On April 12th 1861, the Civil War began involving both the Union and the Confederacy. The main cause behind all of this was the issue of slavery and its expansion to new western territories. Both the Confederates in the South and the Union in the North were clashing over the proper process of Emancipation. While the Union’s goal was to eliminate slavery and to persevere the nation, the Confederates were insistent on keeping slavery and weren’t going to give it up without a fight. Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President in 1961 and he was the leading member of the Republican Party. Since the republicans were in control of the North, it was clear that the party wished to abolish slavery, which began the secession of the South soon after the …show more content…
On January 1st 1863 President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and declared that any person enslaved shall now be free, bring hope to all black and freed black slaves, but the process wasn’t as auspicious as it seemed. Eric Foner mentions in his work A Short History of Reconstruction “For emancipation meant more than the end of a labor system, more even than the uncompensated liquidation of the nation's largest concentration of private property. Begun the preserve the Union, the Civil War now portended a far- reaching transformation in Southern life and a redefinition of the place of blacks in American society and of the very meaning of freedom in the American public.” 8 The Proclamation had plenty of limitations on it; it only applied to the rebellious states and not to the loyal enslaved states that didn’t secede from the Union. It also gave immunity to parts of the South that were under Union control and depending on Union victory as well for the blacks to receive freedom. The Proclamation raised hopes for everyone across the nation changing the populations’ perspective …show more content…
The Emancipation Proclamation was a complex process that not only government officials took initiatives but so did black and white activists. Abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrsion, Elizabeth Keckley, and Radical Republicans (Charles Sumner) were true fighters against segregation and slavery. Abolitionists weren’t satisfied with certain laws such as the Fugitive Slave Law that returned run away slaves back to the Southern territories; this was seen as too promising since during wartime measure enforcing this law wasn’t helping the Union army. By sending back runaway slaves it was perceived by abolitionist that the Union was in a way promoting slavery and fortifying the southern economy. Radical Republicans in Congress weren’t pleased with these measures either and proclaimed the first Confiscation Act of 1861 and the second Confiscation Act of 1862. The Confiscations Acts functioned on the bases that Union forces could obtain any Confederate slaves and they could be of service for Union purposes. Both Confiscation Acts were the building blocks for Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. With the passing of the Militia Act of 1862 that entitled that freed black man could enlist as soldiers gave a sign of development in the right direction. At first activists and colored people saw this as an
At the time, the South depended on slavery to support their way of life. In fact, “to protect slavery the Confederate States of America would challenge the peaceful, lawful, orderly means of changing governments in the United States, even by resorting to war.” (635) Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong and realized that slavery was bitterly dividing the country. Not only was slavery dividing the nation, but slavery was also endangering the Union, hurting both black and white people and threatening the processes of government. At first, Lincoln’s goal was to save the Union in which “he would free none, some, or all the slaves to save that Union.” (634) However, Lincoln realized that “freeing the slaves and saving the Union were linked as one goal, not two optional goals.” (634) Therefore, Lincoln’s primary goal was to save the Union and in order to save the Union, Lincoln had to free the slaves. However, Paludan states that, “slave states understood this; that is why the seceded and why the Union needed saving.” (634) Lincoln’s presidential victory was the final sign to many Southerners that their position in the Union was
The election of Abraham Lincoln, an anti-slavery advocate, in 1860 resulted in the secession of the South from the United States of America. The South seceded from the Union and encouraged others to do the same, as Abraham Lincoln was against popular sovereignty and the Constitution. (Doc 7) Abraham Lincoln condemned the institution of slavery, which led the the secession of the South upon his presidential nomination.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States of America, the repercussions of which led to civil war. However it was not only Lincoln’s election that led to civil war but also the slavery debate between the northern and southern states and the state of the economy in the United States. Together with the election of Lincoln these caused a split, both politically and ideologically, between the North and South states which manifested into what is now refereed to as the American Civil War.
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.
When the Civil War was approaching its third year, United States President Abraham Lincoln was able to make the slaves that were in Confederate states that were still in rebellion against the Union forever free. Document A states that on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and that every enslaved person residing in the states that were “In rebellion against the United States” were free and that the Executive Government of the United States and that the military and naval authority were to recognize them and could not act against them at all. Although the Proclamation did not free every slave in the Confederacy, it was able to release about 3.5 million slaves. Along with freeing all of those slaves, it also stated that African American men were allowed to enlist with the Union and aid them in the war.
