Freedom: Volume 2, Series 1: The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South
A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867

This 1993 volume of Freedom presents a history of the emergence of free-labor relations in different settings in the Upper South.

Ira Berlin (Edited by), Steven F. Miller (Edited by), Joseph P. Reidy (Edited by), Leslie S. Rowland (Edited by)

9781107405790, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 July 2012

816 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 4.6 cm, 1.18 kg

"...certainly qualifies as another landmark achievement....All serious students of the war owe a mounting debt to the editors of this magisterial project." Civil War

As slavery collapsed during the American Civil War, former slaves struggled to secure their liberty, reconstitute their families, and create the institutions befitting a free people. This volume of Freedom, first published in 1993, presents a documentary history of the emergence of free-labor relations in different settings in the Upper South. At first, most federal officials hoped to mobilize former slaves without either transforming the conflict into a war of liberation or assuming responsibility for the young, the old, or others not suitable for military employment. But as the Union army came to depend upon black workers and as the number of destitute freed people mounted, authorities at all levels grappled with intertwined questions of freedom, labor and welfare. Meanwhile, the former slaves pursued their own objectives, working within the constraints imposed by the war and Union occupation to fashion new lives as free people. The Civil War sealed the fate of slavery only to open a contest over the meaning of freedom. This volume of Freedom documents an important chapter in that contest.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Editorial methods
Symbols and abbreviations
Part I. The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: 1. Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina
2. The district of Columbia
3. Middle and East Tennessee and Northern Alabama
4. Maryland
5. Missouri
6. Kentucky
Index.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]