One reply on “General Kirby Smith Surrenders in the US Civil War”
“Some four million slaves were given their freedom following the South’s defeat…”
No, although it is fair to say that 4 million African Americans were released from bondage after the defeat of the Confederacy, your way of phrasing it ignores the agency, self-assertion, of the nearly 200,000 black Union combatants. Others stole away to Union lines and served as spies. Further, your figure of 4 million amounts to the total black population at the time, but some of them—such as those in Washington, DC—had been Emancipated earlier.
One reply on “General Kirby Smith Surrenders in the US Civil War”
“Some four million slaves were given their freedom following the South’s defeat…”
No, although it is fair to say that 4 million African Americans were released from bondage after the defeat of the Confederacy, your way of phrasing it ignores the agency, self-assertion, of the nearly 200,000 black Union combatants. Others stole away to Union lines and served as spies. Further, your figure of 4 million amounts to the total black population at the time, but some of them—such as those in Washington, DC—had been Emancipated earlier.