Need some help finding a good article on alternative emancipation methods...

[MichelleHeart]

I'm debating with someone of whom I've explained peaceful alternatives to the so-called "Civil War," alternatives that worked in every other country in the West. He insists that we could not have ended slavery without a bloody "civil war" (even though it was anything but civil). I've referred to compensated emancipation, anti-slavery societies, electing anti-slavery legislators, gathering fugitives from seceded territories, all of which he said would never work. He's sick of my reasoning, so he wants a link to an article by a "credible" historian compiling a step-by-step alternative to the "Civil War," particularly in regards to compensated emancipation (I would argue that anything would be an alternative, even letting slavery end naturally).

If someone can find me an article, I will be very grateful. Unfortunately, he will not accept Thomas DiLorenzo.

[randolphfuller]

He would probably enjoy "Freeing Slaves or Enslaving Free Men by Jeffrey Hummel. The book was a project suggested by Milton Friedman.

[Pericles]

From http://www.americanrevolution.org/blk.html

New Jersey's Militia Act of May 1777 permitted masters to enlist slaves as substitutes. New Hampshire opened the door to the recruitment of slaves to fill the state's Continental quota in the fall of that year, and Connecticut soon followed suit. In October 1780 an all black unit, the 2nd Company, 4th Connecticut Regiment (http://www.americanrevolution.org/4thct.html), was formed. That company, some 48 black privates and NCOs under four white officers, existed until November 1782.
In January 1778, General Washington had given his approval to Rhode Island's plan to raise an entire regiment of blackslaves. Over the next five years 250 former slave and freedmen served in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment (http://www.americanrevolution.org/firstri.html). Massachusetts' all-black unit, the Bucks of America under Samuel Middleton, the only black commissioned officer in the Continental Army, probably also had its origins early in 1778. Similar to Rhode Island, the state bought and emancipated slaves willing to become soldiers. In October 1780, even Maryland accepted "any able-bodied slave between 16 and 40 years of age, who voluntarily enters into service . . . with the consent and agreement of his master." New York would begin to recruit slaves in March 1781.


In June 1781, the French and American armies joined forces at White Plains. Baron Closen, a German officer in the French Royal Deux-Ponts, estimated the American army to be about one fourth black, about 1,200 --1,500 men out of less than 6,000 Continentals! On the eve of its decisive victory over Lord Cornwallis, the Continental Army had reached a degree of integration it would not achieve again for another 200 years. Among the troops at White Plains was the Rhode Island Regiment (the two bataillons had been consolidated on 1 January 1781) with its high percentage of African-Americans, which Closen considered the best American unit: "the most neatly dressed, the best under arms, and the most precise in its maneuvres.


In 1782, Virginia had passed a law permitting manumission with the stipulation that former owners remain responsible for manumitted slaves unable to support themselves. Between 1782 and 1792, about 1,000 slaves, undoubtedly including some who had fought for their masters, were manumitted by them. But more were returned to slavery, so that even a legislature such as Virginia's, dominated as it was by slave owners, spoke out against the obvious injustice.
In the fall of 1783, the Assembly passed a bill condemning owners who "contrary to principles of justice and to their own solemn promise" kept their soldier substitutes as slaves. They were freed by legislative decree with instructions to the attorney general of Virginia to act on behalf of any former slave held in servitude despite his enlistment. how many slaves received their freedom as a result of this bill is not known, since a slave could not himself initiate legal proceedings for his own manumission.