Enslaved men liberated themselves once the Civil War began

Evidence

After the Civil War began, Margaret’s life and those of her enslaved people took a dramatic turn. Five of her men, four of whom she hired out—Mortimer Briscoe, Townley Yates, Rezin Yates, Andrew Yates, and William Cyrass—wasted no time in liberating themselves. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 67

Categorization

• XREF: Named enslaved people acting on their own — evidence against the passive-recipient framing of emancipation that reparations critics rely on. — connects to: Enslaved people anticipated emancipation before it legally arrived — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 66; Postwar American slaves moved from individual flight toward collective violent liberation. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 721; Black Union soldiers turned the war to save the Union into an anti-slavery war — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 745 (+3 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Enslaved people anticipated emancipation before it legally arrived — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 66; Postwar American slaves moved from individual flight toward collective violent liberation. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 721; Black Union soldiers turned the war to save the Union into an anti-slavery war — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 745 (+3 more)