In the first year of the war. July 1861, lincoln and congress both say we are fighting a war for the union. We are not trying to revolutionize the south or end slavery. We want to restore the constitutional relationship between the states. And the union as they should be. And this is a conservative way to prevent the breakup of a country. But things happened. Contraband as they were called started running away. Here is a whole family that stole a wagon. Some were put to work. Contraband was still property, but it was property the union decided they would keep because it might be useful to the enemy. The runaway slaves had a lot to do with the movement of the war toward emancipation because they presented a really practical problem. What do we do with these people . By the spring of 1862, the antislavery people in congress had gotten to the point of being able to pass significant legislation. One was ending slavery in washington dc. And in the same period of time, lincoln was meeting wi