The Emancipation Proclamation The Civil War (1861-1865) ended in a victory for the Union, however, such a victory was made possible by the Emancipation Proclamation. Abraham Lincoln’s issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation paved the way to a Union victory in the Civil War by shifting the focus of the war from solely the restoration of a strong Union to the emancipation of slaves as well. This shift in the reason for and the meaning of the Civil War was the main factor that ultimately led to the Union victory due to the implications the Emancipation Proclamation had on foreign involvement in the war and the southern economy. Although Abraham Lincoln’s personal opinions were rather anti-slavery, as president, he had the obligation to not …show more content…
Whether or not this classification of the Emancipation Proclamation accurately defined one of Lincoln’s main objectives for the proclamation, or merely was to provide constitutional justification for the proclamation, there is no denying the effectiveness of the proclamation in weakening the south. Upon the activation of the proclamation on January 1st 1863, the result of the proclamation was extremely prevalent. The south went absolutely haywire as slaves fled their respective plantations to head north, newly invigorated at the prospect of legal freedom, leaving empty and unmanned plantations in their wake. In many places in the south, slave labor was the thing that allowed free white men to take up arms and go to war against the Union, however, without the slave labor keeping the farms running back home, many of those free white men had to return home to assess and/or replace the void of labor that the slaves had left behind in their flight. As General-in-Chief Henry Halleck explained, “Every slave withdrawn from the enemy is the equivalent of a white man put hours de combat.” In a way, what General-in-Chief Henry Halleck was true, whether it be less crop produced and
The Emancipation Proclamation was a very important turning point of the civil war. Making the fight to preserve human freedom. This was declared by Abraham Lincoln a month after the union victory of the battle of Antietam. The CSA was not all happy, Jefferson Davis the president of the CSA stated that Lincoln had no right of freeing the slaves in the south. He said that the slaves were happy, and with the Proclamation it would make the slaves think to kill their masters.
Events were going as planed in the first year of the war. In the second year of the war, the battles’ results were too ugly due to the incompatibility between the new weapons and the old war tactics with no concrete signs of possible future improvement. Therefore, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, despite opposition even from some Northerners. Lincoln declared war for the sake of union. Southerners were motivated to secession by their greed for control and the fear at the same time of the Northerners domination.
It is very important to notice that the Emancipation Proclamation did not abolish slavery in States belonging to the Union and it did not abolish slavery in the bordering states. The executive order abolished slavery in southern Confederate states in which technically speaking the president had no authority because these states had secede form the Union three years earlier (Land and Milkis,
The civil war In 1865 the Civil War ended, and though the Union won the war in the end, the Union had Lincoln guiding them making it easier for the Union to succeed. His strategy throughout the war had a huge impact on the outcome. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the Battle of Gettysburg, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address shaped the outcome of the war. The Emancipation Proclamation declared that all people held as slaves were then free in 1863. It was declared “forever free” for more than 3.5 million slaves in confederate areas still in rebellion against the Union.
The result of the Emancipation Proclamation redefined goals for sides. The battle Antietam demonstrated that the South was not able to sustain an offensive on Union land. In addition the causalities were so great; the south could not sustain the losses in
Between the start of the Civil War and the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, opinions about emancipation took a turn for the better. During the Civil War, President Lincoln decided that the Union could use emancipation, or the freeing of slaves, as a weapon against the South and wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in September of 1862. The Emancipation Proclamation, put into effect on the first of January in 1863, was a document declaring the release of slaves from the cruel chains of slavery. In an October issue from 1861, the Sacramento Bee stated that the emancipation of slaves would only worsen things, because black people and white people can never live as equals. The superior race will always rise, and the lower race will
As Commander in Chief, Lincoln initially wanted to ameliorate relations with the Confederacy by having them return to the Union and cease rebellion. So President Lincoln was cautious to abolish slavery. As he once wrote in a letter, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy Slavery.” Fearing the South’s advance in the War, President Lincoln utilized the Union victory at Antietam, to deliver his decree. The Emancipation Proclamation did three things: it undermined the Confederacy's slave economy, created an influx of soldiers for the Union and made the Civil War explicitly about the institution of slavery.
The sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, decided to abolish slavery by writing and putting the Emancipation Proclamation into effect. In July 1862, Abraham Lincoln proposed his idea to emancipate to the Cabinet. William Steward, his Secretary of State, advised Lincoln to wait for a Union victory to get government support to enforce the Proclamation. It was issued on September 22, 1862, and took effect on January 1, 1863.
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The document declared “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The Emancipation Proclamation is only a few words over 700 but the small section above directly states Lincoln’s intent. It means all slaves, living in areas in rebellion against the federal government, were declared free and included states that had seceded from the Union. It changed to course of the Civil War and was the beginning of the end of slavery in the United States.
To achieve his goal, he needed to announce the Emancipation Proclamation and get more citizens’ supports. As a result, it carried his second victory of the presidential election and led to the end of the Civil War. Thus, Lincoln’s announcement might not be his most desirable solution, but it was necessary to achieve his goal and protect the peace in his country. The Emancipation Proclamation had given an impact on the country and was supported by Northerners, but many people in the South opposed Lincoln’s decision.
In today’s world, many people still believe that slavery was completely ended by Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation but surely, that is not a fact. The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued on September 22nd, 1862 by Abraham Lincoln stating that “all slaves in states in rebellion with the Union shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”. Though the proclamation did pave the way toward the 13th amendment’s abolition, it only allowed slaves mere individual freedom. During the civil war, the federal government didn’t have any governing powers over the south because they were protected by certain indirect slave and slave owner clauses in the Constitution. This proved to be a concerning problem for abolitionists in
The Emancipation Proclamation helped strengthen the Union forces both militarily and politically. For Abraham Lincoln, as for the whitest Free-Spoilers, the purpose of preventing the extension of slavery from the territories was to keep the West white (Lind 2005). Lincoln begged all the white Americans to get rid of this idea one race and gender are more inferior that any other race or
The good moral feeling of the ability to win the war ran through the union, the same feeling of victory when Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln allowed slaves to fight for their own freedom and on behalf of them spoke to the whites explaining why it was so important to keep fighting. Lincoln explained that they were fighting for their own soldiers now. Both the Emancipation proclamation and the Gettysburg Address had a big social impact on americans. Both of the turning points brought hope and good moral being to
Nhat Dang History 170 October 15, 2017 The Emancipation Proclamation - signed on January 1, 1863 - granted freedom to some slaves, was a strategic decision as a contribution to the war effort, rather than a virtuous move like most people are persuaded to believe. OpenStax College. (2016). U.S. History. Houston, TX: OpenStax CNX.
Somebody once remarked, “No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent” (“Abraham Lincoln Quotes"). At the initial view, the Civil War was going to be won by the South. Nonetheless, all that changed when Abraham Lincoln constructed the Emancipation Proclamation because it did not solely free slaves, it further altered antiquity for the salutary and assisted the North in the war, which led to their triumph. The Emancipation Proclamation was Abraham Lincoln’s greatest achievement as president.