From property to person
Subtitle: slavery and the Confiscation Acts, 1861-1862
By: Silvana R. Siddali.
Series: Conflicting worlds
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Baton Rouge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 298
Subjects: United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Confiscations and contributions
Description: "Most historians accept the proposition that in the first two years of the Civil War the North's primary aim was to reestablish the Union and the Constitution, not to emancipate slaves. But when northerners began clamoring for the confiscation of southern land and slaves as a punitive, military, and revenue-raising tactic, the constitutional right to personal property, particularly human property, came into question. In From Property to Person, Silvana R. Siddali traces the resulting discourse among northern voters, politicians, military leaders, and President Lincoln, elucidating how emancipation ultimately became an essential political cause in the North." "In an analysis of editorials, pamphlets, letters, and congressional speeches, From Property to Person reveals the swift transformation in rhetoric concerning the Constitution and its protection of private property rights. The Confiscation Acts paved the way for the Reconstruction Amendments by fostering support for a broader reach by the federal government into private property rights and envisioning a new interpretation of an individual citizen's rights and obligations."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [263]-291) and index.
Table of contents: title: Confederate property seizures and the northern home front during the secession crisis; title: Privateers, debt repudiation, and the "contraband"; title: Congress debates the confiscation of rebel property in 1861; title: The first Confiscation Act and the emancipation of slaves; title: John C. Frémont and Simon Cameron attempt to emancipate slaves and punish rebels; title: The Second Confiscation Act debated in Congress; title: Slavery and the constitution; title: The northern public, slavery, and hard war; title: Southern land and slaves; title: War powers and confiscation; title: Conclusion : the passage and the failure of the Second Confiscation Act.