Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 during the civil war, as main goal to win the war. Some historians argued that it was based on feelings towards slaves because not only it freed slaves in the South; it was also a huge step for the real abolition of slavery in the United States. While other historians argued that it was a military tactic because it strengthened the Union army, because the emancipated slaves were joining the Union thus providing a larger manpower than the Confederacy . The Emancipation Proclamation emancipated slaves only in the Confederacy and did not apply to the Border-states and the Union states.
Abraham Lincoln became the United States’ sixteenth president during a controversial era in which the Union was in danger over the prospect of slavery. Distraught by the idea that the collapse of the American Union might forever destroy the possibility of a democratic republican government, Lincoln set out to restore the union, claiming that it would not survive if it remained divided. He aimed to protect democracy by ruling secession as illegal. Initially, Lincoln rejected emancipation as a goal of the war, but changed his stance after being pressured by the arrival of an influx of black refugees in Northern camps, and the efforts of radical republicans to use wartime legislation to destroy slavery. As a result, he drafted a general emancipation
Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest president this country has ever seen, or was he? He used his influence and freed the slaves and gave the north the push it needed to save the slaves from the tyranny of the south, or did he use his powers and a broad constitutional interpretation with the hopes of a short war. The Emancipation Proclamation was much more than a simple act of abolitionism, it was an act of interpretation, and an act of overreaching on the part of the Executive branch.
The northern people needed a response and Abraham says “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve.” Now Lincoln was for all humans in the United States to be free and not worrying about relocation or the south coming back to the union. He knew the war had to happen and that “to win the war, therefore, the Union must make the institution that lay at the economic and social foundation of southern life a military target.” (Fiero 408) In Ken Burns: The Civil War- Forever Free-1862 when Lincoln visits the battlefield to see the troops and talk with the commander McClellan. The men said “They could see the deep sadness in the presidents face, and feel the burden on his heart, thinking of is great commission to save this people, and knowing that he could do this no otherwise than as he had been doing. By and through the manliness of these men.” (Burns) Later after this he decided to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, which didn’t set all slaves free yet but gave them a date in which slavery will be abolished. “Not only did the Emancipation Proclamation alter the nature of the Civil War and the course of American history, but it also marked a turning point in Lincoln’s own thinking. For the first time, it committed the government to enlisting black soldiers in the
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
Opinions about the Emancipation Proclamation changed drastically from 1861 to 1863. At the beginning of the war, the freeing of slaves was looked down upon by most everybody in the United States but as the war continued, it became more accepted to the point where citizens celebrated it. The Sacramento Daily Union and the Sacramento Bee were two newspapers that printed the general opinion of citizens in California. On October 5, 1861, near the beginning of the war, Sacramento Daily Union expressed their hatred of emancipation. The article stated that both races will never be able to live completely equal in unity. They also stated that emancipation would be the end of the black race (Doc A). By stating this the reader of the articles
The union achieved victory at Antietam which was a good step in the right direction to defeating the slavery supporters. On September 22, 1862, following the sensational Union victory at Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln introduced the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This affirmed “that all persons held as slaves” in the period of rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free( Emancipation, Records of U.S)." The proclamation also called for the recruitment and installation of black military units amidst the Union forces. The procla...
One of Abraham Lincoln’s truly noble and well-known actions was the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. This would proclaim all the slaves in the United States free from slavery. Though this meant little to the South at the time, it means everything today.
During his presidency, President Abraham Lincoln took several actions that challenged the popular public opinion. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all of the slaves in the Confederate areas of the South. Most of the population in the south believed that slavery was essential to their way of life. The Emancipation
The Emancipation Proclamation was established on September 22, 1862, which allowed all who were slaves, from that point on free. But what is freedom? According to African Americans, freedom was “escaping the numerous injustice of slavery-punishment by the lash, the separation of families, . . . the sexual exploitation of black women… and sharing the rights and opportunities of American citizens”. From hangings, beatings, and rapes, former slaves weren’t in fact free from hurt and pain. Explained in Ida B. Wells-Barnett “On Lynching’s,” there was a new system of intimidation that emerged after the emancipation, wherein lynching being enforced by white supremacy.