Lincoln pushed a supplemental act letting the enslaved self-petition for freedom

Evidence

At President Lincoln’s urging, Congress approved a Supplemental Act on July 12, 1862, which empowered the enslaved to take control of their own destinies. As a result, they no longer had to wait for their enslavers to do the right thing. Instead, they could request emancipation by filing their own claim. Moreover, the Supplemental Act granted freedom to enslaved persons without any compensation to their enslavers, so it provided an additional financial incentive to enslavers to request compensation under the original act. Some enslavers, however, still chose slavery, either because they hoped the legislation would be declared unconstitutional or they were simply prepared to violate the law. The addiction to exploiting black labor is not easily shaken. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 103

Categorization

• QUESTION: The line ‘the addiction to exploiting black labor is not easily shaken’ is rhetorically potent but also analytically ambitious — does Brown defend it as economic rationality beyond the DC case?