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Immigrants, Race, and Emancipation

Posted January 13, 2013 by Patrick Young, Esq.

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On January 1, 1863 President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. These articles from The Immigrants’ Civil War series look at immigrant attitudes towards slavery and race during the Civil War Era.

1. 1848: The Year that Created Immigrant America - Revolutions in Europe, famine and oppression in Ireland, and the end of the Mexican War made 1848 a key year in American immigration history. European political Liberalism influenced immigrant perceptions towards slavery.

2. Carl Schurz: From German Radical to American Abolitionist- A teenaged revolutionary of 1848, Carl Schurz brought his passion for equality with him to America.

3. Immigrant Leader Carl Schurz Tells Lincoln to Stand Firm Against Slavery.-During the days before Lincoln’s inauguration, pressure from German communities helped the incoming president reject calls for compromise on the expansion of slavery.

4. ...And the War Came to Immigrant America -The impact of the firing on Fort Sumter on America’s immigrants. German immigrants saw slavery as a major cause of the war.

5. The Rabbi Who Seceded From the South -A Baltimore rabbi opposed slavery and was nearly killed because of his stand.

6. The Germans Save St. Louis for the Union.-Anti-slavery impulses drove German immigrants to arm themselves.

7. Why the Germans Fought for the Union-German immigrants cited slavery as a reason for joining the Union army.

8. The Irish Tigers From Louisiana-Irish experiences in New Orleans shaped that community’s view of slavery and Southern identity.

9. The St. Louis Germans Set Out To Free Missouri-Germans in Missouri campaigned for an end to slavery.

10. Wilson’s Creek Drowns Immigrant Dream of Free Missouri

11. St. Louis Germans Revived by Missouri Emancipation Proclamation- A year before Lincoln’s Emancipation, Missouri Germans tried to take matters into their own hands.

12. Lincoln Dashes German Immigrants Hopes for Emancipation

13. Irish Green and Black America: Race on the Edge of Civil War

14. The Democratic Party and the Racial Consciousness of Irish Immigrants Before the Civil War

15. A German Regiment Fights for “Freedom and Justice” at Shiloh-The 32nd Indiana under Col. August Willich.

16. The Know Nothing Colonel and the Irish Soldier Confronting slavery and bigotry.

17. Peninsula Emancipation: Irish Soldiers Take Steps on the Road to Freedom-The Irish Brigade and Irish soldiers from Boston free slaves along the march to Richmond.

18. Slaves Immigrate from the Confederacy to the United States During the Peninsula Campaign

19. Carl Schurz: To Win the Civil War End Slavery

20. Emancipation 150: “All men are created equal, black and white”- A German immigrant reacts to the Emancipation Proclamation

21. Preliminaries to Emancipation: Race, the Irish, and Lincoln

22. The Politics of Emancipation: Lincoln Suffers Defeat

23. Carl Schurz Blames Lincoln for Defeat