The Civil War Confiscation Acts : Failing to Reconstruct the South / John Syrett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Syrett, John, Author.

Series:

Reconstructing America

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This book is the first full account in more than 20 years of two significant, but relatively understudied, laws passed during the Civil War. The Confiscation Acts (1861–62) were designed to sanction slave holding states by authorizing the Federal Government to seize rebel properties (including land and other assets held in Northern and border states) and grant freedom to slaves who fought with or worked for the Confederate military. Abraham Lincoln objected to the Acts for fear they might push border states, particularly Missouri and Kentucky, into secession. The Acts were eventually rendered moot by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. John Syrett examines the political contexts of the Acts, especially the debates in Congress, and demonstrates how the failure of the confiscation acts during the war presaged the political and structural shortcomings of Reconstruction after the war.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 The First Confiscation Act

2 The Second Confiscation Act: The Act and Its Opponents

3 The Second Act: Divided Republican Support and Flawed Result

4 Enforcement of the Second Act: Lincoln and Bates

5 Early Military Confiscation

6 Rules of War and Later Military Confiscation

7 The Treasury’s Part in Confiscation

8 The Politics of Confiscation

9 Andrew Johnson and the End of Confiscation

10 Confiscation and the Courts: Jurisdiction and Procedures

11 Confiscation and the Courts: Constitutionality and Duration

12 Conclusion

Appendix

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Mrz 2022)

ISBN:

0-8232-9278-9

OCLC:

1350690499