United States history [1861–1864]
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• The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica
Confiscation Acts, (1861–64), in U.S. history, series of laws passed by the federal government during the American Civil War that were designed to liberate slaves in the seceded states. The first Confiscation Act, passed on Aug. 6, 1861, authorized Union seizure of rebel property, and it stated that all slaves who fought with or worked for the Confederate military services were freed of further obligations to their masters.
President Abraham Lincoln objected to the act on the basis that it might push border states, especially Kentucky and Missouri, into secession in order to protect slavery within their boundaries. He later convinced Congress to pass a resolution providing compensation to states that initiated a system of gradual emancipation, but the border states failed to support this plan. And Lincoln repudiated the position of Generals John C. Frémont and David Hunter, who proclaimed that the first Confiscation Act was tantamount to a decree of emancipation.
The second Confiscation Act, passed July 17, 1862, was virtually an emancipation proclamation. It said that slaves of civilian and military Confederate officials “shall be forever free,” but it was enforceable only in areas of the South occupied by the Union Army. Lincoln was again concerned about the effect of an antislavery measure on the border states and again urged these states to begin gradual compensated emancipation.
On March 12, 1863, and July 2, 1864, the federal government passed additional measures (“Captured and Abandoned Property Acts”) that defined property subject to seizure as that owned by absent individuals who supported the South. The Confederate Congress also passed property confiscation acts to apply to Union adherents. But the amount of land actually confiscated during or after the war by either side was not great. Cotton constituted nearly all the Southern nonslave property confiscated.
With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, however, Southern slaveholders lost an estimated $2,000,000,000 worth of human property.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, "Chap. CXCV - An act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and
confiscate the Property of Rebels, and for other Purposes," U.S. Congress, pp. 589-592, 17 July 1862
Description
Like the First Confiscation Act of August 6, 1861, the Second Confiscation Act of July 17, 1862, authorized the seizure of property owned by disloyal citizens. However, this law expressly called for emancipation of slaves in three cases: fugitive slaves that reached Union lines, slaves that were captured from or deserted by their owners and slaves living on Union-occupied territory that was previously Confederate-occupied territory who would "be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves." This legislative act also gave the president the power to employ African Americans in the suppression of the rebellion, and opened the possibility for voluntary colonization efforts of former slaves. Congress and the president were careful though not to force emancipation on loyal slaveholders in the border states.
Full Transcript of the Second Confiscation Act: Chap. CXCV
Transcribed Excerpts from the Second Confiscation Act: Chap. CXCV
Source-Dependent Questions
- Use Section 9 of this law to explain the three ways slaves could be emancipated.
- How were border-state slaveholders and their slaves affected by this law?
- How did this law affect the status of fugitive slaves that were previously considered confiscated property and contraband?
- Was emancipation through this act seen as a military or moral act? Use evidence from the law to defend your position.
- What can be inferred about the social and political standing of free African Americans in the United States from Section 12 of this law?
Citation Information
"Chap. CXCV - An act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate the Property of Rebels, and for other Purposes," U.S. Congress, pp. 589-592, 17 July 1862. Courtesy of Library of Congress
As the Senate met in extraordinary session from July 4 to August 6, 1861, one of the wartime measures it considered was the Confiscation Act, designed to allow the federal government to seize property, including slave property, being used to support the Confederate rebellion. The Senate passed the final bill on August 5, 1861, by a vote 24 to 11, and it was signed into law by President Lincoln the next day. Although this bill had symbolic importance, it had little effect on the rebellion or wartime negotiations.
When Congress again convened in December, Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, proposed a more comprehensive confiscation bill. On December 2, 1861, Trumbull introduced the Confiscation Act of 1862 to allow for seizure of all Confederate property, whether or not it had been used to support the rebellion. Before long, however, Trumbull's bill stalled due to ideological differences over the issue of confiscation. Radical Republicans called for a vigorous confiscation bill to seize property and free slaves, but more conservative members worried about expanding the reach of the federal government while denying property owners their constitutional rights.
Early in 1862, a group of moderate senators, led by Ohio’s John Sherman, produced a compromise bill that authorized the federal government to free slaves in conquered rebel territory and prohibited the return of fugitive slaves, while allowing for confiscation of Confederate property through court action. It also allowed the Union army to recruit African American soldiers. Although more aggressive than the first act, the Confiscation Act of 1862 also lacked enforcement capabilities. Loosely enforced by the Lincoln administration, the law was actively undermined by Lincoln’s successor, President Andrew Johnson.