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Emancipation Proclamation Dbq

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The Emancipation Proclamation is perhaps the most misunderstood document that has shaped American history. Contradictory to the legend, Abraham Lincoln did not simply free four million slaves with a stroke of his pen. The proclamation barely ensured the eventual death of slavery, the matter left as a possibility - assuming the Union won the war. In reality, the Emancipation Proclamation was no more than an act of propaganda, issued for the purpose of weakening the Confederacy and assuring Union victory. July 1862, Congress established 2 laws based on the premise of weakening the Confederacy. The first was a confiscation act that freed slaves of people who had engaged in rebellion against the U.S. The second a militia act that empowered the …show more content…

With the declaration of this document, the Union first and foremost won a great deal of fighters for their cause. As mentioned earlier, the North acquired nearly 200,000 soldiers for their army when Southern slaves were emancipated, 190,000 those of who fought in the Union army and 10,000 in the navy. This addition of freed slaves was major factor for the North winning the Civil War. Furthermore, with many Northerners drifting towards Abolitionist thinking, the Union gained a stronger moral position in an international perspective. The British, for example, were pro-South but anti-slavery, and up until the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation nearly acknowledged the Confederacy as its own nation. As Lincoln had hoped, the Proclamation turned foreign perspective in favor of the Union by gaining the support of anti-slavery countries. The last contribution the supposed emancipation of slaves made to the North was that the slaves in the North were in fact not emancipated at all. The crucial wording of the proclamation indicated that only slaves residing in rebellious states would be freed from that day forth. Slaveholding border states such as Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware were exempted from surrendering their human property. These slaves, who were living on the “good” side of the U.S., would be required to wait until April 8, 1864, the passing of the 13th Amendment. The Proclamation, in the end, did not compensate slave owners, did not outlaw slavery, and did not grant citizenship to former slaves. It established the eradication of slavery as a war goal, nothing

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169 Words | 1 Pages

In this Document, President Lincoln declared that all slaves in rebellion states were to be “forever free” at the issued date of the document. Although this Document did not in fact free most slaves , it was considered to be one of the most important turning points of the war, and it had preserved the fight for freedom in the nation at the time. When the Emancipation Proclamation had taken its effect, a couple million salves were freed. Lincoln, at first, had no stance on Slavery, mostly at the beginning of his term, however that had changed, and when this document was issued, it was clear that President Lincoln was not in favor of slavery. However, slavery still existed in the South (Confederate States) until there was a victor, and in this

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455 Words | 2 Pages

It did not free the 45,000 slaves in the devoted border states, the 275,000 slaves in Union settled Tennessee, and the slaves ordered by the Union Army in Louisiana and Virginia. Before the Emancipation Proclamation the Union’s war goal was to keep the country united and stated that slaves in territories still in rebellion were freed and encouraged them to join the Union battalion. After the Proclamation the Union’s war goal was to keep the country united and abolishing slavery in the South. This was only enforced to states that had break away from the Union and not affecting the devoted border states. The freedom promised to the slaves relied only on the victory of the Union in the war.

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213 Words | 1 Pages

It’s was considered as the act of justice by the Constitution. The Proclamation is also recruited free blacks to join the Union army. For the next few years, thousands of freed slaves and free blacks fought in the Union Army and Navy. Emancipation later became a war for a new birth of Freedom. Lincoln stated after Gettysburg

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979 Words | 4 Pages

This did not change overnight, and people who were loyal to the Union still kept their slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation had a strong impact on the war and caused the government to say that slavery was wrong. In the North, some people disagreed with the document, but mainly everyone supported it. This ruined the economy in the South, causing some people in the army to flee the war and go back home to support their

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145 Words | 1 Pages

While the Emancipation Proclamation did not have much of an actual effect, it stood for a deep symbolic importance. The war's moral purpose changed as it went to fighting for the freedom of slaves, due to the Proclamation. Freed blacks supported the Proclamation because they could now join the Union army to fight and help put a end to slavery which benefited Lincoln. The Democrats argued that it would cause the war to be much more worst and last longer because it would anger the South. Although Union soldiers did not have much concern for African Americans or abolitionists, they also supported the Proclamation since they believed it was the way to reunite the nation.

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991 Words | 4 Pages

It simply set conditions on how slavery, coupled with peonage, could remain constitutional. The question of freed blacks in the south was very much unresolved. After these acts, the period of reconstruction began. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, the south was left with 620,000 dead and a lot of destruction to repair.

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869 Words | 4 Pages

On September 2nd, 1862, Abraham Lincoln famously signed the Emancipation Proclamation. After that, there’s been much debate on whether Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation truly played a role in freeing the slaves with many arguments opposing or favoring this issue. In Vincent Harding’s essay, The Blood-red Ironies of God, Harding argues in his thesis that Lincoln did not help to emancipate the slaves but that rather the slaves “self-emancipated” themselves through the war. On the opposition, Allen C Guelzo ’s essay, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America, argues in favor of the Emancipation Proclamation and Guelzo acknowledges Lincoln for the abolishment of slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation.

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438 Words | 2 Pages

This proclamation stated that all people held as slaves, in the rebellious states, are and will be free. This was written after about 3 years of fighting in the civil war. The confederates in the south didn’t want to give up the privilege

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For example, one major limitation was that it only provided freedom for slaves in the Southern states, although the Border States and Union States were excluded. For example, the Border States of Tennessee was excluded from the order because it was already under Union Control at the time and was not in rebellion. As mentioned earlier, t it further divided the country into people who supported the freedom of the slave’s verses those who did not. In the Proclamation it allowed African American’s to join the army. This was a major development for the Union Army, because they now had more troops to help fight the Confederacy, which led to the development of the United States Colored Troops.

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1594 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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473 Words | 2 Pages

As the Battle of Antietam closed on September 17, the Union victory made significant ground, which allowed for President Lincoln to release the Emancipation Proclamation with meaning. Warranted by the Constitution and military necessity, the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the states participating in rebellion, ultimately diminishing Southern morale and production. The Emancipation Proclamation reads, “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States are and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.” Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is a very legalistic document, deriving its foundation from the law itself. In a letter to O.H. Browning, Lincoln explained what the document did not allow, “it is not for him to fix their permanent future condition.

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446 Words | 2 Pages

The Emancipation Proclamation was a big turning point in the history of America. It started the transformation of slavery to freedom for all people. It may not have been a fast change, but you need to start somewhere, and the Emancipation Proclamation was that somewhere. During the 1800’s, there was a huge war fighting for the freedom of slaves.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

When the Confederacy did not yield, Lincoln put the final Emancipation Proclamation into effect. After it was put in effect with the civil war was concluded, Lincoln could not have been prouder of enacting the order. “Heralded as the savior of the Union, President Lincoln actually considered the Emancipation Proclamation to be the most important aspect of his legacy. “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper,” he declared. “If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my

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764 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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487 Words | 2 Pages

The Emancipation Proclamation also ordered that suitable people among those freed could now be enrolled into paid service of United States ' forces, and ordered the Union Army to "recognize and maintain the freedom of" the former slaves. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners in any way, did not make slavery illegal and did not grant any citizenship to the former slaves. It only made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal as an addition to the goal of reuniting the Union. Around 20,000 to 50,000 slaves in the southern regions where the rebellion already had been subdued were immediately emancipated. The proclamation could not be enforced in the areas still under rebellion, but when the Union Army took control of Confederate regions, The Proclamation provided the legal support framework for freeing about more than 3 million slaves in those southern regions.

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