The Civil War brought an end to slavery in America. Of course, it would have ended in time without the War. No civilized nation today still allows slavery. But without the War it would not have ended so suddenly. Gradual abolishment would have been more likely, similar to the process followed by England and some northern states. New Jersey, for one, was still in that process at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Ironically, the South's early successes in the War worked against them in the end. An early defeat might have permitted slavery to continue for years to come. In the first half of the War, President Lincoln and the majority of Northerners wanted to restore the Union with as little change as possible. In his Annual Message to Congress in December, 1862, Lincoln proposed that each state should have its own plan of gradual, compensated emancipation to be completed before 1900. That opportunity ended January 1, 1863, with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln's September 22, 1862 proclamation warning the South to return to the Union within 100 days or face the loss of their slaves had gone unheeded.
The Emancipation Proclamation may have been one of the great landmarks in American history, but it was also the cause for perhaps the greatest instantaneous loss of property in American history, in terms of the wealth of the day. The first time I saw a tax roll for a Florida county, I was shocked at the value placed on slaves. Five hundred dollars each was about minimum, and it was not uncommon to value some slaves at $1,000 or more. This was a time when land could be purchased from the Federal government for $1.25 per acre, and in some cases for as little as 12.5 cents per acre. One slave was worth as much as hundreds and even thousands of acres of land. Most families in West Florida could not scrape up enough money to buy much more than 40 acres of land. Slave ownership for them was out of the question, regardless of how they felt about it.
But some families had wealth. And those that did very likely owned slaves, perhaps also regardless of how they felt about it. There simply were few other vehicles in West Florida at the time for storing wealth. It was pointless to buy huge tracts of uncultivated land unless you bought the slaves to work them. West Florida land was generally too poor for land speculation. Moreover, all of the land in Florida put together was worth only a fraction of the value of its 62,000 slaves. There was little industry to invest in, and an investment in industry might also include an investment in slaves. The Arcadia Manufacturing Company of Santa Rosa County, for example, was operated with 100 slaves. Banks were not plentiful or large. The total paid in capital for all 3 state-chartered banks in Florida was equivalent to the value of only about 3 or 4 hundred slaves.
To put the economic importance of slaves in West Florida into perspective, let's look at the 1863 Walton County tax roll. The total of the property values in the county was distributed as follows:
Real estate......................14% Farm animals...................24% Money and notes.............11% Other personal property...6% Slaves..............................45%
Moreover, Walton County was one of the smallest slaveholding counties in West Florida, with 17 slaves/100 whites. The West Florida average was 79 slaves/100 whites, coincidentally the same as for Florida as a whole. It should be noted, however, that the counties west of the Apalachicola River averaged only 43 slaves/100 whites. It was Leon County, with its 351 slaves/100 whites, which brought West Florida up to the statewide average. The following map shows slave ownership in each of the West Florida counties in proportion to the white population.
The Emancipation Proclamation declared that the slaves in most of the Confederacy were instantaneously free. In West Florida alone, $20 million of property vanished. Of course, there still remained the practical matter of enforcing the Proclamation, and that couldn't be done completely until May 20, 1865, when the Confederate forces in Florida were formally surrendered in Tallahassee.
Consider the economic predicament facing West Florida (and the Confederacy). Lose the War and lose $20 million in property ($50 million for all of Florida). In the 4 border states and the District of Columbia alone, Lincoln estimated that it would cost the United States $173 million in compensation to induce those states to voluntarily abolish slavery. How much should the Confederacy expend to save this property? In Florida, a surprisingly small amount of money was spent. According to Charlton W. Tebeau in A History of Florida, the total cost of the War for Florida was about $2.25 million. If correct, that amounted to only about $36 per slave, a slave valued on average at over $800. If only money were at stake, that would have been a very small investment considering the amount of property at stake.
Of course, the War cost more than money. Florida lost about 5,000 soldiers during the War. Few of them owned slaves, particularly those from some of the West Florida counties. County by county, there were great disparities in the sacrifices expected in comparison to the property to be "saved." The extreme example was Holmes County. Holmes County's proportionate share was 76 dead soldiers for every 100 slaves in the county. At the other end of the spectrum was Leon County, with a loss of 2 soldiers per 100 slaves. With such inequality, one would have to suspect less enthusiasm for the Southern cause in Holmes County than in Leon County. The following map shows the number of soldiers which each county sacrificed per 100 slaves in the county, if it met the statewide average.
