Emancipation Proclamation DBQ

“Beyond its propaganda value for the Union war effort, the proclamation did nothing, and was intended to do nothing” [Guelzo]. The Southern plantation owners weren’t going to release their slaves just because their former president, and their enemies, said so. It was up to the slaves to risk their lives and attempt to join with the union. But, enslaved people were doing this even before the emancipation proclamation, proving Lincoln's actions here to be practically unnecessary.

In American History the civil war can arguably be described as one of the most influential and pivotal moments for the United States of America because for the first time since the nations creation the country was divided. Many people consider this war to be Lincoln’s war to free the slaves. However, upon further review, Lincoln did not have such a positive attitude towards slaves. Lincoln was more concerned with keeping the country which he presided over together and tried to keep the issue of slavery up to the states. Nevertheless, slavery, having long been the backbone of American society, was undeniably going to play a huge role in the civil war. Lincoln understood that slavery was important and over time his views that slavery was an issues

In his inaugural speech Lincoln stated, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so… If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it.” Though his eloquence was right-minded, the Emancipation Proclamation was only able to free slaves in the areas that were completely occupied by the Union’s forces. The slave holding states that were fighting for the Union were freed. The secretary of the United States in 1861-1869 was William H. Seward and he had stated very wise words, “We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln finalized the Emancipation Proclamation. The Proclamation was a very important document in that it guaranteed the future freedom of all American slaves. Though the Proclomation was to have an important impact it initially failed and didn’t change the position of a single slave in the south. The south did not consider itself part of the Union and pushed them to fight even harder to protect their so-called “property”. Though Lincoln knew that this would anger the south even more, he issued it at a time when he believed that the Union was on the verge of winning and that the south would have to give in to a slave-less existance.

The Emancipation Proclamation may have freed slaves held in confederate territory, but it left many exemptions for slavery in the border states and states still loyal to the Union. In reality, the Emancipation Proclamation was more an attempt to convince confederate states to return to the union, than an attempt to end slavery outright. Before the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln had announced that he would order the emancipation of all slaves

President Abraham Lincoln, sometimes called “The Great Emancipator”, is best remembered today for his Emancipation Proclamation. This proclamation, issued in September 1862 and enacted at the start of 1863, freed all slaves in rebelling states in the Confederacy and had a dramatic impact on the outcome of the Civil War. However, even though Lincoln was morally against the concept of slavery, he had previously stated that he had no intention of abolishing it. Why did he explicitly violate his own word? Multiple factors played a part in Lincoln’s decision to emancipate the slaves. Firstly, as the conflict progressed from a minor rebellion to a full-blown civil war, Lincoln felt that the Emancipation Proclamation would strengthen the Union’s

In order to offer an answer, one must look at Lincoln’s evolving views on slavery and more importantly his reasons for drafting the executive order that

“This government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free” . Most of the Americans agree that Abraham Lincoln was one of the best presidents that our country had. There are many reasons why Emancipation Proclamation changed the civil war on a liberation of slaves. In order to better understand and appreciate the Emancipation Proclamation, one must examine its content, importance to the past because the slaves were free and they could work, had their own money and they were not owned by anyone. And continuing importance today because African American have the right to education, they can assist to the same stores, school, restaurants and hospitals. Now, all people in the country are equal.

Former President Abraham Lincoln is accredited for creating the Emancipation Proclamation and ending slavery in the United States. Due to his actions before and during the Civil War, it seems as though Lincoln always viewed slavery as a terrible thing that must be stopped immediately. But that was not how he always felt. Lincoln’s views on slavery varied during his political career and his plan of action was mostly based off of how he personally felt about slavery. Lincoln admitted in his speeches that he knew slavery was wrong, but the steps that had to be taken to deal with slavery were never concrete in his mind. Based on Lincoln’s upbringing,

     After the North won the war under the command of Ulysses S. Grant Abraham Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation. This is what Lincoln made for all the slaves to be freed after the war. He really did not help them as much as he could have helped them. He only gave the about 1000 slaves forty acres and a mule. This was not enough at all. There were close to three and a half million slaves only about a thousand get land. The rest of these slaves had nowhere to turn to because after the war no one wanted them to live in the same town or village or even near any of them. Most of the freed slaves had nowhere to go so they still made the choice of working the fields in the South but get paid very little.

War efforts shift gears from bringing the union back to abolishing slavery after Lincoln witnessed terrible treatment given to African Americans. The emancipation proclamation announced “…all slaves in rebellious states henceforward shall be free (Wills).” Lincoln did not want to upset the South from ever returning to the Union, but his conscious told him something had to be done about slavery before preserving the union could be achieved (Wills).

The long standing question of “who freed the slaves” has been under debate since the conclusion of the Civil War. One side of the argument takes the more obvious claim that emancipation came at the hand of the great Abraham Lincoln. The other side of the argument claims that the Slaves themselves attained their freedom. Both sides have been heavily researched and strongly supported with many facts. Do we give credit to one person for generating the political backing and eventually passing the legislation to emancipate the slaves? Do we give credit to those with so much drive to survive that they manage to escape their lives of oppression? Additionally, the Union Military enabled the Slaves to seek refuge. It would

“In politics Mr Lincoln told the truth when he said he had ‘always hated slavery as much as any Abolitionist’ but I do not know that he deserved a great deal of credit for that for his hatred of oppression & wrong in all its forms was constitutional – he could not help it,” wrote Attorney Samuel C. Parks, a longtime friend of Abraham Lincoln.1 Contemporary Robert H. Browne recalled Abraham Lincoln telling him in 1854: “The slavery question often bothered me as far back as 1836-40. I was troubled and grieved over it; but the after the annexation of Texas I gave it up, believing as I now do, that God will settle it, and settle it right, and that he will, in some inscrutable way, restrict the spread of so great an evil; but for the present it

Some believe that Lincoln’s words and deeds at the beginning of the Civil War led to the conclusion that he viewed emancipation as a political and military necessity, and nothing more. I think that Lincoln struggled with the emancipation issue, because it is reasonable to assume that anyone would as well if placed in the same position. We have to remember that slavery was a normal part of life back in that era. Lincoln was in an extremely delicate position as the President. He had to maintain the support of the Border States, the slave states that stayed loyal to the Union, the war Democrats, as well as his own party. Eventually Lincoln proposed gradual compensated emancipation, which offered slave states an incentive if they could be persuaded to abolish slavery themselves by their own legislatures (McPherson, 1996). This would alleviate the disharmony that would arise if Lincoln tried to force all states to set their slaves free.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1st, 1863, by Abraham Lincoln, and declared that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforth shall be free” (Pruitt). “At the outset of the Civil War, to the dismay of the more radical abolitionists in the North, President Abraham Lincoln did not make abolition of slavery a goal of the Union war effort.” Although, the Emancipation freed more than 3 million slaves, that was not Lincoln’s initial goal, unlike the abolitionists up in the North. Lincoln however, did believe that slavery was morally wrong, but he feared that the abolition of slavery would cause the bordering slave states still loyal to the Union to go into the Confederacy, and make northerners even more upset than what they already were.