The war has naught to do with slaves, cried Congress, the President, and the Nation; and yet no sooner had the armies, East and West, penetrated Virginia and Tennessee than fugitive slaves appeared within their lines.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “The war has naught to do with slaves, cried Congress, the President, and the Nation; and yet no sooner had the armies…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois points out the contradiction between official declarations that the Civil War was not about slavery and the immediate appearance of fugitive slaves seeking refuge with Union armies.
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