"I, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."

John Brown was the "The meteor of the war," as author Herman Melville called him. John Brown was an abolitionist, and a religious fanatic. Some say that John Brown is a martyr. Brown believed he was an instrument of God.

Abolitionist John Brown in 1856.

Before the Civil War began, Brown’s abolitionist actions stirred and heated the boiling cauldron of events leading to the war. In May of 1856, John Brown and four of his sons shot and hacked to death five pro-slavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. In 1859, Brown and a band of 21 men seized the United States Armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown was hanged for this on December 2, 1859 at Charles Town, Virginia. John Brown’s Gallows’ site can still be toured today in Charles Town, West Virginia.

It should be noted that West Virginia became the 35th state of the Union on June 20, 1863. At the time of John Brown’s activities at Harpers Ferry, this part of West Virginia still belonged to the state of Virginia.

John Brown Quotes:

"Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!"
– John Brown, discussing matters with a neighbor, after the neighbor saw a need to give warning to John Brown.

"I don’t think the people of the slave states will ever consider the subject of slavery in its true light till some other argument is resorted to other than moral persuasion."
– Abolitionist John Brown’s words of October, 1859. On December 2, 1859 John Brown was hanged for treason after seizing the United States Armory at Harpers Ferry – part of Brown’s plan to present "some other argument" to the slave states.

"When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I want you to help hive them." – John Brown’s words to Frederick Douglass before Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry in October, 1859. Brown did strike, but unfortunately for him, the "bees" never did begin to swarm. The United States Marines, commanded by Robert E. Lee, did swarm and ended Brown’s siege of Harpers Ferry.   "Had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of their friends…and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference…every man in this court would have deemed it worthy of reward rather than punishment." – John Brown, speaking on November 2, 1859 during his sentencing.

Barnes&Noble: Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War

"If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments-I submit; so let it be done."
– John Brown, speaking on November 2, 1859 during his sentencing. John Brown would be hanged.

"I have been whipped, as the saying is, but I am sure I can recover all the lost capital occasioned by that disaster; by only hanging a few moments by the neck; and I feel quite determined to make the utmost possible out of a defeat."
– John Brown, to his wife. On December 2, 1859 John Brown was hanged by the neck (and perhaps for more than "a few moments") for treason.

"This is a beautiful country."
– Spoken by John Brown while seated on his coffin, as he rode to his execution on the gallows.

"I, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."
– John Brown said nothing on the gallows, but handed a note containing these words to a guard. The outbreak of the Civil War in April, 1861 proved John Brown prophetic.

Abolitionist John Brown, with His Autograph 12 in. x 16 in. Buy This Allposters.com

John Brown Stops to Greet a Black Child on His Way to Execution, 1859 12 in. x 16 in. Buy This Allposters.com

John Brown 12 in. x 16 in. Buy This Allposters.com

Quotes about John Brown:

"So perish all such enemies of Virginia! All such enemies of the Union! All such foes of the human race!"
– Colonel Preston of the Virginia militia said these words to the crowd that had gathered to see John Brown hang. A member of the Virginia militia who was present, was an actor named John Wilkes Booth. Booth would later make tragic history in April of 1865. Also in the crowd were cadets from the Virginia Military Institute led by Thomas J. Jackson, later to be known as "Stonewall Jackson" of the Confederacy.

Hanging from the beam,
Slowly swaying (such the law),
Gaunt the shadow on your green,
     Shenandoah!
The cut is on the crown
(Lo, John Brown),
And the stabs shall heal no more.
– Herman Melville, "The Portent."

"John Brown died on a scaffold for the slave; Dark was the hour when we dug is hallowed grave; Now God avenges the life he gladly gave, Freedom reigns today!"
– This is called "The President’s Proclamation" and you should sing it using the tune from "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

"Old John Brown…agreed with us thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right."
– Abraham Lincoln

John Brown going to be hanged.

And Old Brown Old Osawatomie Brown, May trouble you more than ever, when you’ve nailed his coffin down! – Anderson’s "A Voice From Harpers Ferry." Earlier in his abolitionist career, John Brown was in Osawatomie, Kansas and there he murdered five pro-slavery men with help from four of his sons. This was Brown’s response to the pro-slave raid made on Lawrence, Kansas in 1856.

"Nobody was ever more justly hanged."
– Nathaniel Hawthorne on John Brown.

"You rejoiced at the occasion, and were only troubled that there were not three times as many killed in the affair. You were in evident glee-there was no sorrow for the killed nor for the peace of Virginia disturbed-you were rejoicing that by charging Republicans with this thing you might get an advantage on us."
– Abraham Lincoln, March 6, 1860. Lincoln was referring to the Democrat opinion of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.

