eighteen sixty five the south is actually debating emancipation
sometimes that gets exaggerated what they were really debating was whether to enlist
slaves in the confederate army
and if they did
would those slaves and maybe their families earn freedom
%uh fighting for the confederacy
%uh and the confederate congress in march eighteen sixty five did pass a bill called
the negro soldier bill
%uh providing for the enlistment of a certain number of slaves
but %uh
they could not free those slaves that would have to be up to the states themselves
or to the masters
%uh to free the slaves
and and there was a lot of ambiguity an ambivalence in the south about whether this really was an
emancipation measure maybe if a hundred thousand slaves
help us turn this war around
%uh they might earn their freedom as a reward for it but that wont in the institution of
slavery
and so there was actually a pro slavery dimension
to this argument well we'll free some of the slaves in order to win this war
but this was
this was a last gasp act of desperation
and even then it passed by only one vote in the confederate senate one vote
in march of eighteen sixty five when the enemy was thundering at the gates
so it doesn't necessarily represent %uh confederate repudiation of slavery
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