This is an absolutely incredible book about slavery and how it ended. It also has some high points, such as the following:
Alexander Stevens, who became vice-president of the Confederacy, said that the Confederacy was founded 'upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.'
Thoughts that I am sure Adolph Hitler would have agreed with.
The Confiscation Act of July, 1861, freed any slaves who were being used by the Confederate military for such things as digging fortifications, so if the Union forces overran a Confederate position, any slaves there could be free and, if they wanted, go to work for the Union forces.
There were various Union military individuals who, prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, freed slaves in certain areas. Lincoln overruled them.
The Militia Act of July, 1862, set the stage for Blacks to work for the Union forces anywhere. Any blacks doing this who had come from a position of slavery were automatically granted their freedom.
The initial idea of an Emancipation Proclamation was not met with much support among the politicians, but became a military propaganda (my term) necessity. (I use the term propaganda since the proclamation didn't actually free any of the slaves immediately since it dealt with slaves in Confederate states only, and not the border states.)
In 1864, southern general Nathan Bedford Forrest captured a place called Fort Pillow. There were 300 blacks and their officers captured. Forrest's soldiers massacred almost all if not all of them. Forrest went on after the war to become the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.
Not surprising.
The North passed a draft law on March 3, 1863. Of course, if you paid $300 or could find someone to take your place, then you got out of the draft entirely.
There's lots more like that, and lots of photos, drawings and quotations.
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