And a variety of other prize s. The list goes on and on. Let me mention her first book about women after the civil war. Another multiple prizewinning book. Agreed to come here today and talk with us specifically about the history of emancipation, the end of slavery during the civil war, a topic always on peoples agenda for teaching and discussion but particularly widely discussed earlier this summer the anniversary of juneteenth. That is what got us started thinking about inviting her to speak with us about that history which is complicated, exciting, and always in need of clarification. Let me turn it over to tera hunter to talk a little bit about the process of wartime emancipation. What happened, and what are some of the most important things people need to know . Dr. Hunter thank you for inviting me to be part of this. Thanks to all of the people out there listening and watching. I thought i would start with giving an overview of the process by which slavery was destroyed during the civil war. It is important to keep in mind that the process of emancipation is part of a much longer movement of resistance by African Americans and their allies going back centuries. But this Movement Really picked up speed in the early part of the decade of the 19th century and accelerated great deal during the civil war between 1861 and 18 65. There are three things i want to emphasize about what we need to understand about this process, how emancipation was achieved. The first thing to understand is that emancipation was not the achievement of one person alone. The second thing is emancipation was not the result of one event or one policy. And the third thing is that emancipation was the result of a process, a kind of drawnout, contentious process, that took place over the course of the war. People played pivotal roles in bringing about emancipation. The president , abraham lincoln, commanderinchief, the congress, the military, civilians in the north who helped to shape public opinion, but also African Americans, both enslaved and free. I want to particularly highlight the roles African Americans typicallyause that gets left out of more traditional accounts, the kind of history you are typically taught below the college level. African americans made it clear from the very start of the war that they saw the war very differently from lincoln, the side leaders on the union for the most part, because they saw it as an opportunity to end slavery. They made themselves a thorn in the sides of both the United States and the confederacy by running away from slavery whenever they could. We started to see this at the very start of the war in april. But it is the actions of four enslaved men in the hampton roads, virginia, area that set off a chain of events by fleeing to fortress monroe in may of 1861. They ran away basically because there slave owner was planning to take them with him when he was going to fight in the war, going to the battlefield in north carolina. General butler Benjamin Butler decided to treat these four men as contraband of war, which allowed them to stay. T the army camp butler realized these were people being used basically to help the other side, and he did not see a reason why that could be allowed to happen. Copied byecision was other officials in other parts of the areas where the union and was making progress eventually formalized by congress as a policy. Wherever the union army appeared in confederate territory, enslaved people fled. They were housed in what were called contraband camps. These were makeshift campsites that were situated next to union army camps. They provided very important source of labor in the camps. They provided intel, information, that proved crucial to the war. Also over the course of the war, African Americans, even those who did not run away, basically started to make mischief. Many of them made mischief by being unruly, cutting down on the quantity and quality of their work, sometimes not working at all. In essence, African Americans initiated the process of their own emancipation. Byy forced the south refusing to standby on the sidelines, and they helped to shift more than opinion northern opinion. They pushed lincoln to push the military to see the war as a war of liberation. By the time the war ended, there were 500,000 formally enslaved people who had ran away, military workers, spies, worked on plantations. Sore were another 186,000 or who were found in the army, the navy. Million toere were 2 3 million who remained on plantations and in cities and towns. Some of them were basically helping to undermine the institution where they were. Persuadedhad to be over the course of the work to embrace emancipation. He had promised at the outset not to interfere with slavery. But he was forced to see implementing emancipation was crucial to winning the war. Lincolnummer of 1862, ine to see emancipation those terms. How africand americans were playing a vital role as military workers. There were manpower needs. There were not enough being recruited into the army. Northern opinion was also shifting. He came to embrace emancipation, as well as he wanted to stop the possibilities that europeans would side with the confederacy and recognize them as a legitimate nation. Lincoln did not take the lead on the issue, but i would say he played the most important singular role as the president , as commanderinchief. He was ultimately willing to change his position as the demands of the war dictated, which he did quite dramatically when he issued the emancipation proclamation in january of 18 safety three. 