"The murderer and robber & fire-raiser so notorious for these crimes in his Kansas career, & now the attempter of the thousand-fold horrors in Virginia, is, for these reasons, the present idol of the north."
– Edmund Ruffin, November of 1859. Ruffin is referring to John Brown, the fanatic abolitionist. Ruffin was a strong secessionist and is credited with firing the first shot at Fort Sumter, but this fact can be questioned. On June 15, 1865 after the Civil War had come to an end, Ruffin committed suicide by shooting himself "because he was unwilling to live under the US government."

The result proves that the plan was the attempt of a fanatic or madman."
– Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee commenting on John Brown’s raid upon Harper’s Ferry.

"The meteor of the war."
– Herman Melville (Moby Dick author) on John Brown.

LearnCivilWarHistory.com presents this excellent rendition of John Brown’s Body by gloriajane1 for your enjoyment. Thank you gloriajean1 and best wishes.

John Brown’s Body

gloriajane1 | September 29, 2009 | 4:29

Back around the time that Christians, abolitionists, free blacks, anti-slavery activists and Kansas land owners first formed the Republican party, John Brown an abolitionist and baptist preacher, gave his life to put an end to slavery. During the civil war northern soldiers sang this old song as they marched off to battle. After "Julia Ward Howe" heard Union troops singing this, the original version of the song, she wrote her own words to it’s tune. Soon after, her version was published in the "Atlantic Monthly" as "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic"…gloriajane1

These two parts of Virginia that were separated physically by the Alleghenies, were also separated from one another in other ways. Western Virginia was made up of thirty-five counties located west of the Shenandoah Valley and north of the Kanawa River. In 1860, this part of Virginia had one quarter of Virginia’s white population. This area of Virginia’s geography is very rough country made up mostly of hills and steep mountainsides with narrow valleys. The geography of western Virginia separated it significantly from the more lowland eastern tidewater part of the state. It’s fair to say that Western Virginia was a land of mountaineers.

Proposed state of Kanawha – 1862

The western part of Virginia was more closely tied by roads and rivers to its northern neighboring states of Ohio and Pennsylvania than it was to eastern Virginia. The two sections of Virginia were different in geography, culture, and economics as the western part identified more with Ohio and Pennsylvania in these regards. The western Virginia city of Wheeling was the largest city in that area and it is a mere 60 miles from Pittsburgh. In contrast, from Wheeling to Richmond it was 330 miles! An important difference between western and eastern Virginia was that it was rare to find slave owners and slaves in the rugged country of the mountaineers.

The mountaineers looked at the people of eastern Virginia as “tidewater aristocrats” and because of the larger population in the eastern part of the state, the mountaineers were underrepresented in the state legislature. The tidewater aristocrats dominated Virginia’s state government. The Virginia state legislature had passed laws and taxes that favored the eastern tidewater aristocrats more so than they did the mountaineers of western Virginia. The mountaineers needed more roads and railroads, and other internal improvements, that instead often found their way to the tidewater aristocrat’s eastern part of the state.

Discord had been stewing for years amongst the two sections of Virginia before Virginia seceded from the Union. Separate statehood for western Virginia was not a new idea at the start of the Civil War, and now it would come to the vanguard. With Virginia’s secession from the Union, the unhappiness and disagreement between the mountaineers and the tidewater aristocrats of Virginia only increased. Only five of the thirty-one delegates from northwestern Virginia voted for the Virginia secession ordinance on April 17, 1861. The mountaineer people of Virginia rejected the secession ordinance ratification by a margin of three to one. The Virginian mountaineers had little interest in secession from the Union, but it came because of the domination of votes and representation of the pro-secession eastern part of Virginia. On June 11, 1861 mountaineer Unionists met at a convention in Wheeling. The focus of this convention was separate statehood for western Virginia. However, there was a hurdle that stood in the way of western Virginia’s statehood, it was something called the United States Constitution.

Barnes&Noble: Civil War in West Virginia

Seems that Article IV, Section 3, of the United States Constitution requires consent of the legislature to form a new state from the territory of an existing one. Now, as hard as it might be to believe, the Confederate legislature over in Richmond wasn’t eager to allow western Virginia to become a separate state … and one that would be in the Union to boot. For the mountaineers and their quest for their own state, there just had to be a solution to this United States Constitution problem, someway, somehow.

