African American Freedom

Following the Civil War, America was in shambles. There were many groups with strong, conflicting ideas of how things should be. However, most groups had one idea in common: reducing the rights of African Americans as much as possible. Freed slaves had very little freedom under the law, were treated like a lesser species by those around them, and faced dangerous environments everywhere they went. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation may have legally freed slaves, but African Americans were barely more than paid slaves.

As a result of the North’s victory in the civil war and the reconstruction period that followed, African-Americans were seemingly on the verge of being able to enjoy the freedom of no longer being slaves. During the reconstruction era, important pieces of legislature were written in order to protect the rights of the newly freed men. Those pieces of legislature were essentially trying to somehow transform former slave into free productive members of society. However, a number of disgruntled southerners took it as their duty to prevent African-American from being free of their former masters. They saw the northerners demand as an infringement of the South traditional values. Although the

Beginning in 1861, the civil war was fought over many political questions regarding slavery, yet was barely focused on the actual freedom of the slaves themselves. It is often taught that the Union fought for the freedom of slaves at the beginning of the war. However, it is more accurate to say that Abraham Lincoln’s primary goal at the beginning of the war was to reunite the Union after the majority of the slave-owning states seceded to protect their way of life: slavery. Yet, by the end of the war, the Union’s goal was to free the slaves. Though the laws securing slaves freedom and suffrage were contributed to by many, the primary driving forces behind them was the African Americans. Through their willingness to fight and support the Union cause, African Americans made the United States acknowledge their struggles and transformed the war into a fight for reconnection and freedom. Though hindered by racist people and policies, the African Americans’ participation during the war and Reconstruction greatly contributed to tremendous cultural change as well as the securing of legal rights to blacks.

First was Lincoln’s delivery of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Lincoln 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” (archives.gov). Lincoln’s speech was simply a declaration of policy that did not actually free any slaves. Nonetheless, it was important because it paved the way for legislative reform that Lincoln worked so hard to effect.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which declared that all people held as slaves in the rebellious state are and henceforth shall be

The period following the Civil War was a period of profound change in the South and the North following the end of slavery. For former slaves were in a difficult position following the war they had received their freedom, but not much else. For the freedmen there was a brief belief that freedom would grant them everything that they needed to succeed. They wanted an equality of rights with whites. Frederick Douglass said that “Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot” (Foner 89). African-Americans wanted these rights to guarantee their status as citizens who would not be dominated by their former Confederate neighbors. Former slaves as also wanted land to work on under their own terms. “To the former slaves, the war with

It connected just to states that had pulled back from the United States, leaving slavery in the border states. Maryland was one of the states allowing people to keep their slaves, since freeing slaves only applied to rebel states. It caused parts of the Confederacy to be exempted that had just gone under Northern control and the freedom it guaranteed relied on union military triumph. The Proclamation declared the acknowledgment of African Americans into the Union Army and Navy. Before the end of the war, just about 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had battled for freedom. The Emancipation Proclamation was a huge jump for African Americans in

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

The Emancipation Proclamation declared, based on Abraham’s war powers, that within named states and parts of states in rebellion against the United States ‘“all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free…” ’(..). Unfortunately, the Emancipation proclamation did not stop slavery nor free any slave. As the Civil War continued, it was no longer a fight for the nation’s advancement but now the war had become known as the war for human rights. Abraham Lincoln now concerned that after the war slaves would not be free, decided to formulate a constitutional amendment. The first attempt to pass the amendment failed when the House of Representatives did not reach a 2/3 vote. The amendment was stagnating for two years until finally forwarded to the States on February 1, 1865 and ratified later that year in December. This indeed made slaves within the mentioned states free but true freedom of the former slaves and blacks such as being equal citizens, was not established till

The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and a strong order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It claimed to change the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people in the designated areas of the South from slave to free, although its actual effect was less. Abraham Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation proclamation on September 22nd, 1882. Preliminary meant that if that the southern states did not cease their rebellion by January 1st 1863, and if not listed the Proclamation would go into effect. Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863. Proclaimed the freedom of slaves in ten states. Because it was issued under the President's powers,

On July 21st, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to the Congressmen from the border states, warning them of his upcoming Emancipation Proclamation. In it he stated, "I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at once to emancipate gradually.” President Lincoln then issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in states or portions of states that still supported slavery. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.

In light of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, the question has arisen as to the freedom of African Americans. In modern media, there have been assertions that African Americans don’t have social freedom. Do African Americans have social freedom? Documentaries, journal articles, and news stories present case studies that belie widespread practice of racial prejudice. Using Felix E. Oppenheim's model of measuring social freedom, an analysis of these case studies indicate that African Americans, in both the economic and legal systems, are subject to racial discrimination, thereby limiting their social freedoms.

On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, issued the first, or preliminary, Emancipation Proclamation. In this document he warned that unless the states of the Confederacy returned to the Union by January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves to be “forever free.” During the Civil War, he was fighting to save the Union and trying not to free the slaves. Lincoln was quoted to say, “I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” The Emancipation Proclamation illustrated this view.

Shortly after, Lincoln issued the Emancipation PRoclamation which frees all the slaves in the south

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln, issued the Emancipation Proclamation and in it he declared “That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the Unite States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” This did not happen out of the blue, one has to go back and see what caused Lincoln to proclaim, that all Slaves where free. The first Country to abolish slavery from the Atlantic slave system was not the United States, but Britain. The British were one of the major forces that cause the emancipation process in the New World countries such as, The United States, Cuba, and Brazil. There were other forces