The Emancipation Proclamation

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. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

OpenStax is a non-profit organisation that aims to provide free substantial textbook to students via online or hard copy at a very low cost. In order to make this goal happen as for a book of the U.S History, it was helped by numerous historians at all levels of higher education, from community colleges to Ph.D.-granting universities. Most notably individuals

Even as the war proceeded, he was reluctant to make the decision because he feared that it might bring about more chaos than the current state of the United States during the Civil War. In his paper, professor Krug wrote, “Lincoln issued the Proclamation primarily from military necessity and that he was influenced little, if at all, by considerations of justice, freedom and morality”. At this point of the war, it was clear that the Union needs more manpower and constituents’ support. Furthermore, a boost in morale among the African American population was abundant in the effort to fight against the Confederate which is the motivation for President Lincoln to produce the

"Thenceforward and forever free, mostly: deserving of neither blanket condemnation nor blind exaltation, Lincoln 's emancipation proclamation was a brave compromise." Washington Monthly, Jan.-Feb. 2013, p. 11+. Business Collection, ezproxy.occlib.nocccd.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.occlib.nocccd.edu/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=occc_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA315919273&asid=cbb8f474790eb97b592e870c5973facf. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

Louis Masur is an American historian. He is a professor of American studies and History at Rutgers University. He is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Society of American Historians. He writes plethora of books on mostly the Civil War. Therefore, he is a reasonable source of information on the Emancipation Proclamation. In one of Masur’s articles, he asserted that “when the Civil War began, he initially refused to consider a decree freeing the slaves, citing not moral qualms, but constitutional ones”. This statement proves that President could have released the Proclamation earlier. But instead, he chose not to because at the time, he did not feel the need to do so in terms of military and political strategy. It was not in his calculation that the Civil War would need a “push” for a