The Emancipation Proclamation was an enormous incentive for the Union’s victory in The Civil War because it freed slaves to be put in the Union army, which was an advantage for the Union victory. It was also the most important aspect of Lincoln’s legacy. The proclamation was important to history because it paved the way for the abolition of slavery in the United States.
“Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd 1862. The document states that if the states in the rebellion didn’t cease, the proclamation would go into effect” (10 Facts). When the rebellious states decided not to, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation on January 1st, 1863. The proclamation only applied to the states in rebellion. In fact, the proclamation declared, “that all persons held as slaves, within the rebellious, are and henceforth shall be freed” (The Emancipation Proclamation). During the war, the Southern states used the slaves to support their armies in the field and to manage the home front. Lincoln justified the proclamation as a war measure intended to cripple the Confederates use of slaves in war. The book, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End Of Slavery in America, says “No single official paper in American history changed the lives of as many Americans as Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. But no American document has been held up to greater suspicion” (Guelzo 12).
When Lincoln first proposed the Proclamation to his cabinet members, they didn’t support it; Lincoln’s advisors believed it to be too radical. However, regardless of what his advisors said, Lincoln still stood behind the proclamation. For example, Lincoln wrote a letter to James Conkling regarding his views on the proclamation, he sai...
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...it led the way to the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States.
All together the Emancipation Proclamation helped the Union’s victory in the Civil war and was a critical step in abolishing slavery in the United States, changing America forever.
Works Cited
“10 Facts about the Emancipation Proclamation.” Civil War Trust. BBB. 2013. 2 February 2014
Carpenter, F.B. “First Reading of the Proclamation” 1886. Library of Congress. web. 2 February 2014
“Emancipation Proclamation” National Archives. U.S National Archives and Record Administration. 2012. 13 April 2014.
Guelzo, Allen. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End Of Slavery in America. Simon and Schuster. 2004. Media.
Pruitt, Sarah “5 Things You May Not Know About Lincoln, Slavery, and Emancipation” History. Readers Companion to American History. 2012. web. 30 October 2013.
Abraham Lincoln’s original views on slavery were formed through the way he was raised and the American customs of the period. Throughout Lincoln’s influential years, slavery was a recognized and a legal institution in the United States of America. Even though Lincoln began his career by declaring that he was “anti-slavery,” he was not likely to agree to instant emancipation. However, although Lincoln did not begin as a radical anti-slavery Republican, he eventually issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves and in his last speech, even recommended extending voting to blacks. Although Lincoln’s feeling about blacks and slavery was quite constant over time, the evidence found between his debate with Stephen A. Douglas and his Gettysburg Address, proves that his political position and actions towards slavery have changed profoundly.
First, Emancipation Proclamation pronounced that freed slaves could be enlisted in the Union Army, so that Union Army can increase their manpower through Black recruitment. It is strategically very important to subdue the opposition force. Lincoln knew the weakness of the confederate army, and their lack of resources. The Emancipation allowed many Black people to join the Union army, which was strategically significant idea; however, the Proclamation did not actually free the slaves in the Union states. The Proclamation extended the goal of
Klingaman, William K. Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation, 1861-1865. New York: Viking, 2001.w York: Simon & Schuster,
The drive to end slavery in the United States was a long one, from being debated in the writing of the Declaration of Independence, to exposure of its ills in literature, from rebellions of slaves, to the efforts of people like Harriet Tubman to transport escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad. Abolitionists had urged President Abraham Lincoln to free the slaves in the Confederate states from the very outset of the Civil War. By mid-1862, Lincoln had become increasingly convinced of the moral imperative to end slavery, but he hesitated (History.com). As commander-in-chief of the Union Army, he had military objectives to consider (History.com). On one hand, emancipation might
Lincoln declared that “all persons held as slaves” in areas in rebellion “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Not only liberate slaves in the border slave states, but the President has purposely made the proclamation in all places in the South where the slaves were existed. While the Emancipation Proclamation was an important turning point in the war. It transformed the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. According the history book “A People and a Nation”, the Emancipation Proclamation was legally an ambiguous document, but as a moral and political document it had great meaning. It was a delicate balancing act because it defined the war as a war against slavery, not the war from northern and southern people, and at the same time, it protected Lincoln’s position with conservatives, and there was no turning
...h the Confederacy. Even if the goal of the Emancipation Proclamation was to win the war, it was also a moral value because at the end of the war, Lincoln supported the 13th amendment, which ended slavery in the USA. Looking at different sources such as Eric Foner’s “emancipation proclamation” and McPherson James’s “how president Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation” , it is clear that opinions differed regarding the purpose of the emancipation proclamation, but both of them argued that it was both a military tactic but had also a moral value behind it.