The answer for western Virginia was for the Wheeling convention to ingeniously form its own Virginia “restored government.” You see, that Confederate legislature over east in Richmond, that secessionist one, is illegal and so the Wheeling mountaineers declared all state offices vacant. The Wheeling convention appointed new state officials on June 20. Francis Pierpoint was now governor of Virginia, and the new state capital was now in Wheeling. All these changes, as far as the Unionist western Virginia mountaineers were concerned, restored the state of Virginia.

Although this new Virginia legislature was in place, it really represented only one-fifth of Virginia, that being the mountaineers of the northwest counties. Nonetheless, it elected two United States senators from Virginia, and on July 13, 1861 these senators were seated by the United States Senate. Soon too, the United States House of Representatives had three congressmen from western Virginia.

In effect, there now was a Union Virginia claiming to represent all of Virginia, but actually only being made up of the mountaineer northwest part of the state, and there was a Confederate Virginia with its government in Richmond with its patronage of “tidewater aristocrats” who had seceded from the Union. President Abraham Lincoln recognized the Pierpoint administration as the government of Virginia. Obviously, President Lincoln was not going to recognize Virginia’s Confederate version of government as legitimate.

The Wheeling convention ended, and then it reconvened in August, 1861. Now a long debate began between separatists and a conservative minded faction who thought it improper that the new legislature was claiming to represent the entire state. In reality, the new legislature only represented the mountaineers of western Virginia, and this region only consisted of one-fifth of all of Virginia’s counties. Nevertheless, despite this debate, the Wheeling convention continued to move forward with its agenda … to form a new state.

On August 20, the Wheeling convention adopted what was called an “ordinance of dismemberment.” An ordinance for separate statehood had now been created. This ordinance would be subject to ratification on October 24, 1861 by the voters. Voters would also be able at this time to elect delegates for a constitutional convention, the purpose of which was for the formation of a new state to be named “Kanawha.” [The name "Kanawha" is an Native American word. It is believed to mean "place of white stone." ]

Now, there were some military concerns that had to be handled concurrently with all this new state conventioning and formation going on in western Virginia. I will discuss the military operations of western Virginia completely in a future post, where they can be addressed fully and receive the attention they deserve. Important military assets such as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Ohio River were integral to western Virginia and their control was desired by both Yankees and Rebels. Suffice it to say for now, that Union military efforts in western Virginia were sufficient enough to rid the area of Confederate military problems, thus clearing the way for a new state to come about. This brief mention of the military operations in western Virginia is not to short-change them, they were significant. Indeed, without Union military dominance over Rebel troops in western Virginia, the formation of a new state would not have been possible.

Union military success in western Virginia allowed the October 24, 1861 referendum to occur. Voter turn-out was small, and voters (those of a Rebel ilk) in more than a dozen counties actually boycotted the election. The end result however, was that the creation of a new state was strongly endorsed.

West Virginia counties map

Boundaries for the new state were set during the constitutional convention held in January, 1862. There would be fifty counties in the new state and the new state would not be called Kanawha, but instead West Virginia. On May 23, 1862 West Virginia was sanctioned by the restored legislature of Virginia. The United States Congress would not allow a slave state to enter the Union, so first a bill requiring emancipation in West Virginia was passed in the United States Senate in July, 1862. It passed in the United States House of Representatives the following December. West Virginia accepted emancipation as a condition to statehood.

The eastern aristocrats still had their Confederate state of Virginia, but they lost some state territory as on July 4, 1863, the new state of West Virginia joined the Union.

West Virginia state flag.

West Virginia became the 35th state of the Union.

Barnes&Noble: Civil War in West Virginia: A Pictorial History

The Convention, by its pretended ordinances, has required the people of Virginia to separate from and wage war against the government of the United States, and against the citizens of neighboring State, with whom they have heretofore maintained friendly, social and business relations: It has attempted to subvert the Union founded by Washington and his co-patriots in the purer days of the republic, which has conferred unexampled prosperity upon every class of citizens, and upon every section of the country: It has attempted to transfer the allegiance of the people to an illegal confederacy of rebellious States, and required their submission to its pretended edicts and decrees:

While Vermont’s contribution to the Union during the Civil War is significant, Civil War events in Vermont are not significant. Nevertheless, your BlogMaster will discuss an interesting Vermont Civil War event.

Vermont and the Civil War
In 1777, Vermont proclaims itself as an independent state. The second article of the Vermont Constitution abolishes slavery, making Vermont the first state to abolish slavery. In the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln won a decisive victory in Vermont with voting results as follows:

• Abraham Lincoln – 33,808
• Stephen Douglas – 8,649
• John C. Breckenridge – 1,866
• John Bell – 217

“Vermont will do its Full Duty.”
Vermont had three governors during the Civil War, they were Erastus Fairbanks (1860-1861), Frederick Holbrook (1861-1863), and J. Gregory Smith (1863-1865). All were Republicans.

