A
New Birth of Freedom:
Reconstruction During the Civil War
At the war's
outset, the Lincoln administration insisted that restoring the Union was
its only purpose. But as slaves by the thousands abandoned the plantations
and headed for Union lines, and military victory eluded the North, the
president made the destruction of slavery a war aim -- a decision announced
in the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863.
The
Proclamation also authorized the enlistment of black soldiers.
By the end of the Civil War, some 200,000 black soldiers had served in
the Union army and navy, staking a claim to citizenship in the postwar
nation.
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During the war, "rehearsals for Reconstruction" took place in the Union-occupied South. On the
South Carolina Sea Islands, the former slaves demanded land of
their own, while government officials and Northern investors urged them
to return to work on the plantations.
In addition, a group of young Northern reformers came to the islands to educate the freedpeople and assist in the transition from slavery to freedom. The conflicts among these groups offered a preview of the national debate over Reconstruction.