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The Civil War Confiscation Acts: Failing to Reconstruct the South. By John Syrett. (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. Pp. 282. $60.00.)
This book describes the passage and enforcement of the First and Second Confiscation Acts. The First Confiscation Act, passed in the summer of 1861, was designed to seize property, mainly slaves used to support the Confederacy. The Second Confiscation Act, passed a year later, was intended to confiscate all property from those who supported the Confederacy. Little property was actually confiscated under either act and the Emancipation Proclamation made them irrelevant in freeing slaves, which may be why there has been relatively little work on the topic. However, Syrett argues convincingly that the political struggle to pass the...