Horsepower, which sounds kind of weird. That was the best way i could come up with the separate these topics out, but youre gonna hear three really excellent talks on that theme tonight. Each speaker is gonna speak for about 15 minutes so felly short presentations and thats gonna leave us plenty of time for questions and discussion at the end and you can type your questions into the q a box at any time throughout the evening and we will respond to those later after all. He talks have taken place. So were looking forward to hearing your questions and feedback very much. Thats part of the excitement for us going into this evening. Our first speaker tonight is going to be dr. Caroline wood newhall, and shes very well known around here because she works as the postdoctoral fellow at the Virginia Center for civil war studies here at Virginia Tech before that. She earned her phd at unc chapel hill. Shes working on a book about black pow w experiences in the confederacy. And by the way, she gave a terrific talk on that topic last fall soon after she arrived in blacksburg, which is now available at the Youtube Channel for the Virginia Center for civil war studies. You should be able to find that easily enough and is also in the cspan website. It was broadcast on cspan 3 shortly after she delivered it. So tonight her topic is interest convergence the us effort to recruit black soldiers. Thank you, dr. Newhall. Thanks. Thank you so much paul. I appreciate the introduction and i want to say thank you so much to leland and Caroline HoneycuttLeland Shelton and Caroline Honeycutt from the continuing of professional education center. Theyve been doing so much work on this. So thank you. This has been so smooth and i dont know if it would have been without you. So we appreciate that. So, yes, thank you so much. So ill just jump right into it dont have too much time, and i dont want to hold you on too long and cut into the other panelists. So long story short my Research Really centers on ideas and applications of how legal conditions created by warfare created circumstances that people could take advantage of that might not have been previously available to them primarily through looking at black prisoners of war who fought for the union were captured by the confederacy. And so tonight what im looking at is the idea of interest conversions and how recruitment among black americans. Particularly in the south particularly enslaved black americans black men in particular led to these kind of initially positive results such as emancipation, but had some significant limitations when it came to achieving equality, but the ways im going to talk about this center on how black americans were able to find Common Ground with the United States as a National Entity and and take advantage of that and push the United States to meet them partway at the very least and and make some civil rights gains. Whereas the confederacy largely failed to do. This had the confederacy made efforts to the degree that the United States had we might be experiencing a different story and then centering on how black americans in the south especially formally enslaved people managed to use the war to affect their freedom essentially. So i will share my screen now apologies for whole setup. All right. There we go. So interest convergence the us effort to recruit back soldiers, and i want to open up with this idea of what interest convergence is now interest convergence is a particular topic that comes through in Critical Race Theory which has come out of this idea of legal realism a lot of legal scholars historians numerous people have undertaken this work led by professor derek bell and trying to understand how racism and the law coincide in the United States and the ways in which the law can achieve certain things but also runs into limitations when it comes to affecting a quality and and achieving ideals versus what happens in reality. So when im talking about interest conversions, im using it in a specific context that might not necessarily be as familiar to people who might know about interest convergence and Critical Race Theory essentially the idea behind interest convergence is that there are times where civil rights gains for communities of color coincide with the dictates of white selfinterest meaning that the ruling classes the ruling powers those who pass laws who are part of the legislature the executive which historically in the United States has been predominantly white people how people of color have managed to intersect with the interests of the ruling class essentially to make some gains, but also how those gains have particular limitations and the way in which professor bell has talked about this and many other scholars as well is looking forward. Theyre looking to the future of the law and how we can apply equality more effectively and attract a majority interest in making interest convergence. Not a dual application where it starts with a positive and ends with limitations that hinder civil rights gains. And so so setting a path for understanding that the law ideals but those ideals to be made real by people. The law is created by people. Its enforced by people. Its its violated by people and so humans make law and these are ways in which we can make the law more equitable. Its very general overview of Critical Race Theory and interest conversions, but the way im going to look at it tonight is looking backwards and using references as professor bell has used with brown versus board of education for example, and bring it back to the 19th century. Read it into the past and understand not just how white interests particularly surrounding the emancipation proclamation as a war measure how black americans also managed to affect their own selfinterest. So even though these are limited gains the actions that black americans were able to undertake in order to create a space for themselves as citizens through the civil war. How