Women: A Burden on Lincolns Union

Close Reading- Draft of a Communication to Stephen A. Hurlbut (August 15th, 1863)

Megan Smeeding
The able bodied male contrabands are already employed by the Army. But the rest are in
confusion and destitution. They better be set to digging their subsistence out of the ground.
-Abraham Lincoln (1863)

Figure 1-3: The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress

Series 2. General Correspondence. 1858-1864.
Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Hurlbut, [August 1863] (Contrabands) https://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/ampage?
collId=mal&fileName=mal2/426/4263200/malpage.db&recNum=0&tempFile=./temp/~ammem_ndlH&
filecode=mal&next_filecode=mal&prev_filecode=mal&itemnum=7&ndocs=100

Emancipation in America was a multi-faceted process with Abraham Lincoln very much
at its center. Lincolns every move towards the emancipation of slaves in America had to be
politically calculated, considering both radical and moderate viewpoints. Though several pieces
of Lincolns writing express his personal belief that slavery was a moral wrong, he still lacked
certainty as to what would occur once slaves were in fact, freed.
On August 15th 1863, President Lincoln drafted a letter to General Stephen A. Hurlbut.
Hurlbut, a lawyer from Chicago, was a Union army officer who had gotten himself involved in
the administration of the Emancipation Proclamation. Hurlbut was attempting to create a labor
policy for the newly freed black men and women and had reached out to Lincoln with his
growing concerns about the number of women and children under his command.1 In analyzing
Lincolns response (Draft of a Communication to Stephen A. Hurlbut), it becomes clear that
1 "Stephen A. Hurlbut (1815-1882) - Mr. Lincoln and Friends." Mr Lincoln and
Friends. Accessed July 21, 2016.

Lincoln believed that female slaves were a particular burden on America. Lincolns viewpoint is
based on a commonly held belief at that time in which military involvement was a crucial part of
citizenship, and that women were dependents of men. Due to these beliefs, freed women
presented a specific challenge being seen as neither useful to the military, thus lacking a reason
to free them, and if freed were presumably seen as then being dependent on the nation for
survival.
In the opening of this draft to Hurlbut, Lincoln makes clear how challenging he found the
topic at hand stating: The within discusses a different subjectthe most difficult with which we
have to deal (Lincoln 1863).2 In considering all that Lincoln had to manage in the midst of the
Civil War, the idea that he considered this to be the greatest challenge, was a statement which
carried weight. He continued to describe the status of contraband in the Union camps at the time
saying, The able bodied male contrabands are already employed by the Army. But the rest are in
confusion and destitution. They better be set to digging their subsistence out of the ground
(Lincoln 1863).3 In this line Lincoln was subtly acknowledging the gendered difference of
emancipation.
Historian Stephanie McCurrys essay, War, Gender, and Emancipation in the Civil War South
(2012), argued that until the Thirteenth Amendment emancipation under Lincoln was made
available only through military service, thus making it inaccessible to slave women. She wrote,
slave men took the marital route to emancipation, and slave women, apparently, the marital one,
which is to say that women got freedom at second hand, by way of marriage and in relation to
their husbands rights (McCurry 2012).4 A letter to Salmon Chase September 2nd 1863 from
Lincoln substantiates McCurrys claim that emancipation was earned through a martial route
when Lincoln described the Emancipation Proclamation by saying, The original proclamation
has no constitutional or legal justification, except as a military measure (Lincoln 1863).5 The
concept of women being inferior and unable to defend themselves (let alone the nation) had long
influenced American policy, and this was yet another example.

2 Abraham Lincoln, Draft of a Communication to Stephen A. Hurlbut, August 15,

1863, in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 5: 387-388.
3 Ibid.
4 Stephanie McCurry, ed. William Blair and Karen Fisher Younger, War, Gender, and
Emancipation in the Civil War South, Lincolns Proclamation: Emancipation
Reconsidered, University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
5 Abraham Lincoln to Salmon P. Chase, September 2, 1863, in Roy P. Basler,
ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 1953).