1863. I will come back to that. The second point, it was not just one person who can take credit for emancipation. Alsoe event or policy can be attributed to bringing slavery down. Most people think of the emancipation proclamation as ending slavery by itself. But it did not really do that. The federal government, as well as army officials, initiated several policies before the emancipation proclamation which helped to chip away at slavery as an institution. Butlers contraband policy was one step. Congress followed up with other policies prohibiting the return of fugitives, outline slavery in d. C. , in the territories. They passed legislation to free the families of black men who worked as military workers and eventually soldiers. When the emancipation proclamation was issued in january, it announced a major change in the objective of the war. Initially, it was a war to bring the union back together again. Now, in addition, it would be a war to bring down slavery. Not ae proclamation was universal emancipation plan that most people assume. It applied primarily to enslaved people in the confederacy, and not those living in the border states where slavery still existed but where those states had remained in the union. And it exempted some areas that were controlled by the union louisiana,e areas of virginia, tennessee. Freerians estimate it did about 20,000 people who had already come under union control. These were people who were captured, who ran away, were in the military, or working on plantations least to northern entrepreneurs. Limitationsnherent of the emancipation proclamation. President lincoln could not force the confederates to free enslaved people. They had broken away from the United States. But the bp was important ep was important for other reasons. It provided an open invitation for enslaved people to run away and to receive protection from the United States military. Most revolutionary of all, it basically authorized the enlistment of black men as soldiers. Ownerss the thing slave everywhere feared most, having men beoldiers, enslaved armed as soldiers. That was the most revolutionary part of the emancipation proclamation. And then, the third point i wanted to make is that we have to think about this emancipation as a process. As i said, it is a protracted process that began at the outset of the war. It was not a Straight Line from slavery to freedom. There were fits and starts. There were retaliations by confederates. Not even all people on the union side necessarily supported emancipation. Process. T was a it took a while. It took basically working over the course of the entire war for emancipation to be achieved. Ended, in order to secure emancipation, we needed to take another step which was to abolish slavery. Abolition toquired put the final nail in the coffin which was done with the 13th amendment which Congress Passed in january of 1865. And then enough states ratified if by december. Answer tos a long your opening question. Thank you so much, professor hunter. One thing we received a number of questions about was about june team, especially in relationship to your much distributed and widely praised ran on june 19 of this year on the history of juneteenth. I wonder if you can talk about that. We had a number of questions. You could talk about that, starting with a history of it and the movement was emancipation shifting by time. If we understand emancipation is also shaped geographically . Having a geography as well as a chronology . Dr. Hunter juneteenth is thatally the holiday African Americans in texas declared because they were freed on june 19, 1865. They began celebrating cap emancipation a year later. There are a couple of key facts to keep in mind about texas. It was the last state where African Americans gained their freedom after the civil war. It was on the western edge of the confederacy. It was very isolated from the actions taking place mostly east of the mississippi river, not entirely, but mostly. It was largely untouched by the union army. It actually became a place of fleeing slaveowners. ,hey left louisiana, arkansas as they were being encroached upon by the union army. It was kind of a haven for slavery as it was deteriorating in other parts of the confederacy. There were very few black soldiers who came from texas. Is another key consideration that there was a violent backlash by confederates. That is partly what caused the delay. After the war ended in april, they were still armed, still basically attacking African Americans who tried to claim that freedom. They started in galveston and worked their way across the state. They lynched African Americans. They caught them fleeing. Fiercelyhe process was contested in texas. It is kind of ironic because texas did not see a lot of action during the war. And so, the action really heated up, oddly enough, when the war came to an end in april. Vote theyslaveowners could help thought that they could help sustain slavery for a longer time. They were hoping they would compensated get compensated, if nothing else. Most enslaved people were not freed until the army came in, in june, and basically had to fight again to put down those confederates who were living in the state of texas. So, i think there is this notion that African Americans did not get their freedom at the time of the emancipation proclamation in texas, and that that is what marx what is different about them. But as i have already said, not very many people got their freedom as a result of the emancipation proclamation. What was different in texas was what was happening between april and june, and the fact that there were those retaliations going on. And so, they were moving backwards while the other states had pretty much resigned themselves in defeat. And so, African Americans started to mark this occasion, this victory, because it really did take another year for them to realize their freedom in 1866. General frasern the came into galveston and announced they were now free. Conversationsving about confederate monuments, for example. One of the ways that i like to think about juneteenth is to think about it in terms of almost a kind of counter history, because part of what those confederate monuments erectedt is they were to reinforce a counter history of actually what happened in slavery and the civil war. And so, African Americans in texas were celebrating this history and their achievement. They really emphasized the fact that this was not something given to them, but this was something they vote for and they achieved fought for and they achieved. When