war created these conditions that american black americans could take of and to work on emancipation and then towards the quality. So without further ado, ill jump into this discussion of the emancipation proclamation. Basically, this is where it starts where where im looking at it the interest convergence between the United States as political entity and black americans as a group but also as individuals so the emancipation proclamation is such a fascinating case and i could go on for hours about the emancipation proclamation and it has these significant achievements where president lincoln is kind of, you know, putting his finger on the pulse of the war whats acceptable what he can do to make the war effort to preserve the union successful. That is always his main consideration. And so the emancipation proclamation has significant limitations as does the military or the the militia acts the confiscation acts of 1862 1861 where these steps are taken haltingly towards enabling black americans to join the union army first as laborers and then a years, and so president lincoln is looking towards the entire war effort and for for his idea of interest convergence. Hes trying to keep the border states these slave states within the union still within the union without losing them to the confederacy. So he has to walk a fine line it comes to slavery. So for his part hes interested in the preservation of the union and emancipation becomes a war strategy and goal once it becomes a parent that that is a way of hindering the confederacy from within the confederacy had longer, you know, these slave states within the south had long been concerned with this idea of the internal enemy that are black americans that they want emancipation that they want a quality and they might resort to violence in order to achieve that its kind of the ruling logic behind these slave codes and maintaining control maintaining economic superiority and and continuing their particular interests. So its when . Interests of black americans particularly in the south coincides with the union that emancipation becomes possible but there are limitations and theres still lower pay for black soldiers the limited application to the areas for emancipation particular areas such as surrounding new orleans are exempt from the emancipation proclamation. Whereas the areas that are not occupied by the union to any degree, but the confederacy itself. Has the emancipation proclamation applied to it . So this idea that it is possible for you to leave your station as an enslaved person and join the united union army either as a labor or as a soldier and this is revolutionary for quite a few reasons and the confederacy books against this because the confederacy sees the opening the door to emancipation as opening the door to a quality, even though various people recognize that its possible to limit the goals of of emancipation by limiting a quality through the law. But the the cornerstone of the confederacy is centered on White Supremacy centered on maintaining absolute control over the enslaved population. So theres very little room for considering the possibilities of allowing enslaved people to become fighters. Theres a lot of fear surrounding it and this concern that if we open the door to emancipation we open the door to a quality which completely undercuts the cornerstone of the confederacy as stated by for Vice President alexander stevens. So the emancipation proclamation kind of kicks off this this process of recruitment, which starts in the north starts with free black americans and so these initial efforts are very much ad hoc. They are. Basically affected by individuals by interested governors such as john a andrew of massachusetts pictured here as well as philanthropists and businessmen such as osb wall pictured here who are pushing the United States government to centralize this process to enable the recruitment not just a free black americans, but all black americans recognizing that striking a blow at slavery will strike a blow at the confederacy itself from within, you know, looking to these historical processes where foreign enemies such as the british for example had taken advantage of the tension between enslaved people and enslavers in the American Revolution in the war of 1812. And so the us is looking to these precedents and trying to apply them as are these particular military commanders war governors like john andrew and particularly some some abolitionist minded. Commanders like colonel William Burney who becomes really important to this process as well as general Lorenzo Thomas who alone helps instigate i think about 41 of all of the black recruits who end up joining the United States colored troops. So the us recognizes that there are ways of you know coordinating with the black population to help its war efforts and its only ever a war measure right . The emancipation proclamation is not affected through federal law. It is not codified through the legislature. It is an executive action as commanderinchief by lincoln to use essentially the enslaved population against the confederacy from within. So this is the way in which the us is casting. This is legally viable option for enabling emancipation. Its not striking at the border states that are still within the union. Its only affecting the confederacy and its only a war measure. The confederacy on the other hand is very reluctant to do this and by the time they start to attempt to recruit black soldiers from the enslaved population. It is very much too late now Major GeneralPatrick Kleberg is really the first major commander to suggest this move. He states that to open up. The ranks to enslaved people would not necessarily result in emancipation or excuse me inequality that emancipation was not necessarily a step to a quality, but it would at least help the confederacy as a war aim. So hes pushing for this in 1864, which is relatively late and he says, you know through