There are a lot of revelations in this book. The proposals discussed here provided an early glimmering of how the white South would treat blacks for the next century.

I think the main [track] will help him just being able to close. Maybe [he's] not good enough, but I'm going to take my shot.

The more I read about this episode, the more I realized how important it was to our understanding of the war; it wasn't just an interesting little footnote. After all, how could the war be about slavery if the Confederates were willing to sacrifice slavery in order to win the war? And it turned out that there was a cornucopia of information on that and related subjects available in letters, government documents, and newspaper articles and editorials.

The story of the Civil War is usually told as a story of two white armies and two white governments. The popular image is of passive, grateful slaves kneeling at the feet of Father Abraham. But in fact, the slaves were very active in shaping the war and its outcome.

Only a tiny handful of slaves responded to the Confederate proposal. They viewed it as an act of desperation and were skeptical of the sincerity of promises of emancipation. The reaction of the slaves generally was 'Why would we fight for the Confederacy; it's not our country? They were very well informed through the grapevine.

All I needed to do was sing the lyrics that had already been written. I don't know those guys; they seem kind of kooky and crazy. I like their vibe.