Battle Lines Chapter Summaries

Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War effectively tells a story at the beginning of the Civil War about an African American young man who escapes from the south to the north. The story drew an emotional connection as well the basic facts about African Americans escaping and what life was when they reached the north. At the beginning of Chapter Four: Leg Irons, there is a newspaper that talks about how the Union soldiers should seize slaves that were escaping from the north. They were label as “contraband of war” and that the government encouraged it. After the newspaper, the story begins. The story starts off with a young African-American slave running away and is caught by Union soldiers. The Union soldier told the slave that
The life in the camps was not great. The camps were full of disease and malnutrition was present. The projects they work was known as the “drudgework” of war. They raised fortifications, cooked meals, and laid railroad track. The life was difficult but the opportunity was freedom. With slaves coming up to the north, a dilemma arose with the Union Army on what to do with the slaves but was resolved by the First Confiscation Act. In the document “General Benjamin F Butler reacts to self-emancipating slaves, 1861”, he states that without slaves the southern plantations will be behind for a couple weeks and the plantation owners will need to find new people to carry out these jobs. Butler is explaining with this law the north can gain an advantage against the south. The textbook and this primary document explain in more detail about slaves coming from the south and are placed in “contraband camps” in the north. The text gives more detail on the life in the camps and the document provides more detail on the thoughts of the General in the Union