Confederate Emancipation
In 1864-65, a proposal that slaves be trained as Confederate soldiers and offered their freedom as an inducement was debated widely in newspapers and drawing rooms across the South.  A version of this proposal was enacted just two weeks before Appomattox -- too late to affect the course of the war but soon enough to raise questions about the causes and meaning of the Civil War. Bruce Levine, professor of history, is the author volumes on the civil war era; 19th century U.S. economic, social, and political history; and U.S. immigration. His most recent book is Confederate Emancipation, Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War.

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