Meanwhile, Lincoln's own Commanding General, George C. McClellan, self-sabotaged the USA's opportunity for quick military victories, repeatedly, by delay, by miscalculation, by misinformation, and by endless excuses, say historians, until he was finally replaced, by Lincoln who favored gradual emancipation with compensation to owners.
The only General in the field that Lincoln actually learned from was Benjamin Franklin Butler, a civilian lawyer, like Lincoln. Butler had refused to return three self-liberated Slaves to their CSA owner in June 1861 at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He claimed them as "contraband of war," for the USA, using a form of legal logic that deemed Slaves to be equivalent to livestock, grain, boats, any enemy property--not dissimilar to how they were. already viewed under the U.S. Supreme Court's "Dred Scott" decision of 1857.
That clever characterization excused Butler from having to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, that required the return of slaves to their "owners" wherever found, which Lincoln was still enforcing well-after April 9, 1861, when the CSA seceded, declared and started firing!
Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, as part of a Surratt conspiracy that almost assassinated Secretary of State William H. Seward, a renown abolitionist, on that same date and time. Even so, the "freedom" of the slaves, was secured by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the USA's military victory, which their bold war effort produced. Lincoln the "Great Emancipator," was, in fact, the "Great Equivocator" that was forced into glory.
I repeat: Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves.
No! The slaves freed themselves, freed Lincoln and freed the United States of America (USA) from self-destruction.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
ABRAHAM LINCOLN DID NOT FREE THE SLAVES...
Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves. I repeat: Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves.
No! The slaves freed themselves, freed Lincoln and freed the United States of America (USA) from self-destruction.
Lincoln was "Forced into Glory" (Lerone Bennett, Jr.'s eponym) by the historically distorted canard that his reluctant, war-time, Executive Order, had "freed" the slaves in the South. That is patently untrue! Lincoln's September 22, 1862-issued order freed no one, not one slave!
The Slaves seized upon its issuance, its audacity, like a fighter exploiting an opening, to intensify those acts of self-liberation, which they had long-since been effectively pursuing: principally, running away to the North.
"The South," the Confederate States of America (CSA), had its own President, Jefferson Davis. It also had its own: Congress, Constitution, Flag, Money, Army, Navy, Diplomats, Media, Economy, Borders, and Culture.
The "Emancipation Proclamation," Lincoln's Executive Order that became effective January 1, 1863, had zero legal impact upon the CSA, just as CSA's President's Executive Orders has zero legal impact upon the USA. They were separate and sovereign. War sought in blood that reification and ratification of separateness not secured by politics.
What Lincoln's "Executive Order" had actually done: was to arm, to organize, to train, and to militarize those self-liberating Slaves who could, somehow, reach the USA's military lines on their own.
Millions of Slaves overwhelmed those lines, upon learning that by reason of Lincoln's military-measure, the "Emancipation Proclamation," they had been"freed." The affect upon them was magical, spiritual, psychological, emboldening, inebriating, and instantaneous! All African Slaves praised God and praised Mr. Lincoln for it, too!
To be sure, those healthy Slaves mustered into USA service, were too-quickly trained, haphazardly armed, inadequately shod, fed and housed; were sometimes led by some less-than-sympathetic whites; and without any colored officers of their own. These troops were also underpaid, if ever paid. But--at last and at least--they were free of slavery. They were also sufficiently armed and sufficiently organized and sufficiently supplied to defeat slavery and to defend their still-constitutionally-dubious freedom.
Hundreds of thousands of Slaves were mustered into the USA Army and the Navy. The rest, deemed "contraband," meaning "war gains," provided labor, nursing, undertaking, transport, washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, provisioning, and especially the growing cash crops, like cotton, on contraband or "abandoned" lands. Thousands of Slaves also died from starvation, disease, injury, exposure, and murder by USA and CSA officers' indifferent orders.
These U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) were that "Sable Arm" (Dudley Cornish's eponym) that actually "won" the "War Between the States," a/k/a the Civil War, and what the Slaves termed, THE FREEDOM WAR: which those Slaves had long predicted, promoted, participated in, and disproportionately profited from!
