"Slavery probably could have been done away with peacefully in Virginia" reminds me of how little is written about the death toll after the slaves were freed.
Instead, freed slaves were often neglected by union soldiers or faced rampant disease, including horrific outbreaks of smallpox and cholera. Many of them simply starved to death.
After combing through obscure records, newspapers and journals Downs believes that about a quarter of the four million freed slaves either died or suffered from illness between 1862 and 1870.
Wow. Haven't heard much about this. The only time it ever came up was when I was researching Sherman; he neglected most of those he "freed" and many died, from what i gather
"Slavery probably could have been done away with peacefully in Virginia" reminds me of how little is written about the death toll after the slaves were freed.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war
Instead, freed slaves were often neglected by union soldiers or faced rampant disease, including horrific outbreaks of smallpox and cholera. Many of them simply starved to death.
After combing through obscure records, newspapers and journals Downs believes that about a quarter of the four million freed slaves either died or suffered from illness between 1862 and 1870.
Wow. Haven't heard much about this. The only time it ever came up was when I was researching Sherman; he neglected most of those he "freed" and many died, from what i gather