Lincoln's Proclamation: Emancipation Reconsidered.

Smith, Michael Thomas

Lincoln's Proclamation: Emancipation Reconsidered. Edited by William A. Blair and Karen Fisher Younger. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. 233 pp.

This engaging collection of essays is intended to enhance our appreciation of what the editors and contributors convincingly argue to be one of Abraham Lincoln's most ill understood state papers: the Emancipation Proclamation. That 1862 document, issued under the guise of Lincoln's wartime powers as commander in chief and based on a claim of wartime necessity, only freed the slaves in areas then in rebellion (i.e., the Confederate states but not the loyal border states or even occupied areas of the South). Nor was its language especially memorable, particularly compared to some of Lincoln's most famous speeches. As such, historians have sometimes claimed that the proclamation was of relative unimportance and demonstrated Lincoln's limited commitment to emancipation and equality for the freed people. These essays, originally delivered as part of Penn State's Brose Lectures series, effectively place this critical document in the context of larger nineteenth-century debates over the evolving meaning of freedom in America, and help give us a more complex understanding of its vital role within that process.

Paul Finkelman's contribution traces the evolution of Lincoln's administration's policy toward slavery, from initially disclaiming any intention of attacking the "peculiar institution," to an ever more radical embrace of policies of confiscation of slaves in the Confederacy as "contraband of war," and, ultimately, to emancipation. Finkelman nicely refutes Richard Hofstadter's famous dismissal of Lincoln's proclamation as possessing "all the moral grandeur of a bill of lading" (p. 41). Bills of lading, the author notes, were vital legal documents in the nineteenth century, which helped ensure the smooth transfer of goods, and the veteran lawyer Lincoln realized that it was critical for slaves' freedom that this process have an unassailably solid legal grounding. Mark Neely effectively challenges the prevailing interpretation of the role of colonization for African Americans in the Civil War president's thinking. Rather than seeing Lincoln's advocacy of the deportation of blacks following emancipation as a somewhat deceptive means of preparing unready whites for this revolutionary change, Neely sees it more as a reflection of Lincoln's own somewhat confused (though rapidly evolving) thinking about the issue. His careful attention to the chronology of Lincoln's conflicting statements about the issue in the months leading up to the issuance of the proclamation is particularly illuminating.

The other essays are of comparably high quality and originality. Richard Cawardine argues that Lincoln's attention to opinion in the North's politically important evangelical Protestant denominations played a previously underestimated role in his decision making, despite what has often been seen as his personal distance from churchgoing Christianity. Steven Hahn emphasizes the role of the slaves themselves in the process of emancipation, with what he sees as their truly revolutionary commitment to furthering this process through a variety of means, including running away into the Union lines, ultimately forcing the federal authorities toward a more radical policy. Stephanie McCurry's very illuminating essay argues that just as wartime military service legitimized many African American men's claims to freedom, so too did the embrace of the role of wives to these new citizens provide a vital basis for the claims to this new status by African American women, whose militancy and determination she emphasizes. Michael Vorenberg provides a useful overview of the arguments over the meaning of the very U.S. citizenship to which the freed people laid claim, noting that an individual's affective loyalty to the nation (as well as birthright) played a critical role in defining this elusive status. Contrary to those who have argued that the Emancipation Proclamation superficially did not alter the status of blacks in the border slave states, Louis Gerteis contends that the enlistment of African Americans in the military, in particular, struck a decisive blow against slavery, even in this region. Finally, William Blair examines the commemoration (or lack of it) of emancipation in the United States, as well as other societies, finding that it is commonly overlooked, despite its importance, partly because governments seemingly see little tourism revenue to be generated through events that deal directly with the brutal, dismal legacy of slavery. These essays and this welcome collection, however, thankfully do not turn their back on this important subject.

--Michael Thomas Smith

McNeese State University