When the Federal Government called for troops, Governor Fairbanks stated “Vermont will do its Full Duty” and Vermont did so by providing the Union with six infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, two light artillery batteries, and three sharpshooter companies. Vermont also built three military hospitals.

During the Civil War Vermont provided to the Union:

• Over 28,100 men who served in volunteer units
• 17 infantry regiments
• 1 cavalry regiment
• 3 light artillery batteries
• 1 heavy artillery company
• 3 sharpshooter companies
• 2 frontier cavalry companies

Green Mountain State men in the Civil War also suffered during their service:

• During battle, 1,832 were killed or mortally wounded
• Disease claimed 3,362 men, either in prison or otherwise
• Over 2,200 Vermont men were taken prisoner
• Vermont men who died while prisoners of war totaled 615

Vermont provided the Union with men who carried with them to Civil War battlefields the reputation and pride of the Revolutionary War Green Mountain Boys. During the Civil War, the youngest to ever to win the Medal of Honor was Vermonter Willie Johnston. Sixty-three other men from Vermont also won the Medal of Honor.

St. Albans Raid

Despite the fury and carnage of the Civil War occurring in other parts of the country, the people of Vermont led a peaceful life during the war years. St. Albans Raid however, muddied the water somewhat for the quiet village of St. Albans. St. Albans is located on the shore of Lake Champlain, only fifteen miles from the Canadian Border.

On October 10, 1864 three young men check in at a hotel in St. Albans. They explain they are from St. John’s Canada (Canada at this time, was the Province of Canada, and part of the British Empire) and are on a sporting vacation. Their leader signs the hotel register as Bennet Young, another signs in as George Sanders. More men from St. John’s regularly arrive at the hotel in groups of two or three every day or so, their sporting vacation in the small St. Albans village is shaping up to be a big affair. Finally, a total of twenty-one young men (they averaged 23 years of age), arrived over nine days. They seemed to be a friendly bunch of young men.

At 3:00 P.M. on October 19, 1864 the Canadian sporting vacation to St. Albans gives way to the real reason and mission for the young men gathering in St. Albans. The friendly young men are actually Confederate cavalrymen who were taken prisoner by Union troops, but had escaped to Canada. They were at St. Albans on authority of the Confederate government to steal money for the Confederate Treasury and to distract Federal troops away from their lines. They were not friendly.

Barnes&Noble: A War of the People: Vermont Civil War Letters A War of the People: Vermont Civil War Letters

The raiding Confederates divide into three groups and simultaneously enter the three banks of St. Albans. Confederate agent George Sanders has drawn his gun as he climbs the steps of the hotel and shouts: “This city is now in the possession of the Confederate States of America!” The Civil War has come to St. Albans, Vermont with Confederates soldiers taking over the town, galloping about and threatening the Vermont Yankees with guns. The Confederates rob the St. Albans banks of $208,000. While the bank robbing is going on, eight or nine other Confederates gather townspeople to the town common, threatening them with drawn guns and stealing their horses. Confederate Lieutenant Bennett Young orders his men to set St. Albans aflame using bottles of “Greek Fire,” an incendiary chemical that would burst to flame when exposed to air. Fortunately for St. Albans, the bottles of Greek Fire turn out to be duds. Only a woodshed was set afire.

The citizens of St. Albans fight back and one townsman is killed, another is injured. A lone raider is wounded, and he dies afterwards. Confusion and mayhem control the scene for both the townspeople and the Confederate raiders. During their escape to Canada the Confederates clumsily drop some of the bank money in the town, but still make off with over $200,000. Canadian authorities arrest them in Montreal after the raiders have crossed back into Canada.

The St. Albans Raiders are tried In Montreal. The United States government considers the Confederates to be criminals and requests their extradition. Canada however, has a trick up her sleeve, saying the Confederates are soldiers under military orders. With this stance, and desiring to remain neutral in the American Civil War, Canada does not convict the Confederate raiders of a crime and sets them free. Canada does return $88,000 that was found with the raiders to St. Albans banks.

St. Albans Raid The Raiders Take Over

It has been interpreted that the ruling of the Canadian court in the St. Albans Raid was in fact recognition of the Confederate States of America by the British, since Canada was then the Province of Canada and part of the British Empire. This is debatable.

The raider Lieutenant Bennett Young, later becomes a Confederate general.

Smalls was 23-years-old when he became the pilot of a steam-powered side-wheeler named the Planter. The Planter was used to move cotton bales through the coastal waters of South Carolina. The Confederate States of America also used the Planter for missions in waters held by the Rebels.

