Initially, as Union forces moved into Confederate territory, escaped slaves were returned to their owners in a policy to show southerners that the federal government had no intention of interfering with slavery. Yet this policy changed as the war progressed. Eventually, escaped slaves were welcomed into Union lines. Identify the reasons for the change in escaped slaves' status by Union forces.
A. Long before Lincoln called for emancipation, blacks in the North and South referred to the war as the "freedom war." This undermined the institution throughout the South and led to mass exoduses to Union lines.
B. The Confederacy sent slaves to work as military laborers, and so increasingly more blacks were escaping to northern lines.
C. Abraham Lincoln believed that escaped slaves should be returned to slaveowners on promises of good behavior and loyalty toward the Union.
D. The Union army realized that it could resell escaped slaves to British and French slave companies at a profit to support the Union war effort.