Prior to the official Emancipation Proclamation, the acts leading up to it allowed even less access
to freedom for women. In the First Confiscation Act of August 1861, the Union claimed the
bodies of slave men, first for military labor and, later, military service. This act only gave
freedom to a small portion of slave men, and practically none to slave women.6 Due to the
limited nature and lack of clarity of the First Confiscation Act, after a number of arguments
Congress debated and passed the Second Confiscation Act on July 17th 1862. Historian Matthew
Pinsker described the difference between the First and Second Confiscation Acts stating, A
Second Confiscation Act (July 17, 1862), which went far beyond the first statue in declaring
confiscation as punishment for treason and in labeling Confederate slaves as captives of war
who were to be forever free. The Congress also extended their confiscation policy to include
any slaves employed by disloyal master anywhere- not just those employed by the rebel armies
or navies (Pinsker 2012).7 Stephanie McCurry challenged the idea that the Second Confiscation
Act was as inclusive as its gender-neutral language may imply due to the passing of the Militia
Act on the very same day (July 17, 1862). To this point McCurry states the Militia Act:
provided for the employment of persons of African descent in military
service and granted freedom to those so employed who were slaves as well as
their families, so long as they belonged to rebel owners. But clearly it was not all
persons of African descent who federals intended to employ; some specificity
was thus in order, and the meanings for women slaves were spelled out in brutally
concrete fashion: And be if further enacted, That when any man or boy of
African descent [belonging to a rebel owner] shall render any such service as is
provided for in this act, he, his mother and his wife and children, shall forever
thereafter be free. Words to make the heart sing, even if they did construe women
and children as entitled to freedom only as the dependents of particular soldiers.
But that was not the only limiting condition of gender. For the law carefully
excluded from its purview any mothers, wives, or children of black men in
military service, who unlike their sons, husbands, or fathers were slaves of loyal
owners. Thus even as military emancipation policy reached increasingly large
numbers of male slaves as soldiers, it left many women with no route to claim
their freedom. (McCurry 2012)
While these acts and the Emancipation Proclamation helped free many slaves and led the way to
making the 13th Amendment possible (and therefore the 14th and 15th), the idea that military
service was the key to full citizenship continued to limit the freedom of women.8
6 McCurry, War, Gender, and Emancipation.
7 Matthew Pinsker. "Emancipation Digital Classroom." Emancipation Digital
Classroom. July 14, 2012. Accessed July 22, 2016.
8 Oakes, James. "Forever Free." Opinionator Forever Free Comments. January 7,
2013. Accessed July 22, 2016.

As early as the correspondence between Abigail Adams, John Adams and their friends in 1776
over who would be included as a citizen in the new nation; the argument was made against
anyone who was considered a dependent being seen as a citizen with voting rights in America.9
In Lincolns Draft of a Communication to Stephen A. Hurlbut, he referenced the presumed
dependency of the slave women stating: They better be set to digging their subsistence out of
the ground (Lincoln 1863). Lincoln revealed he had no intention of providing for the freed
women who were not serving in the military, and instead they would need to provide for
themselves. He continued to discuss the matter, describing plans to place the slave women on
plantations to continue to work and feed themselves off of the lands there instead of using
military rations. It is important to note that Lincoln also wants to get loyal men from the area to
remain and protect the remaining contraband.10 While women and children did in fact make up
the majority of the contraband camps, and while the women faced new challenges they also
worked hard to raise crops for the government, their families and Union soldiers. There were
even several reports of slave women being the ones to have led plantation rebellions and escapes.
11
Despite this, Lincoln like many men of the time, still saw the women as inferiors in need of
male protection.
Furthermore, Lincoln saw the slave women as a burden who would need to be fed and
protected, so to free the nation from any responsibility to care for these women a new plan was
put into place: marriage. Freed men were suddenly judged based on their willingness to
embrace marriage and its attendant responsibilities was always part of the assessment of salve
mens fitness for freedom and citizenship (McCurry 2012). Marriage meant that the freed
women were no longer a burden on the state, but instead on their husbands to whom they were
dependents. Union camp ministers made it their mission to marry slaves, often forcefully.12
Although Steven Spielbergs Lincoln (2012) is technically a work of fiction due to the
creative liberties taken around historical events, there is a particular scene that captured Lincolns
uncertainty as seen in his Draft of a Communication to Stephen A. Hurlbut.13 The movie
portrays a conversation between Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley in which when pushed, Lincoln
9 Alice S Rossi, ed., Remember the Ladies: Abigail Adams vs. John Adams The
Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir, North Eastern University Press, 1998.
Pp. 7-15, 18-24.
10 Lincoln, Draft of a Communication to Stephen A. Hurlbut.
11 "Women and the Civil War." Teaching with Primary Sources. Accessed July 20,
2016.
12 McCurry, War, Gender, and Emancipation.
13 Pinsker, Matthew. "Emancipation Digital Classroom." Emancipation Digital
Classroom. February 14, 2013. Accessed July 22, 2016.

admits he is unsure what will happen to the slaves after the war.14 This is the same tone and point
of view as found when Lincoln attempted to help General Hurlbut solve the problem of what to
do with the freed women. Lincoln may have wanted freedom for all, but without a doubt he was
unsure how to move forward after that freedom was granted- particularly what to do with the
remaining freed women. Lincoln often referenced his belief that the Founding Fathers had not
meant to protect slavery15, and yet it is still easy to argue that Lincolns policies were much more
progressive than the Founding Fathers in terms of race. However, his point of view in this draft
reveals a viewpoint common in his time (and in the time of the Founders) in which citizenship
was tied to military service and that women were inferior and dependent on men. These
viewpoints, like the political tight-rope he had to walk, further complicated Lincolns moves
towards emancipation and must be studied to fully understand the choices Lincoln made.

14 Lincoln. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Milano: Twentieth Century Fox Home

Entertainment, 2013.
15 Address at Cooper Institute, New York City in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected
Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,
1953), 3: 522-550.

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