On May 13, 1862 slave Robert Smalls dressed as the Planter’s captain, and with help from family and other slaves, he commandeered the boat. As a ship pilot, Smalls knew the necessary signals that would allow the Planter to get by the Rebel-held Fort Sumter. Smalls took the Planter out to the Yankee navy boats blockading Charleston, and turned the boat over to the Union. Smalls, and the other slaves on board, gained their freedom. The Union got the Planter, along with four cannon, the cannon’s armament, and important intelligence regarding Confederate defenses in Charleston.

Barnes&Noble: Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress, 1839-1915

Smalls continued to pilot boats, but now he did it for the Union. As a civilian, Robert Smalls became the Planter’s captain and the boat took part in 17 engagements during the Civil War. On April 7, 1863 Smalls was piloting an ironclad ship named Keokuk during an attack on the Rebel-held Fort Sumter. During a flotilla attack of this engagement, Smalls was injured in his eyes while piloting the Keokuk. The ironclad Keokuk Smalls piloted was hit 90 times, most of the hits were at or below the ironclad’s waterline. The Keokuk sank the next day. Robert Smalls was rewarded with fame and fortune for his heroic actions. Smalls met President Abraham Lincoln, and helped in fund-raising activities. Smalls learned how to read. President Lincoln signed a Congressional bill awarding prize money in the amount of $1500 to Smalls (Smalls’ associates also received money).

In August of 1862, Robert Smalls and a missionary named Mansfield French met with President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Smalls and Mansfield were asking Lincoln and Stanton for authorization to recruit African-American troops. Soon permission to raise the African-American troops was obtained.

Robert Smalls’ success did not end when the Civil War ended. After the Civil War, Smalls purchased the home of his former owner and master, and the slave quarters he was born in. He lived in his former master’s home the rest of his life. Smalls became a politician and served in the South Carolina house of representatives for two years, and then in the state senate for three years. His record was not without blemish however, as a state senator Smalls took a $5,000 bribe and was sentenced to three years in prison. Smalls was pardoned and served no time.

Robert Smalls was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1875 and served five terms. Later, he was the collector for the Beaufort, South Carolina port. Congress awarded Robert Smalls a $30 a month pension in 1897, then he was awarded $5,000 in 1900 for capturing the side-wheeler Planter. Smalls died in 1915. There is nothing small about Robert Smalls’ life accomplishments.

Barnes&Noble: Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States. The Senate had passed an amendment abolishing slavery on April 8, 1864 but the House defeated it in June, 1864. The House then passed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865. The next day, President Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress and submitted this potential amendment to the state legislatures for ratification. By December 18, 1865 the states had ratified the Thirteenth Amendment and it was proclaimed in effect. That was a good day. ”Hello, Massa; bottom rail on top dis time.” — An African-American Union soldier spoke these words to his former master, who was now a prisoner.

Picture is from the National Archives and shows the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Worth noting:

* On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia thus ending the Civil War.

* President Lincoln had issued his Emancipation Proclamation On January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation declared free the slaves in the parts of the country which were in rebellion. Lincoln’s proclamation contained the words, ”all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; . . ..” The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the states which had remained in the Union.

* President Abraham Lincoln did not live to see the Thirteenth Amendment, with its abolishment of slavery, become part of the Constitution.

Barnes&Noble: A New Birth of Freedom

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Barnes&Noble: What This Cruel War Was Over

It is important to note that slavery was not unique to the United States. Many European countries had slavery before it came to the New World colonies and grew. Countries like Spain and Portugal had significant counts of slaves before 1492. But, this is no defense of the institution of slavery. The world was guilty of slavery. Slavery was a disease of humanity that spread to the colonies of the New World. It should be known that although the United States was guilty of slavery, it fought a war against itself. As a result of the Civil War, in which literally brother fought against brother and hundreds of thousands died, slavery ended here.

In 1619 a Dutch ship arrived at the Virginia colony and sold "20 and odd negroes" to colonists. Some of these blacks became indentured servants (people who worked for a period of years to pay for their passage to the New World, then became free) but others were slaves. Most blacks in the Virginia colony were either free or indentured servants in 1640. Slavery grew and flourished in the colonies, especially in the Southern ones. By 1700 in the Virginia colony, most blacks were in the bondage of that "peculiar institution," slavery. The South depended on slavery for its agricultural economic success.

Cotton was King in the South and the institution of slavery made it very profitable. Indeed, the South’s economy was based on slavery and cotton. One of the main contributing factors to the Civil War was that the South was willing to go to war with its own fellow countrymen in order to preserve slavery.

