The open debate in the confederacy about employing negro soldiers that started around November 64 was an unforced error that unraveled the confederacy.
When senior leaders started talking about it, they undermined the whole ideological foundation of the confederacy. What had soldiers endured and sacrificed for, what was the point in voting for secession.
What Rebellion/independence movement has prevailed after abandoning its ideological foundation, none that I can think of.
It is one thing to encourage states to liberalize manumission laws but something quite different to open military service with a promise of freedom when state laws didn't allow free negros to possess firearms or serve in the militia.
I find the proposal to employ negro soldiers by the confederacy a damming indictment of those who proposed it for they are telling everyone who voted for secession who endured hardship and danger and, in many cases, sacrificed lives, limbs it was all for naught all based on a lie that the negro was morally and intellectually inferior and his natural condition was subordination to the white.
Your Thoughts
When senior leaders started talking about it, they undermined the whole ideological foundation of the confederacy. What had soldiers endured and sacrificed for, what was the point in voting for secession.
What Rebellion/independence movement has prevailed after abandoning its ideological foundation, none that I can think of.
It is one thing to encourage states to liberalize manumission laws but something quite different to open military service with a promise of freedom when state laws didn't allow free negros to possess firearms or serve in the militia.
I find the proposal to employ negro soldiers by the confederacy a damming indictment of those who proposed it for they are telling everyone who voted for secession who endured hardship and danger and, in many cases, sacrificed lives, limbs it was all for naught all based on a lie that the negro was morally and intellectually inferior and his natural condition was subordination to the white.
Your Thoughts
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