Civil War Dbq

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There were many Amendments and laws that were passed by the many presidents. Even after the Revolutionary War, there were still many laws that were made, some being why the Civil War started. Most republicans were against slavery, thats one of the reasons the Civil War started, which put pressure on President Lincoln to either be against slavery, or to be with it. By the summer of 1862, it was clear that if he did not act against slavery, he risked alienating the Republicans. The War was going badly for the Union, and after having a couple victories in early 1862, the Northern armies suffered terribly in July and August. Many Northerners thought that if Lincoln passed an Emancipation Proclamation, it would weaken the Confederacy and strengthen the Union by taking away the Southern's labor force and adding manpower to the Northern side. Even thought Congress enacted two laws for the president, Lincoln already had decided on something else, a proclamation that made him commander in chief of freeing all slaves that were against the Union. Lincoln thought that if they took away the South's military power, then they could strike them at the heart of the rebellion. Instead of enacting the proclamation then, the Secretary of State …show more content…

It was nearly in the middle of the war, after the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln issued the proclamation warning that in all states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves "then, thenceforward, and forever free." When January 1 came, the people on the border states refused to obey the proclamation, so the rebellion or War went on. It wasn't over yet, and the proclamation allowed freed slaves and free blacks to join the Union soldiers, so during the next two and a half years, 180,000 freed slaves and blacks fought in the Union army and 10,000 in the navy, helping the Union gain victory and their own

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