Prior to the infusion of Slaves into USA lines, the CSA had been winning the war, militarily. In battle after battle, until Gettysburg and Antietem, in the Summer of 1863, which were at best "draws," the CSA was victorious.
Then, finally, after January 1, 1863, with the Slaves' mythical "freedom," the tables slowly started to turn, at New Orleans, at Vicksburg and at Port Hudson, and elsewhere, splitting the CSA and reclaiming the Mississippi River and its transport, logistics and commerce for the USA.
General John C. Fremont, USA's military commander of the Department of the West, in St. Louis, had unilaterally "freed" or "manumitted" many Missouri slaves on August 30, 1861, as a war measure, to divest the CSA of its chief resource the Slaves themselves. His Field Order was countermanded by Lincoln on September 11, 1861, out of fear and disdain.
General David Hunter did the same thing in May 1862, also as a war measure, actually having trained Slave "volunteers" to fight, in South Carolina, in regiments. This, too, Lincoln also as quickly reversed.
Meanwhile, Lincoln's own Commanding General, George C. McClellan, self-sabotaged the USA's opportunity for quick military victories, repeatedly, by delay, by miscalculation, by misinformation, and by endless excuses, say historians, until he was finally replaced, by Lincoln who favored gradual emancipation with compensation to owners.
The only General in the field that Lincoln actually learned from was Benjamin Franklin Butler, a civilian lawyer, like Lincoln. Butler had refused to return three self-liberated Slaves to their CSA owner in June 1861 at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He claimed them as "contraband of war," for the USA, using a form of legal logic that deemed Slaves to be equivalent to livestock, grain, boats, any enemy property--not dissimilar to how they were. already viewed under the U.S. Supreme Court's "Dred Scott" decision of 1857.
That clever characterization excused Butler from having to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, that required the return of slaves to their "owners" wherever found, which Lincoln was still enforcing well-after April 9, 1861, when the CSA seceded, declared and started firing!
Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, as part of a Surratt conspiracy that almost assassinated Secretary of State William H. Seward, a renown abolitionist, on that same date and time. Even so, the "freedom" of the slaves, was secured by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the USA's military victory, which their bold war effort produced. Lincoln the "Great Emancipator," was, in fact, the "Great Equivocator" that was forced into glory.
I repeat: Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves.
No! The slaves freed themselves, freed Lincoln and freed the United States of America (USA) from self-destruction.
th," the Confederate States of America (CSA), had its own President, Jefferson Davis. It also had its own: Congress, Constitution, Flag, Money, Army, Navy, Diplomats, Media, Economy, Borders, and Culture.
The "Emancipation Proclamation," Lincoln's Executive Order that became effective January 1, 1863, had zero legal impact upon the CSA, just as CSA's President's Executive Orders has zero legal impact upon the USA. They were separate and sovereign. War sought in blood that reification and ratification of separateness not secured by politics.
What Lincoln's "Executive Order" had actually done: was to arm, to organize, to train, and to militarize those self-liberating Slaves who could, somehow, reach the USA's military lines on their own.
Millions of Slaves overwhelmed those lines, upon learning that by reason of Lincoln's military-measure, the "Emancipation Proclamation," they had been"freed." The affect upon them was magical, spiritual, psychological, emboldening, inebriating, and instantaneous! All African Slaves praised God and praised Mr. Lincoln for it, too!
To be sure, those healthy Slaves mustered into USA service, were too-quickly trained, haphazardly armed, inadequately shod, fed and housed; were sometimes led by some less-than-sympathetic whites; and without any colored officers of their own. These troops were also underpaid, if ever paid. But--at last and at least--they were free of slavery. They were also sufficiently armed and sufficiently organized and sufficiently supplied to defeat slavery and to defend their still-constitutionally-dubious freedom.
Hundreds of thousands of Slaves were mustered into the USA Army and the Navy. The rest, deemed "contraband," meaning "war gains," provided labor, nursing, undertaking, transport, washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, provisioning, and especially the growing cash crops, like cotton, on contraband or "abandoned" lands. Thousands of Slaves also died from starvation, disease, injury, exposure, and murder by USA and CSA officers' indifferent orders.
