LINCOLN DID NOT FREE ONE SLAVE

THE TRUTH IS THAT LINCOLN DID NOT FREE ONE SLAVE. HE LACKED THE JURISDICTIONAL POWER IN THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, "THE SOUTH" TO FREE ANYBODY, SLAVE OR NOT. AND HE LEFT AS SLAVES THOSE IN BORDER STATES (MISSOURI, KENTUCKY, DELAWARE, MARYLAND), WHERE HE RETAINED POWER BY FORCE OF ARMS. IT WAS THE SLAVES, THEMSELVES, WHO FREED THEMSELVES BY RUNNING AWAY, BY ROWING AWAY, THEREBY RISKING RETURN TO SLAVERY BY UNION OFFICERS, UNDER OLD LAWS, SECESSION OR NOT. THIS PATTERN OF ESCAPE AND RETURN CONTINUED, UNTIL A LAWYER-COMMANDING OFFICER, MAJOR GENERAL BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER, COINED "CONTRABAND OF WAR" NOTION TO JUSTIFY HIS REFUSAL TO RETURN 3 ROW-BOAT ESCAPING MALLORY SLAVES AT FORT MONROE, VIRGINIA, MAY 1861 TO THEIR REBEL OWNER, CONFEDERATE COLONEL MALLORY. THEREAFTER, THE VIRGINIA SLAVES BEGAN FLOCKING TO THE "FREEDOM FORTRESS" F FORT MONROE, NEAR HAMPTON, FOR PROTECTION, THAT THE 3-ROW BOAT SLAVES HAD "LIBERATED", FOR THEM BY COURAGE, COMMON SENSE CALCULATION. EVENTUALLY CONGRESS SAID ANY "PROPERTY" USED BY THE SOUTH AGAINST THE UNION IN THE WAR WOULD BE CONFISCATED. SLAVES WERE STILL DEEMED "PROPERTY", WHEN THE FIRST CONFISCATION ACT WAS PASSED IN AUGUST 1861. https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Fort_Monroe_During_the_Civil_War#start_entry ON AUGUST 31, 1861, UNION GENERAL JON C. FREMONT, COMMANDER OF THE WEST, IN ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ISSUED HIS OWN "EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION" FREEING MISSOURI SLAVES. PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN RESCINDED FREMONT'S ORDER ON SEPTEMBER 11, 1861. BUT, SOME MISSOURI SLAVES WERE FREED BY IT, AND "EMANCIPATION DAY" IS NOW CELEBRATED IN SMALLER MISSOURI CITIES DUE TO IT EVEN NOW! LATER IN MAY 1862, LINCOLN RESCINDED A LIKE FREEDOM DECLARATION OF MAJOR GENERAL DAVID HUNTER, UNION COMMANDER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, WHO HAD FREED THE SLAVES OF GEORGIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, AND FLORIDA, AS "MILITARY NECESSITY". http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/hunter.htm AROUND THAT SAME TIME IN MAY, 1862, ANOTHER SMART SLAVE, ROBERT SMALLS, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, HAD REMARKABLY STOLEN A CONFEDERATE BATTLE SHIP. HE WITH ITS 8-MAN SLAVE CREW WITH ALL OF THEIR FAMILIES ON ABOARD, SAILED PAST ROWS OF CONFEDERATE MINEFIELDS, COASTAL FORT BATTERIES, BEFORE DAY IN THE MORNING. ONCE OUTSIDE THE REBEL HARBOR, THEY SURRENDERED THEIR SHIP UNDER A WHITE FLAG TO THE SHOCKED THE UNION FLEET THEN-BLOCKADING CHARLESTON HARBOR. SMALLS WAS THE PILOT OF "THE PLANTER," SO KNEW THE CONFEDERATE CODES, WATERS, AND HAD SEIZED THE VESSEL WHEN THE WHITE CAPTAIN AND OFFICERS WENT ASHORE FOR THE NIGHT IN CHARLESTON.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Smalls A SECOND CONFISCATION ACT WAS LATER PASSED BY CONGRESS JULY 1862. IT DECLARED DEATH TO TRAITORS AND FREEDOM FOR THEIR SLAVES, OR LESSER PUNISHMENT, IN THE DISCRETION OF THE COURT. http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact2.htm IN SEPTEMBER 1862, LINCOLN WARNED THAT HE WOULD ISSUE HIS EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION FREEING THE SLAVES, UNLESS THE SOUTH SURRENDERED. IT DID NOT. SO HE ISSUED HIS EPIC "EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION" ON JANUARY 1, 1863, FOR THE UNION'S "MILITARY NECESSITY." IT ENABLED THE RECRUITMENT AND ENLISTMENT OF BLACK MEN AS UNION SOLDIERS/SAILORS. THEREAFTER OVER 200,000 BLACK SAILORS AND SOLDIERS HELPED THE UNION DEFEAT THE SOUTH, PRESERVING THE UNION, AND PROCURING FREEDOM FROM CHATTEL SLAVERY FOR THEMSELVES.