necessity and wise legislation. This would ensure no material change, but he is very much not supported in this initially and it takes until general robert e. Lee starts advocating for it around february 1865 january 1865. Very late in the war that any attempts are made to use enslaved people as soldiers up to this point. In slavers have been and the confederacy has been thinking of manpower for black soldiers and and black people solely through labor. They are impressing free black men. Theyre impressing enslaved black men, but only to work on fortifications only to work in the capacity that has historically been accorded to them which as property to be used at the will of in slavers first and the state second. On the other hand the United States and and black men as well are looking at manpower not just as a means of labor and as fighting power, but power as men that the presence in the Armed Services of a nation affords legitimacy and citizenship to a degree that hadnt been possible for the majority of black americans to this point. So the idea of manpower i think is twofold for black americans. And so i think this is very appropriate theme for tonight. So black americans in the midst of all of you know the confederacy is kind of refusing to use the four million and you know about one million militaryaged enslaved black men within the confederacy for those purposes for military efforts in terms of fighting. Whereas black americans are basically acting out of their own selfinterest wherever opportunities are possible and they have a variety of means in which to do this and this is very much apparent by the initial acts of selfemancipation that are starting well before the war but continue throughout the early period, you know people like Robert Smalls henry jarvis who are escaping to union lines forcing the issue forcing the union to deal with the reality of their willingness to support the unions cause and so that selfinterest basically ends up working out in the long run at least during the war, but it takes a while for the shift to happen where efforts become centralized to enlist free and enslaved black men in the slave states, especially and so these efforts are made possible first by recruiting officers, but they are limited to the vicinity of occupied territory and then questions of enslaved men themselves and this is this is a good show. I think of how the process was made possible and ill give you a couple of examples of men who were able to take advantage of the us coming in to confederate lines, and ill always try to wrap up because i know im running out of time. But basically we have men like abram brawls who could not escape from his situation. He was located around here between gadsden and center, alabama until july 1864 at which point the union has started to encroach upon this territory and knowing that the union is present in georgia. Hes able to take advantage of the presence of the union in order to escape, but he has to escape he cannot do so voluntarily is in slavery will not let him do so voluntarily. So hes navigating through the night time over 40 miles of terrain. He gets to dalton, georgia. Yes, dalton, georgia. And has to work there until hes finally signed up for the 44th. United states colored infantry and then we have examples like the fraction brothers who are from blacksburg right here in blacksburg in Montgomery County who werent able to affect their escape until 1865 in april after the assassination of lincoln and their situated around here and you can see that this encroachment of the union army enables easier paths for people to make their way to union lines and sign up. But theyre still encountering these issues where they can either fight flight or freeze as i would like to say and we see examples of this that you know Work Together as well where you can fight flight or freeze in many different combinations you can flee but then have to wait patiently to sign up depending on the situation available to you the louisiana native guards, for example who transform into the core duff creek the you know presence of black men who are using soldiering by any means possible whether its with the confederacy or the union to affect emancipation is incredibly important. So to wrap up as i know im running out of time. I just want to say that i think these these movements are super interesting because it shows the complexity of how interest convergence works where we have these largescale considerations with warfare that people like a president lincoln have to keep in mind where if they focus on black emancipation too early. They could lose the border states which are you know filled with slave holders and that would shift the war in in a direction that the union would not necessarily be able to fight against effectively. So losing more states is a major major concern for lincoln and so hes not acting in interests of black americans because he feels he has to act in certain different interests for the war effort and black americans are taking these grassroots. Movements essentially, theyre speaking with their feet and later with uniforms and guns essentially to take freedom where they can and they cant always do it as soon as its available to them. They sometimes have to wait they lie. They, you know, keep in mind considerations like their familys safety where to go where to where to stay essentially they have to wait for information, but all in all this consideration of how the confederates essentially failed to make use and enable emancipation as a means of persisting through the war effort helps lead to the failure of the confederacy whereas the United States was able to coincide interests with black americans and black americans are acting in their own selfinterest throughout all of this. So i think theres this really interesting kind of umbrella term through interest convergence that shows how the war developed and how people basically undertook what they h