The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation

That the Confederacy in its waning days frantically turned to the idea of arming slaves has long been known by all close students of the Civil War. Yet the more explosive if unexamined issue before the southern people and leaders in this last great crisis was whether or not the South itself should initiate a program of emancipation as part of a plan to recruit black soldiers. Jefferson Davis and other leaders including Robert E. Lee attempted to force the South to face the desperate alternative of sacrificing one of its war aimsthe preservation of slaveryin order to achieve the otheran independent southern nation. In The Gray and the Black Robert F. Durden reconstructs this intensely passionate debate that cuts to the heart of what the war was about for the South. Throughout his narrative Durden lets the participants speak for themselvesin journal extracts newspaper articles letters and speeches. These documents and Durdens perceptive commentary demonstrate with sad finality that when faced with this ultimate choice southerners with certain fascinating exceptions could not bring themselves to abandon the peculiar institution.