Monthly Archives: April 2012

I enjoyed reading a post made yesterday by Jared Frederick in his blog, History Matters, about a recent lecture given by Gary Gallagher at West Virginia University. As Frederick summarizes the gist of Gallagher’s remarks: Gallagher’s lecture was entitled “Wherever Our … Continue reading →

A controversy of sorts has broken out among scholars of the American Civil War over the degree to which scholarly blogs on this topic should cover the myth of mass participation by African Americans as soldiers in the Confederate Army. Such … Continue reading →

Although many white Northerners increasingly warmed to the idea of emancipation in Spring 1862, others remained indifferent or opposed to the idea, Democrats in particular. So it is not surprising that The National Republican, the pro-administration newspaper in nation’s capital promoted … Continue reading →

Two recent articles have come to my attention that will be of definite interest to Civil War Emancipation readers. In the first, Kate Masur published a piece in Disunion in the New York Times that is a nice complement to my own recent post … Continue reading →

On April 16, 1862, slavery came to an end in the nation’s capital. President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill passed by the U.S. Congress abolishing slavery in Washington, D.C. Many members of Congress wanted to do more, but felt limited … Continue reading →

During the last week, two new and notable resources on the web have come to my attention relevant to emancipation in the American Civil War. The first, Visualizing Emancipation, produced by the University of Richmond, literally maps out events in the … Continue reading →

Early April 1862 saw past events working themselves out and portents of things to come along the road to emancipation. A portent came on April 3, when the Gen. David Hunter wrote Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from his … Continue reading →

It is often easy given the gripping nature of emancipation in the American Civil War to forget that it was part of a larger story across the Americas. In addition to North America, African slavery had established deep roots in … Continue reading →

As March ended and April began in 1862, it was clear that emancipation would soon come to the District of Columbia. While the ability of Congress to end slavery legislatively throughout the rest of the United States was greatly doubted … Continue reading →