In 1808 the importation of slaves was made illegal in the United States of America. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 and was very popular amongst abolitionists. In the book, slaves were described as victims of the Southern system. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a powerful factor in bringing about anti-slavery sentiment in the North. The expansion of the country westward, with new territories and states coming into being, only fueled debate and conflict over the spread and continuation of slavery. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the South believed he intended to end slavery. Secession, and then the Civil War followed.

Barnes&Noble: The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Beecher Stowe first published her groundbreaking novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 as an outcry against slavery after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. The book sold more copies than any book other than the Bible and caused Abraham Lincoln to exclaim upon meeting her, during the Civil War, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!”

In 1860, approximately 4,500,000 white people were living in the states that had slavery. Of these 4,500,000 approximately 46,000 of them owned more than 20 slaves. Approximately 4,000,000 slaves lived in America at the start of the Civil War. On January 1, 1863 President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation that declared free the slaves in the parts of the country which were in rebellion. Only Northern victory and preservation of the Union ensured the end of slavery in the United States.

The shown map is: Distribution of Slaves in the Southern States from the book History of the United States by Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard. – White areas depict less than 25% slave distribution – Light gray areas depict 25 – 50% – Dark gray areas depict 50% and greater
Distribution of Slaves in the Southern States

Barnes&Noble: John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights

A few quotes by Abraham Lincoln regarding slavery: ”In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free,–honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.” — Abraham Lincoln, from his Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.   ”My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving the others alone, I would also do that.” — Abraham Lincoln, from a letter to Horace Greeley of August 22, 1862. (The Emancipation Proclamation had been written but not yet released).

”I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”
— Abraham Lincoln, from a letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862.

The ugly fact is that slaves were treated as property. Slavery was a brutal, cruel, unfair, and evil thing. Slaves did not have the right to vote. Slaves could not own land. Slaves could not travel. Slave marriages were not recognized by law. Slaves were allowed to work, and work hard from the early morning light until darkness (or longer if the moonlight was bright). Slave families could be split up by the whims and desires of their owners. Slaves could be beaten and whipped to make them obey. Some slaves were killed either by their owners or by hard work. Disease killed slaves. Slaves worked on plantations and farms, in homes, on docks, in businesses, and anywhere labor was needed.

The history of slavery still haunts the United States to this day. Perhaps only with the coming of each new generation, with its hopefully new and unprejudiced rational understanding, will the scar of slavery completely fade away. That will be a glorious time.

On August 20, 1862, an open letter from Horace Greeley to President Lincoln entitled; "The Prayer of the Twenty Millions" appeared in the New York Tribune. On August 22, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln’s response to Greeley was published in the New York Times. The New York Times was a competitor of Greeley’s New York Tribune newspaper and was supporting Lincoln’s policies during the Civil War. It is worth noting that at the time President Lincoln wrote this reply to Horace Greeley, he had also begun writing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862. Hon. Horace Greeley: Dear Sir. I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable [sic] in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right. As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.

Barnes&Noble: Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.

Yours,
A. Lincoln.

Horace Greeley was a man with influence during the Civil War. Greeley was an abolitionist and the founder of the New York Tribune. The New York Tribune was critical of President Lincoln, although Lincoln had received Greeley’s support (it came rather late) during his campaign for the presidency. Later, Greeley was nominated for president by liberal Republicans in 1872. The Democrats endorsed Greeley, but he was defeated by Ulysses S. Grant.

On August 20, 1862, the following open letter dated August 19, 1862 from Horace Greeley to President Lincoln entitled; "The Prayer of the Twenty Millions" appeared in the New York Tribune:

To ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
President of the United States

DEAR SIR: I do not intrude to tell you–for you must know already–that a great proportion of those who triumphed in your election, and of all who desire the unqualified suppression of the Rebellion now desolating our country, are sorely disappointed and deeply pained by the policy you seem to be pursuing with regard to the slaves of the Rebels. I write only to set succinctly and unmistakably before you what we require, what we think we have a right to expect, and of what we complain.

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I. We require of you, as the first servant of the Republic, charged especially and preeminently with this duty, that you EXECUTE THE LAWS. Most emphatically do we demand that such laws as have been recently enacted, which therefore may fairly be presumed to embody the present will and to be dictated by the present needs of the Republic, and which, after due consideration have received your personal sanction, shall by you be carried into full effect, and that you publicly and decisively instruct your subordinates that such laws exist, that they are binding on all functionaries and citizens, and that they are to be obeyed to the letter.