we think about these commemorations, they started in texas. They migrated to other states, as African Americans left texas. And now, they are being celebrated in virtually every state and even in some foreign countries. Thanks so much. I think another thing interesting about that story is the emancipation that juneteenth commemorates is an example of that process you described at first where freedom comes to different people in the south at different points. There are a lot of contingencies involved. Where are the u. S. Forces at any given time . Who is able to escape and to where . Who has power locally, whether it is occupying Union Soldiers and enlisted black men versus areas of the confederacy where there were no u. S. Forces until the war ended or afterwards . Ofis an interesting example that process and the variability of the process. We want to come back to some of these questions about commemoration and things like that. Before we talk about that more, i wanted to ask you, since your work has been so particularly important when you have written about the experiences of African American women and more recently about black families and marriage, if you could talk first of all about how the experience of wartime emancipation might have been different for women compared to men. And maybe, you can add children if you want to. Youre welcome to open the door to talking about marriage, or we can deal with that in a separate question. A reminder for people in attendance, feel free to use the q a button to ask questions which we will come around to in a little bit. Dr. Hunter ok. One of the ways in which men stood out was in terms of the opportunities open to them in terms of routes to freedom as compared to African American women. Runawaysed the first in virginia. These were men. Interestingly, they were motivated by the fact they were going to be separated from their families when they were running away. Initially, we have a flood of men running away. And then, women and children follow them. But the men are much more welcomed in the union lines. The military officers could sort of envision what they could do with the men. They could envision the kind of work that they could put me into doing. Doing. Ed they were much more ambivalent about women and what women could do. They even saw women as interfering and lots of different ways. One army officer referred to them as a weight and encumbrance. As the war progresses, it became clear that womens labor was crucial. Nurses. Hed, they were labor ona lot of the confiscated plantations. They were hospital attendance. Children as well, when they were old enough to perform these kinds of jobs, were also very important. People tuning in may have read or heard about susie king taylor. She was a woman who was a fugitive, former enslaved person, who worked as a cook, ess,e, teacher, laundr for the regiment. It is striking she is making a case for future generations to understand that women were important, that they played important roles. That they were brave, they were loyal, that they basically put themselves, put their bodies on the line. Not in the exact same way that men did, but in ways that were important for the war effort. Punishedof them were for taking the stance they did. Say the, i would biggest difference between women and men is the fact that men were allowed to enlist in the army and navy as soldiers. Military camehe with privileges. And what was really striking to me when i was doing the research for the book is noticing how quickly northern allies were willing to acknowledge black men as citizens because of their service. Even before they joined the military, but especially when they were allowed to join the military. Was considered a baptism by blood where men literally put their bodies on the line, put their lives on the line, fighting for the United States. That put them in a different position than women. And so, it was men who were considered sort of being ushered into freedom, ushered into citizenship. And women basically were secondary. They received their emancipation and ideas about citizenship basically three men, being the wives of men, the daughters of men. And so, that is the real distinction. But it is important to emphasize that women saw their services as vital. They said things like when we things the army, so the they were doing for the army, they saw themselves as making vital contributions. Thank you so much. I wonder if we can bridge from among thee question central questions of the book about the gendered experience of emancipation. You make a strong case for the gendered roots of immense emancipation. What is it about sintering marriage that helped you catch gendered experience in bound in wedlock. Dr. Hunter marriage reached a turning point for African Americans during the war. It is because of the federal government interventions, outsiders coming in, northern missionaries especially, that African Americans were sort of marriage,to legal even though what legal marriage meant in the context of the war was still murky. But northerners really started to embrace the idea. It grew from even antebellum ideas within the abolitionist movement. One of their strongest critiques of slavery was the ways in which familycally destroyed integrity. And so, they were very eager to put marriage on legal footing for African Americans in the context of the war. And so, when i was doing the research, i was really interested in tracing how that process occurred. I found what i think is the first missionary, reverend lockwood, working at fort monroe, who was very interested in the question of marriage and immediately started to see the value of marrying couples, often in groups, marrying multiples of couples at the same time. Giving them certificates to mark their relationship as being newly sanctioned. And so, the civil war starts to show us this process of african the processopting of marrying under the flag, marrying under federal authority. We see them on the one hand eagerly embracing marriage, marriage is being formalized, but we also see some resis