These U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) were that "Sable Arm" (Dudley Cornish's eponym) that actually "won" the "War Between the States," a/k/a the Civil War, and what the Slaves termed, THE FREEDOM WAR: which those Slaves had long predicted, promoted, participated in, and disproportionately profited from!
Prior to the infusion of Slaves into USA lines, the CSA had been winning the war, militarily. In battle after battle, until Gettysburg and Antietem, in the Summer of 1863, which were at best "draws," the CSA was victorious.
Then, finally, after January 1, 1863, with the Slaves' mythical "freedom," the tables slowly started to turn, at New Orleans, at Vicksburg and at Port Hudson, and elsewhere, splitting the CSA and reclaiming the Mississippi River and its transport, logistics and commerce for the USA.
General John C. Fremont, USA's military commander of the Department of the West, in St. Louis, had unilaterally "freed" or "manumitted" many Missouri slaves on August 30, 1861, as a war measure, to divest the CSA of its chief resource the Slaves themselves. His Field Order was countermanded by Lincoln on September 11, 1861, out of fear and disdain.
General David Hunter did the same thing in May 1862, also as a war measure, actually having trained Slave "volunteers" to fight, in South Carolina, in regiments. This, too, Lincoln also as quickly reversed.
Meanwhile, Lincoln's own Commanding General, George C. McClellan, self-sabotaged the USA's opportunity for quick military victories, repeatedly, by delay, by miscalculation, by misinformation, and by endless excuses, say historians, until he was finally replaced, by Lincoln who favored gradual emancipation with compensation to owners.
The only General in the field that Lincoln actually learned from was Benjamin Franklin Butler, a civilian lawyer, like Lincoln. Butler had refused to return three self-liberated Slaves to their CSA owner in June 1861 at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He claimed them as "contraband of war," for the USA, using a form of legal logic that deemed Slaves to be equivalent to livestock, grain, boats, any enemy property--not dissimilar to how they were. already viewed under the U.S. Supreme Court's "Dred Scott" decision of 1857.
That clever characterization excused Butler from having to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, that required the return of slaves to their "owners" wherever found, which Lincoln was still enforcing well-after April 9, 1861, when the CSA seceded, declared and started firing!
Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, as part of a Surratt conspiracy that almost assassinated Secretary of State William H. Seward, a renown abolitionist, on that same date and time. Even so, the "freedom" of the slaves, was secured by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the USA's military victory, which their bold war effort produced. Lincoln the "Great Emancipator," was, in fact, the "Great Equivocator" that was forced into glory.
I repeat: Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves.
No! The slaves freed themselves, freed Lincoln and freed the United States of America (USA) from self-destruction.
Meanwhile, Lincoln's own Commanding General, George C. McClellan, self-sabotaged the USA's opportunity for quick military victories, repeatedly, by delay, by miscalculation, by misinformation, and by endless excuses, say historians, until he was finally replaced, by Lincoln who favored gradual emancipation with compensation to owners.
The only General in the field that Lincoln actually learned from was Benjamin Franklin Butler, a civilian lawyer, like Lincoln. Butler had refused to return three self-liberated Slaves to their CSA owner in June 1861 at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He claimed them as "contraband of war," for the USA, using a form of legal logic that deemed Slaves to be equivalent to livestock, grain, boats, any enemy property--not dissimilar to how they were. already viewed under the U.S. Supreme Court's "Dred Scott" decision of 1857.
That clever characterization excused Butler from having to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, that required the return of slaves to their "owners" wherever found, which Lincoln was still enforcing well-after April 9, 1861, when the CSA seceded, declared and started firing!
Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, as part of a Surratt conspiracy that almost assassinated Secretary of State William H. Seward, a renown abolitionist, on that same date and time. Even so, the "freedom" of the slaves, was secured by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the USA's military victory, which their bold war effort produced. Lincoln the "Great Emancipator," was, in fact, the "Great Equivocator" that was forced into glory.
I repeat: Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves.
No! The slaves freed themselves, freed Lincoln and freed the United States of America (USA) from self-destruction.