II. We think you are strangely and disastrously remiss in the discharge of your official and imperative duty with regard to the emancipating provisions of the new Confiscation Act. Those provisions were designed to fight Slavery with Liberty. They prescribe that men loyal to the Union, and willing to shed their blood in her behalf, shall no longer be held, with the Nations consent, in bondage to persistent, malignant traitors, who for twenty years have been plotting and for sixteen months have been fighting to divide and destroy our country. Why these traitors should be treated with tenderness by you, to the prejudice of the dearest rights of loyal men, We cannot conceive.

III. We think you are unduly influenced by the counsels, the representations, the menaces, of certain fossil politicians hailing from the Border Slave States. Knowing well that the heartily, unconditionally loyal portion of the White citizens of those States do not expect nor desire chat Slavery shall be upheld to the prejudice of the Union–(for the truth of which we appeal not only to every Republican residing in those States, but to such eminent loyalists as H. Winter Davis, Parson Brownlow, the Union Central Committee of Baltimore, and to The Nashville Union)–we ask you to consider that Slavery is everywhere the inciting cause and sustaining base of treason: the most slaveholding sections of Maryland and Delaware being this day, though under the Union flag, in full sympathy with the Rebellion, while the Free-Labor portions of Tennessee and of Texas, though writhing under the bloody heel of Treason, are unconquerably loyal to the Union. So emphatically is this the case, that a most intelligent Union banker of Baltimore recently avowed his confident belief that a majority of the present Legislature of Maryland, though elected as and still professing to be Unionists, are at heart desirous of the triumph of the Jeff. Davis conspiracy; and when asked how they could be won back to loyalty, replied "only by the complete Abolition of Slavery." It seems to us the most obvious truth, that whatever strengthens or fortifies Slavery in the Border States strengthens also Treason, and drives home the wedge intended to divide the Union. Had you from the first refused to recognize in those States, as here, any other than unconditional loyalty–that which stands for the Union, whatever may become of Slavery, those States would have been, and would be, far more helpful and less troublesome to the defenders of the Union than they have been, or now are.

IV. We think timid counsels in such a crisis calculated to prove perilous, and probably disastrous. It is the duty of a Government so wantonly, wickedly assailed by Rebellion as ours has been to oppose force to force in a defiant, dauntless spirit. It cannot afford to temporize with traitors nor with semi-traitors. It must not bribe them to behave themselves, nor make cheat fair promises in the hope of disarming their causeless hostility. Representing a brave and high-spirited people, it can afford to forfeit anything else better than its own self-respect, or their admiring confidence. For our Government even to seek, after war has been made on it, to dispel the affected apprehensions of armed traitors that their cherished privileges may be assailed by it, is to invite insult and encourage hopes of its own downfall. The rush to arms of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, is the true answer at once to the Rebel raids of John Morgan and the traitorous sophistries of Beriah Magoffin.

V. We complain that the Union cause has suffered, and is now suffering immensely, from mistaken deference to Rebel Slavery. Had you, Sir, in your Inaugural Address, unmistakably given notice that, in case the Rebellion already commenced were persisted in, and your efforts to preserve the Union and enforce the laws should be resisted by armed force, you would recognize no loyal person as rightfully held in Slavery by a traitor, we believe the Rebellion would therein have received a staggering if not fatal blow. At that moment, according to the returns of the most recent elections, the Unionists were a large majority of the voters of the Slave States. But they were composed in good part of the aged, the feeble, the wealthy, the timid–the young, the reckless, the aspiring, the adventurous, had already been largely lured by the gamblers and negro-traders, the politicians by trade and the conspirators by instinct, into the toils of Treason. Had you then proclaimed that Rebellion would strike the shackles from the slaves of every traitor, the wealthy and the cautious would have been supplied with a powerful inducement to remain loyal. As it was, every coward in the South soon became a traitor from fear; for Loyalty was perilous, while Treason seemed comparatively safe. Hence the boasted unanimity of the South–a unanimity based on Rebel terrorism and the fact that immunity and safety were found on that side, danger and probable death on ours. The Rebels from the first have been eager to confiscate, imprison, scourge and kill: we have fought wolves with the devices of sheep. The result is just what might have been expected. Tens of thousands are fighting in the Rebel ranks to-day whose, or
iginal bias and natural leanings would have led them into ours.