Johnson, Michael, and Allen C. Guelzo. “Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America.” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Michigan Publishing, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
America has gone through many political, social and economic crises throughout her lifetime. One revolutionary movement called as Reconstruction after a civil war was established. Reconstruction refers to the era or period after the civil war when the United States was rebuilding and reuniting. Reconstruction was one of the complex situations in the US history. All the citizens had anticipated for the better nation from the reconstruction. Millions of people at that period were optimistic and hopeful because it was the greatest time of the transformation of social, political and economic status of a nation. Reconstruction was assumed to possess an enormous accomplishment in the US history, but it was not entirely successful in making that
By the end of the Civil War, the economy had collapsed. Businesses and banks were ruined by inflation as well as the once fruitful cotton farms. The white aristocracy was poor but not humble; they stood defiant and shocked. Once the emancipation happened, there was a lot of confusion amongst slaves due to the fact that it happened unevenly across the country; at the end many of these slaves would have been freed more than once by the Union Army. Their freedom would last as long as the Union Army would stay in town, once the army left town they would found themselves re-enslaved by pockets of resistance. The slaves that were loyal to their owners were not willing to leave them, so they would oppose to be freed by the Union Army. Some slaves would lash back to their owners by having episodes of violent outburst. Others would joint the Union Army so they could pillage their former owner’s house. On the other hand, there were blacks that wanted to have the life that their masters had and for so long they were not allowed to have because of their status as slaves. Those slaves would acquire such fine clothes and jewelry and would demand for whites to address them as Mr. or Mrs.
In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was in fact “proclaimed” there was still slavery in a new name. Just because, slavery was no longer permitted, it did not eliminate the ability for sharecropping to exist. The Emancipation Proclamation did not even free all slaves, meaning slaves in the borderline states were not free. The only slaves that were free, were the slaves that were in the states that went against the Union. However, it can be observed that there was a technological and medical revolution.
All African Americans thought with the creation of civil rights, they would be free to do what all Americans could do. In the context of civil rights, emancipation means to be free from slavery. The process took much longer than they expected. Many fled to the North to gain their freedom, which was rightfully theirs. Legal slavery was removed from the North, but the population of slaves between the first emancipation and the end of the Civil war doubled, from roughly 1.8 million in 1827 to over four million in 1865. It was very difficult for southern farmers and those who owned slaves to immediately give up a lifestyle they were accustomed to and remove their slaves. White southerners viewed African Americans as their workers. They have lived with this mindset for so long, causing their transition to be challenging compared to the transition of the slaves in the north.
Abraham Lincoln is known as the President who helped to free the slaves, lead the Union to victory over the confederates in the American Civil War, preserve the union of the United States and modernize the economy. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued through Presidential constitutional authority on January 1st, 1863, declared that all slaves in the ten remaining slave states were to be liberated and remain liberated. The Emancipation Proclamation freed between three and four million slaves, however, since it was a Presidential constitutional authority and not though congress, the Emancipation Proclamation failed to free slaves in Border States like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. Essentially, states that were under Federal Government and loyal to the Union did not have their slaves liberated; Lincoln even stating “When it took effect in January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves.” Some argue Lincoln issued this Proclamation in an attempt to satisfy the demands of Radical Republicans, members of a group within the Republican Party. Radical Republicans were a group of politicians who strongly...
By trying to trick them, the South rebelled as soon as Lincoln became president and launched what is today known as the Civil War. The secession of the United States was the cause of the Civil War. The Southern Confederates were furious at the Northern Union for trying to abolish slavery. When Lincoln was elected president, he tried to once and for all abolish slavery in the North as well as the West. He tried to contain slavery to its geographical area to keep it from spreading anymore north, but the South erupted in rebellion and eventually went to war against the North in the Civil War.
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
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
In the 1860 presidential election, Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, opposed the expansion of slavery into United States' territories. Lincoln won, but before his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to secede had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, a total of 48.8% for the six. Outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincoln's inaugural address declared his administration would not initiate civil war. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession. Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy. A peace conference failed to find a compromise, and both sides prepared for war. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on "King Cotton" that they would intervene; none did and none recognized the new Conf...