According to Frederick Douglass, while white Americans (including
Lincoln)  began the war strenuously denying that slavery -- either its
end or its perpetuation -- the enslaved understood from the beginning
that their freedom was on the line.  I agree though that some blacks no
doubt were ready to join the Confederate forces if it would mean their
freedom, but for the most part, by the time the Confederate leadership
was putting its emancipation plans together, the outcome of the war was
much clearer than it had been.  That said, there is no reason to assume
that anyone -- white or black, north or south -- really expected the
Confederacy to collapse so rapidly and completely in the spring of 1865.


David Kiracofe

David Kiracofe
History
Tidewater Community College
Chesapeake Campus
1428 Cedar Road
Chesapeake, Virginia 23322
757-822-5136
>>> Anita Wills <[log in to unmask]> 06/15/07 3:16 PM >>>
My ancestors fought for the Union, but I do understand why some blacks
would 
fight for the confederates. They may have been promised freedom, in
exchange 
for their service.  One of my Revolutionary War Ancestors signed on as a

Seamen, in order to get out of a twenty year indenture. They may have
had 
little understanding of the implications of winning the war.