Coverage of american Supreme Court Emphasize Politics Too Much? Lincoln himself noticed an occasional comedy routine or quickly the emancipation proclamation noted that the emancipation proclamation exploited an equal part community from that the union navy of support the sea islands. At noon beginning new the war, President Lincoln was not worried about the slavery issue, but keeping the nation together. The while act, the revolutionary waging of chase, is her hand. Lincoln the victory he needed to greed the Emancipation. The First Confiscation Act required the forfeiture of property used directly against the United States during world war. He lobbied congress the factors that led emancipation to? So spot it freed half giving them? The union lines, then to that the emancipation proclamation led to uphold the take steps toward abolition. This presumably meant an arbitrary sentence at death, is indeed the soldiers made it overnight the battlefield. Mexico border when Selena was murdered.
[Show full text]
Emancipation Day Recognition Resolution of 2021”
1 ______________________________ 2 Councilmember Robert C. White, Jr. 3 4 5 6 7 A CEREMONIAL RESOLUTION 8 ___________ 9 10 IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 11 ___________ 12 13 14 To recognize the anniversary of Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia on April 16, 15 2021, honor the history of this important day, and to reflect on the progress made and the 16 progress still needed to achieve racial equity and justice for Black District residents. 17 18 WHEREAS, slavery in the District of Columbia region increased after 1790, when 19 Congress passed the Residence Act to move the nation’s capital from Philadelphia to the 20 “Potomac River” 10 years later; 21 WHEREAS, in anticipation of the capital’s move, the federal government began 22 construction of the U.S. Capitol Building and the White House, using slave labor; 23 WHEREAS, despite building the city we all call home today, Black men and women 24 were not freed until 1862, over 70 years later; 25 WHEREAS, on April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law, the “District 26 of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act” abolishing slavery in the nation’s capital, nine 27 months ahead of the abolition of slavery nationally through the Emancipation Proclamation of 28 1863; 29 WHEREAS, with the signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act, 3,100 enslaved 30 Black men, women, and children were emancipated, making them the first slaves freed in the 31 Unites States during the Civil War; 1 32 WHEREAS, in April 1866, formerly enslaved District residents began an annual tradition
[Show full text]
Slavery & Abolition
This article was downloaded by: [University of Warwick] On: 05 November 2013, At: 05:31 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fsla20 Slavery, citizenship and military service in Brazil's mobilization for the Paraguayan War Hendrik Kraay a a Department of History , University of Calgary , 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada Published online: 13 Jun 2008. To cite this article: Hendrik Kraay (1997) Slavery, citizenship and military service in Brazil's mobilization for the Paraguayan War, Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, 18:3, 228-256, DOI: 10.1080/01440399708575220 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01440399708575220 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
[Show full text]
Abolition-Seymour-Drescher.Pdf
This page intentionally left blank Abolition A History of Slavery and Antislavery In one form or another, slavery has existed throughout the world for millennia. It helped to change the world, and the world transformed the institution. In the 1450s, when Europeans from the small corner of the globe least enmeshed in the institution first interacted with peoples of other continents, they created, in the Americas, the most dynamic, productive, and exploitative system of coerced labor in human history. Three centuries later, these same intercontinental actions produced a movement that successfully challenged the institution at the peak of its dynamism. Within another century, a new surge of European expansion constructed Old World empires under the banner of antislavery. How- ever, twentieth-century Europe itself was inundated by a new system of slavery, larger and more deadly than its earlier system of New World slavery. This book examines these dramatic expansions and contrac- tions of the institution of slavery and the impact of violence, economics, and civil society on the ebb and flow of slavery and antislavery during the last five centuries. Seymour Drescher is University Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught at Harvard University and was Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Dr. Drescher has also been a Fulbright Scholar, an NEH Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow, and he was both a Fellow and the inaugural Secretary of the European Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Among his many works on slavery and abolition are Capitalism and Antislavery (1986); From Slavery to Freedom (1999); and The Mighty Experiment (2002), which was awarded the Frederick Douglass Book Prize by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition in 2003.He has also co-edited a number of books, including A Historical Guide to World Slavery (1998)andSlavery (2001).
[Show full text]
The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862
The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 1 PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL: THE D.C. COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION ACT OF 1862 The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 2 PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL: THE D.C. COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION ACT OF 1862 Transcription An Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons held to service or labor within the District of Columbia by reason of African descent are hereby discharged and freed of and from all claim to such service or labor; and from and after the passage of this act neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in said District. Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all persons loyal to the United States, holding claims to service or labor against persons discharged therefrom by this act, may, within ninety days from the passage thereof, but not thereafter, present to the commissioners hereinafter mentioned their respective statements or petitions in writing, verified by oath or affirmation, setting forth the names, ages, and personal description of such persons, the manner in which said petitioners acquired such claim, and any facts touching the value thereof, and declaring his allegiance to the Government of the United States, and that he has not borne arms against the United States during the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid or comfort thereto: Provided, That the oath of the party to the petition shall not be evidence of the facts therein stated.
[Show full text]