Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans
to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War

Bruce Levine, professor of history, University of California, Santa Cruz
"Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves During the Civil War"
Mon., Jan. 30; 3:30 pm
569 Hamilton Hall
UNC Campus

Free and open to the public.
Visitor Parking information here: http://www.unc.edu/visitors/parking.html

The relationship between slavery and the Civil War has been a hot-button topic over the years. Prof. Bruce Levine re-examines this subject through the lens provided by an extraordinary episode in that war -- the proposal to arm slaves to fight against Union troops and to reward those who did so with their freedom. Initially rejected by the Confederate government, that proposal won the support of both Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee by the end of 1864, and a version of that plan became law a few months later. What did this plan signify? What light does it shed on secession, the Civil War, and the nature of southern society in that era?