Lincoln The Emancipation Proclamation

[Forrest]

Nice find. Thanks for posting. This is one of the reasons why Lincoln delayed issuing the EP. He knew there were soldiers out there with this attitude, and feared that there could be a substantial backlash. As it turned out though, the backlash wasn't nearly as widespread as he had feared (possibly in part because he did wait).

'For Cause and Comrades' is a study of soldiers' letters during the Civil War and attempts to quantify why soldiers on each side fought. Not yet finished, but I've been impressed with the book so far. The 'slavery' chapter goes into detail as to the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation on the attitude of the Northern soldier, stating that the anti-emancipation attitude reversed between the winter of 1862-63 and the spring of 1863: 'For several months during the winter of 1862-63, those who expressed hostility to emancipation seemed to outnumber those who supported it....Of the Union soldiers in the sample who expressed a clear opinion about emancipation as a war aim at any time through the spring of 1863, more than twice as many favored it than opposed it: 36 percent to 16 percent...that prevalence increased after the low point of early 1863 as a good many anti-emancipation soldiers changed their minds. Two factors played a part in their conversion. The first was an ominous rise of Copperheadism on the home front during the first half of 1863...The second...was a growing conviction that it really did hurt the enemy and help their own side.';e.g, quoting a Northern soldier who reversed his opinion -"every negro we get strengthens us and weakens the rebels."