The Union's Right to
Free Slaves
By Craig Bond
Thesis
• By the meaning of the word secession, Constitution provisions and
amendments, and federal actions the Union government had the right to free
the slaves in the Confederate states.
The Meaning of Secession
• The Union treated the South the way the South
wanted to be treated, as an independent Nation
with its own laws . But still said the South was still
a part of the United States
• General Benjamin Butler defined how the Union
treated the Confederate States.
The Meaning of Secession: Counterarguments
• Opponents to this believe that since the Union says that the Confederate
States are still apart of the Union that means federal laws still apply to the
Southern States.
Constitutional Provisions
• Article 1, Section 8 gives Congress the right to make provisions on the
captures on land and water
• Article1, Section 10 states that no state is allowed to form a Confederacy
Federal Actions
• 1st and 2nd Confiscation Acts
• The Emancipation Proclamation
Federal Actions: Counterarguments
• Opponents believe that the Federal Actions implemented were
unconstitutional.
References
•
The constitution of the United States: A transcription. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
•
Emancipation digital classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/emancipation/2012/07/14/congressional-confiscationacts/
•
Emancipation proclamation. (1997). In The Civil War Society's Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Wings Books.
•
The first confiscation act. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact1.htm
•
Foner, E. (Writer). (2014, December 23). MOOC | Beginnings of Emancipation | The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1865 | 2.2.6 [Video file].
Retrieved May 19, 2015, from MOOC | Beginnings of Emancipation | The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1865 | 2.2.6
•
Neely, M. E., Jr. (2014). Origins of the Civil War and the Contest for the Borderlands. In C. J. Rogers, T. Seidule, & S. J. Watson (Authors), The West Point
history of the Civil War (pp. 21-56). New York City, NY: Simon &Schuster.
•
The second confiscation act. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/conact2.htm
•
U.S. House. (n.d.). The congressional globe (pp. 166-168) (E. Babbitt, Author) [H.R. Rept. from 37th Cong., 2nd sess.]. Retrieved May 8, 2015, from
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwcglink.html#anchor37
http://www.underthefreedomtree.com/gallery/union-major-general-benjami.html