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Zusatztext “McPherson shatters the belief that [blacks] were passive about their freedom. His evidence is telling and! what is more! it is absorbingly retold.” — The New York Times “Vital reading.” – The New York Times Book Review “A highly accurate and praiseworthy contribution.” – The San Francisco Chronicle “Rewarding. . . . Fascinating in detail.” – The Christian Science Monitor “Tremendous research. . . . Deserves a place on the shelves of readers interested in all phases of the 1861-65 struggle.” – Houston Chronicle “Impressive. . . . This collection of material is a valuable contribution to history.” – Charleston Evening Post Informationen zum Autor James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor of History, Emeritus at Princeton University. America’s leading historian of the Civil War, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom, which was a New York Times bestseller, and he won the Lincoln Prize for For Cause and Comrades. Klappentext In this classic study! Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson deftly narrates the experience of blacks--former slaves and soldiers! preachers! visionaries! doctors! intellectuals! and common people--during the Civil War. Drawing on contemporary journalism! speeches! books! and letters! he presents an eclectic chronicle of their fears and hopes as well as their essential contributions to their own freedom. Through the words of these extraordinary participants! both Northern and Southern! McPherson captures African-American responses to emancipation! the shifting attitudes toward Lincoln and the life of black soldiers in the Union army. Above all! we are allowed to witness the dreams of a disenfranchised people eager to embrace the rights and the equality offered to them! finally! as citizens. CHAPTER I THE ELECTION OF 1860 AND THE COMING OF WAR The election of 1860 appeared to promise Negroes little hope for the future. In the first place, few black men could vote. The slaves and free Negroes of the South were disfranchised, of course, and in the North only the New England states (except Connecticut) allowed Negroes to vote on the same terms as whites. All the other Northern states except New York and Ohio denied the ballot to black men. In Ohio only those Negroes with a greater visible admixture of white than black blood were admitted to the polls. New York Negroes could vote only if they possessed property worth $250. In the second place, none of the four major parties contending for the presidency championed the cause of the Negro. The Constitutional Union party and the two factions of the Democratic party were pledged to preserve or even to strengthen the institution of slavery. The Republican party, nominally antislavery, was officially opposed only to the extension of slavery into the new territories. No major political party proposed to take action against slavery where it already existed. During the campaign, Democrats charged that if the Republicans won the election, they would abolish slavery and grant civil equality to Negroes. "That is not so," rejoined Horace Greeley, an influential Republican spokesman. "Never on earth did the Republican Party propose to abolish slavery. . . . Its object with respect to Slavery is simply, nakedly, avowedly, its restriction to the existing states." Most Republican orators echoed Greeley's statement. Lincoln himself had repeatedly voiced his opposition to equal rights for free Negroes. And although Lincoln had a deep-rooted moral abhorrence of slavery, he favored no stronger measures against the institution than its exclusion from the territories. It is not surprising, therefore, that many black men had little faith in either the Democratic or the Republican party. The Anglo-African, a weekly newspaper founded in 1859 by Thomas Hamilto...