Contrary to popular belief, the Emancipation Proclamation did not, in itself, end slavery in America. It only applied to the slave states then engaged in the rebellion, and not even to all parts of them. The parts of Louisiana and Virginia occupied by Union forces were exempt. There were something like 1/2 million slaves which were unaffected by the Emancipation Proclamation, including the border states which had not joined the Confederacy. Moreover, the validity of the Proclamation can be and was questioned. Seven days after its issuance, the Illinois legislature issued a resolution condemning it. The President of the United States clearly did not have the authority to abolish slavery in the states. Under the pretext of a war measure designed to weaken the enemy, Lincoln was able to argue that he had the authority for the limited effect of the Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery was well protected by the Constitution, and only an amendment to the Constitution could change that. When Lincoln was visited by Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens in February, 1865, Lincoln indicated that the Proclamation was a War measure and as soon as the War ceased it would be inoperative for the future and would only apply to such slaves as had come under its operation while it was in active exercise. He also indicated that the issue of slavery would be one for each state to solve in its own way (but that it must come to an end). I question whether Lincoln was entirely correct even in this statement. Whatever authority the President might have had during times of war to confiscate property of actual rebels, the confiscation might have been overturned by the Supreme Court after the War for those slave owners who had not actually participated in the rebellion.
To abolish slavery entirely, the Constitution had to be amended. That required approval by 3/4 of the states. It was never possible prior to the Civil War, and never would have been unless a sufficient number of "free" states entered the Union to offset the number of slave states. Fear of that eventually happening had been behind the bloody entry of Kansas and was probably the major force which precipitated the Civil War. But, in reality, it was a long way off at the outbreak of the Civil War when there were but 34 states. Approval by 26 would have been required to amend the Constitution, and only 19 were free states at the time. If every new state added thereafter entered the Union as a free state, the slave states still could not have the constitution amended against their will until there were a total of 60 states in the Union. That is, so long as all 15 slaves states remained slave states.
During the War Nevada was added as a free state. So were the western counties of Virginia as the separate state of West Virginia. Nine territories were also added to the Union during the War. With no opposition from Southern Congressmen possible, slavery was abolished in the territories. Eventually, these nine would become free states. Thus, before the War was over, the South was facing the prospect of reentering a Union which would soon have at least 44 states, of which 30 would be free states. That would be only 3 short of the 3/4 needed to amend the constitution. With that in view, Lincoln's proposal to compensate the 4 border states to induce them to abolish slavery made a lot of sense. In fact, Maryland did abolish slavery in 1864. Slavery in America had a short future. A negotiated peace which would have permitted the South to reenter the Union and continue slavery had become almost pointless for the Confederacy. The fear which precipitated the War was close to a reality before the War was over.
Although the North began the effort to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution for the purpose of abolishing slavery before the War was over, it was not finally ratified until December 6, 1865, some months after all Confederate troops had surrendered. Among the states ratifying it by that date were all of the former Confederate states except Florida, Texas and Mississippi. The former Confederate states were, of course, under the control of Union troops at the time. Florida eventually ratified it, although its approval was superfluous by then. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified July 9, 1868, among a number of other things, prohibited the United States and all states from paying compensation for the loss of slaves.
The essence of the Thirteenth Amendment is in Section 1, where it states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
Surprisingly, the 13th Amendment did not end slavery entirely in the United States. Thousand of slaves were still owned by Indians, which were foreign nations as far as the Constitution was concerned. It was necessary to negotiate treaties with each of them to end slavery. A treaty with the Seminoles was concluded March 21, 1866; The Choctaws and Chickasaws on April 28, 1866; the Creeks on June 14, 1866; and the Cherokees on July 19, 1866.
Now, surely slavery was over in the United States. Well, not quite. When Maryland voluntarily abolished slavery in 1864, it adopted an apprenticeship system which forced about 10,000 Negro youths into forced labor. It was not until 1867 that the system was banned. Some 4 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery in America finally came to an end.
If the Emancipation Proclamation didn't end slavery, why was it so important? In one view, it was the effect the Proclamation had on Negroes that made it so important. They didn't concern themselves with the subtleties of Constitutional Law. They saw themselves as free or very soon to be, and with so much enthusiasm and conviction, that it was no longer possible for anything else to occur. The door had been left ajar, and nothing could prevent the wind from blowing it open.
The following is a summary of the preliminary proclamation of September 22, 1862 and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Proclamation of Sept. 22, 1862
1. The war has been prosecuted to restore the Union and will continued to be prosecuted for that reason.
2. The President will again recommend that Congress offer payment to slave states not in rebellion to induce them to abolish slavery, either immediately or gradually.
3. Efforts to colonize freed slaves abroad will be continued.
4. On January 1, 1863, slaves in any state or part of a state still in rebellion will be declared free. The President will at that time designate the states and parts of state still in rebellion. A return of representatives to Congress shall be considered evidence that a state is no longer in rebellion.
5. Attention is called to the War Act of July 17,1862, which freed the slaves of owners engaged in the rebellion after that date, but only slaves who escaped from their owner, were captured from their owner or were found within any place occupied by Union forces that had previously been occupied by Rebel forces.
6. The President will recommend that citizens who remained loyal throughout the rebellion be compensated for their loss of slaves.
The Emancipation Proclamation
1. The following are declared to be in rebellion: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except for certain named parts), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except for certain named parts).
2. All slaves within the designated areas are declared to be henceforward free and the military of the United States will recognize and maintain their freedom.
3. The freed slaves are asked to abstain from violence and to labor for reasonable wages.
4. The freed slaves will be received into the armed service of the United States.