16. Days of Jubilee: The Meanings of Emancipation and Total War

The Civil War and Reconstruction (HIST 119)

This lecture focuses on the process of emancipation after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The Proclamation, Professor Blight suggests, had four immediate effects: it made the Union army an army of emancipation; it encouraged slaves to strike against slavery; it committed the US to a policy of emancipation in the eyes of Europe; and it allowed African Americans to enlist in the Union Army. In the end, ten percent of Union soldiers would be African American. A number of factors, Professor Blight suggests, combined to influence the timing of emancipation in particular areas of the South, including geography, the nature of the slave society, and the proximity of the Union army.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Freed Slaves on the Battlefield
06:58 - Chapter 2. The Immediate Effects of the Emancipation Proclamation and Ensuing Domestic Criticisms
24:47 - Chapter 3. Which Slaves Are Free? Which Slaves Can Fight?
31:01 - Chapter 4. Recognizing and Mobilizing Emancipation: The Story of Wallace Turnage
42:22 - Chapter 5. Higginson's Account of the Proclamation and Conclusion

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2008.