VI. We complain that the Confiscation Act which you approved is habitually disregarded by your Generals, and that no word of rebuke for them from you has yet reached the public ear. Fremont’s Proclamation and Hunter’s Order favoring Emancipation were promptly annulled by you; while Halleck’s No. 3, forbidding fugitives from Slavery to Rebels to come within his lines– an order as unmilitary as inhuman, and which received the hearty approbation of every traitor in America– with scores of like tendency, have never provoked even your own remonstrance. We complain that the officers of your Armies have habitually repelled rather than invited approach of slaves who would have gladly taken the risks of escaping from their Rebel masters to our camps, bringing intelligence often of inestimable value to the Union cause. We complain that those who have thus escaped to us, avowing a willingness to do for us whatever might be required, have been brutally and madly repulsed, and often surrendered to be scourged, maimed and tortured by the ruffian traitors, who pretend to own them. We complain that a large proportion of our regular Army Officers, with many of the Volunteers, evince far more solicitude to uphold Slavery than to put down the Rebellion. And finally, we complain that you, Mr. President, elected as a Republican, knowing well what an abomination Slavery is, and how emphatically it is the core and essence of this atrocious Rebellion, seem never to interfere with these atrocities, and never give a direction to your Military subordinates, which does not appear to have been conceived in the interest of Slavery rather than of Freedom.

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VII. Let me call your attention to the recent tragedy in New Orleans, whereof the facts are obtained entirely through Pro-Slavery channels. A considerable body of resolute, able-bodied men, held in Slavery by two Rebel sugar-planters in defiance of the Confiscation Act which you have approved, left plantations thirty miles distant and made their way to the great mart of the South-West, which they knew to be the indisputed possession of the Union forces. They made their way safely and quietly through thirty miles of Rebel territory, expecting to find freedom under the protection of our flag. Whether they had or had not heard of the passage of the Confiscation Act, they reasoned logically that we could not kill them for deserting the service of their lifelong oppressors, who had through treason become our implacable enemies. They came to us for liberty and protection, for which they were willing render their best service: they met with hostility, captivity, and murder. The barking of the base curs of Slavery in this quarter deceives no one–not even themselves. They say, indeed, that the negroes had no right to appear in New Orleans armed (with their implements of daily labor in the cane-field); but no one doubts that they would gladly have laid these down if assured that they should be free. They were set upon and maimed, captured and killed, because they sought the benefit of that act of Congress which they may not specifically have heard of, but which was none the less the law of the land which they had a clear right to the benefit of–which it was somebody’s duty to publish far and wide, in order that so many as possible should be impelled to desist from serving Rebels and the Rebellion and come over to the side of the Union, They sought their liberty in strict accordance with the law of the land–they were butchered or re-enslaved for so doing by the help of Union soldiers enlisted to fight against slaveholding Treason. It was somebody’s fault that they were so murdered–if others shall hereafter stuffer in like manner, in default of explicit and public directions to your generals that they are to recognize and obey the Confiscation Act, the world will lay the blame on you. Whether you will choose to hear it through future History and ’at the bar of God, I will not judge. I can only hope.

VIII. On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who does not feel that all attempts to put down the Rebellion and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are preposterous and futile–that the Rebellion, if crushed out tomorrow, would be renewed within a year if Slavery were left in full vigor–that Army officers who remain to this day devoted to Slavery can at best be but half-way loyal to the Union–and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour of added and deepened peril to the Union, I appeal to the testimony of your Ambassadors in Europe. It is freely at your service, not at mine. Ask them to tell you candidly whether the seeming subserviency of your policy to the slaveholding, slavery-upholding interest, is not the perplexity, the despair of statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the general answer.

IX. I close as I began with the statement that what an immense majority of the Loyal Millions of your countrymen require of you is a frank, declared, unqualified, ungrudging execution of the laws of the land, more especially of the Confiscation Act. That Act gives freedom to the slaves of Rebels coming within our lines, or whom those lines may at any time inclose–we ask you to render it due obedience by publicly requiring all your subordinates to recognize and obey it. The rebels are everywhere using the late anti-negro riots in the North, as they have long used your officers’ treatment of negroes in the South, to convince the slaves that they have nothing to hope from a Union success-that we mean in that case to sell them into a bitter bondage to defray the cost of war. Let them impress this as a truth on the great mass of their ignorant and credulous bondsmen, and the Union will never be restored-never. We cannot conquer Ten Millions of People united in solid phalanx against us, powerfully aided by the Northern sympathizers and European allies. We must have scouts, guides, spies, cooks, teamsters, diggers and choppers from the Blacks of the South, whether we allow them to fight for us or not, or we shall be baffled and repelled. As one of the millions who would gladly have avoided this struggle at any sacrifice but that Principle and Honor, but who now feel that the triumph of the Union is dispensable not only to the existence of our country to the well being of mankind, I entreat you to render a hearty and unequivocal obedience to the law of the land.

Yours,
Horace Greeley
New York, August 19, 1862