Oregon's Civil War: The Troubled Legacy of Emancipation in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

When working with the Oregon Historical Society to create the exhibit 2 Years, 1 Month: Lincoln's Legacy, project historian Stacey Smith sought to answer a number of questions about Oregon's place in the Civil War. Drawing on themes from the exhibit and new scholarship on the Civil War in the American West, Smith reveals the Pacific Northwest's critical role in shaping Reconstruction policy and challenges “the myth that Civil War Oregonians were disengaged from the national struggle over slavery and civil rights.” Smith describes Oregon as a multiracial society led exclusively by white men, noting that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation forced the state's leaders to consider citizenship rights beyond just the black-white politics emphasized in most histories of the Civil War. Drawing the story into the 1870s, Smith shows how congressional representatives from Oregon played a prominent role in ensuring that African American enfranchisement did not extend to others, particularly Chinese-born immigrants.