This book explains how the Battle of Antietam-a conflict that changed nothing militarily-still played a pivotal role in the Civil War by affording Abraham Lincoln an opportunity to announce the emancipation of slaves in states in rebellion. Antietam 1862: Gateway to Emancipation examines the connections between the Maryland Campaign culminating in the battle of Antietam in 1862 and the drive to emancipate slaves to win the war for the Union. The work's thematic chapters discuss how slaves' resistance to the Confederacy and flight to Union armies influenced Union domestic and diplomatic politics, Confederate military strategy, and above all, the leadership of President Lincoln. By focusing on the complex topics of antislavery politics, diplomacy, and slaves' resistance rather than the specific occurrences on the battlefield, this book shows how shrewd Abraham Lincoln was in assessing the consequences of fighting a civil war about slavery. The concept that slaves' resistance played a part in Lee and Davis's decision to cross the Potomac and invade Maryland is explored, as is the idea that this strategy delayed and ultimately dashed all of the Confederacy's hopes of help from the British.

A stereotypical image of manumission is that of a benign plantation owner freeing his slaves on his deathbed. But as Stephen Whitman demonstrates, the truth was far more complex, especially in border states where manumission was much more common. Whitman analyzes the economic and social history of Baltimore to show how the vigorous growth of the city required the exploitation of rural slaves. To prevent them from escaping and to spur higher production, owners entered into arrangements with their slaves, promising eventual freedom in return for many years' hard work. The Price of Freedom reveals how blacks played a critical role in freeing themselves from slavery. Yet it was an imperfect victory. Once Baltimore's economic growth began to slow, freed blacks were virtually excluded from craft apprenticeships, and European immigrants supplanted them as a trained labor force.