Reverend J.W.E. Bowen said on February 12, 1909, “The name of Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation Proclamation should be spoke with one breath. It is impossible to separate them.” The Emancipation Proclamation was issued and took effect on January 1, 1863. Lincoln threatened that if the rebels did not end fighting and re-join the union by January 1, 1863, all of the states in those rebellious states would be freed. When Abraham Lincoln wrote and published the Emancipation Proclamation, the document had great significance to him and many other people. Abraham Lincoln's presidency has positively benefitted modern society by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation to abolish slavery.
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation; as the country headed toward the third year of the civil war. This proclamation stated: “that all persons held as slaves are, and hence forward shall be free,” however this only applied to the states that were no longer part of the union, leaving slavery untouched in other states. However the Emancipation Proclamation was needed to benefit African Americans.
On January 1’st 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation was issued stating that all people held as slaves were to be freed.
If you really look at it the Emancipation Proclamation was used as a strong war strategy during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln presented it on January 1st, 1863. The document said to free the slaves in the states that were in rebellion to the Union. This also made African Americans have a bigger role in the war from not only the Emancipation Proclamation itself, but orders following such as General Order No. 143. This war strategy really helped the North win the war against the South.
Lincoln had a preliminary proclamation back in September 22, 1862. The reason President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation was because, "slaves in Confederate states which were not back in the union by then would be free, but slaves in the border states were not affected. The president knew the proclamation was a temporary military measure and only congress could remove slave permanently, but had the satisfaction of seeing the 13th Amendment pass a few months before his death." In other words Lincoln wanted to give slave states their rights of freedom, but the slaves along the border wouldn 't get that right of freedom because of where they were located and who they were for. He hoped the 13th amendment would back up his plan of the emancipation proclamation. President Lincolns philosophy left such a great remark on the people of the world. It was said by many different journalists of the civil war that Lincoln was, " a man of profound feeling, just and firm principles, and incorruptible
The "Emancipation Proclamation" speech was actually intended for most of the people that would free the slaves, not to the slaves. According to Rollyson the proclamation was not intended for the slave, blacks, or former slaves. The “Emancipation Proclamation” speech was during the Antislavery Movement or what some people call it the Abolitionist Movement, during the 1960's. The main leaders of the abolitionist movement were Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas. The point of Lincoln writing the speech about emancipating the slaves was to free the slaves and win the civil war. Lincoln had written a speech named "The Emancipation Proclamation". He wrote this speech and signed it in January of 1863, in Washington, D.C. The theme of the speech was to teach everyone that everyone, no matter what race should be treated equally. In the "Emancipation Proclamation" speech, Abraham Lincoln motivates his intended audience during the Antislavery movement by using pathos and rhetorical question.
Emancipation Proclamation, proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War, declaring all "slaves within any State, or designated part of a State ... then ... in rebellion, ... shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The states affected were enumerated in the proclamation; specifically exempted were slaves in parts of the South then held by Union armies. Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation marked a radical change in his policy; historians regard it as one of the great state documents of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln, Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (September 22, 1862), in Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil war, Ed. Michael P. Johnson (Boston: Bedford Books, 2011)
The issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the 13th amendment are two of Lincoln’s most influential documents enacted during his presidency. The Emancipation Proclamation “...declared over three million slaves in the rebel states of the Confederacy to be ‘thenceforward and forever free’...”(Guelzo). This action eventually took the country to the final abolition of slavery when the 13th amendment was introduced, declaring: “Neither slavery