Emancipation Dbq

Lincoln wished to destroy the South and instill it with ideas from the anti-slave North. Blacks would be free to work for themselves as freemen. The South took the Emancipation Proclamation as the Nation’s biggest atrocity committed on its own people in history. Some slave owning Northerners claimed it was unconstitutional and would lead to violent slave uprisings and the taking of white man’s jobs. This was an “act of justice” that needed to be signed and ratified (Chapter 14, pp. 447). Lincoln knew that this was an important moment in history when he said: “If my name ever goes into history, it was for this act” (Chapter 14, pp. 447). This is what Lincoln would be remembered for in the years to come. His name went down in history as the President

who successfully abolished slavery and emancipated all blacks. Further success of the Emancipation Proclamation and eventual victory of the North and Union would depend on political progress made by Radical Republicans. It would also rely on the aggressive Union armies to win battles against the Confederacy with the newly recruited and enlisted African American soldiers who volunteered in the Union army.
The Emancipation Proclamation helped change military policy that allowed blacks to serve in the Union army.

Blacks were critical in the victory of the Union. “By 1865, nearly 200,000 African Americans were serving the Union”, and according to Lincoln, without these important volunteers and recruits “we would ne compelled to abandon the war in three weeks” (Chapter 14, pp. 450). A pivotal moment in Civil War history, blacks were now able to fight and rebel against slavery alongside white men. With prior failures in previous Generals taking advantage of Southern weaknesses in battle, in March of 1864 Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant effectively created and employed aggressive military strategies that would lead to victory. The newly appointed General Grant was aggressive and brutal in his war tactics that had a disregard for life lost on either side. His primary goal and focus was to win the war and not prolong

it.
Lincoln’s next presidential campaign of 1864 was dependent on the victories of the Union army and his previous political endeavors as President during the beginning of the Civil War.

The Republican Party fully endorsed Lincoln’s war strategies, the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, his goal to end the Confederacy by force or surrender, and his calling for an amendment of the Constitution that would abolish slavery entirely. Opposing political parties wanted slavery to remain in the South and used the Democratic party to object to Lincoln’s claims for abolition. These rejections by the Democratic party failed as Lincoln won another term of presidency again in November of 1864. The fall and decline of the Confederacy was beginning to happen as states amended their Constitutions to end slavery. Nearing the end of the war to re-enforce the abolition of slavery and maintain the policies of the Emancipation Proclamation, Republican Congress passed the 13th amendment to end slavery in 1865. Slavery was nearly over. By May of 1865, the war was practically over after the Confederate generals and army lost in battle and surrendered. The Confederate government had lost its power and had crumbled to dust. The South’s attempt at secession to form a new Confederacy had failed against the power of Lincoln and the North. The slave population who refused to work or fight for the South and the farmers that objected the draft and rich planters were both big weaknesses that led to the loss of

the South. The Union’s economic and mass production advantages, large population (especially after African American emancipation and recruitment), aggressive generals, and the abolishment of slavery all led to the victory of the North. Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation gave way for a new anti-slave revolution and complete restructuring of the South. Two other amendments were also added to the Constitution to protect the rights of blacks. The first amendment that abolished slavery was the thirteenth amendment passed in 1864 and ratified in 1865. The second amendment was the fourteenth amendment that “addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws” towards former slaves (Wikipedia). The third amendment that protected slaves was the fifteenth amendment that “prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's ‘race, color, or previous condition of servitude’” (Wikipedia). All three of these amendments came after the Civil War during the Reconstruction of the South. The South was in shambles as four years of war had destroyed their lands, society, and culture. Even though there was some cleaning up to do in the South, the destruction was well worth it to the slaves who had now been freed and were actually gaining some rights and protections by the U.S. government. Without Lincoln’s original Emancipation Proclamation, who knows how long it would have taken for abolition to happen. Lincoln took steps towards emancipation himself instead of waiting. His brave Proclamation changed our society and relations between North and South for decades, but the fight was well worth it as changes in our very own Constitution were amended for the benefit of freed African Americans.