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Emancipation Proclamation Dbq

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The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by the President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 when the country entered the third year of Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation was a big game changer for the Civil War. It changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people in the designated areas of the South from slave to free.
The Emancipation Proclamation changed the main goal of the Civil War. This executive order, issued as a military necessity, enlarged the purpose of the war beyond simply saving the Union to ending slavery. During this time president Lincoln was representing The Republicans. While slavery had been a major issue that led to the war, Lincoln's only mission …show more content…

Such an action was a brilliant strategic choice. The decision to pass a law that told all slaves from the South that they were free and encouraging them to take up arms to join in the fight against their former masters was the brilliant tactical maneuver. Ultimately with those permissions, many freed slaves joined the Northern Army, drastically increasing their manpower. The North by the end of the war had over 200,000 African-Americans fighting for them.
The Emancipation Proclamation outraged white Southerners who envisioned a race war. It angered some Northern Democrats, energized anti-slavery forces, and undermined elements in Europe that wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy. The Proclamation lifted the spirits of African Americans both free and slave. It led many slaves to escape from their masters and get to Union lines to obtain their freedom, and to join the Union Army.
The Emancipation Proclamation was never challenged in court. To ensure the abolition of slavery in all of the U.S., Lincoln pushed for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, and insisted that Reconstruction plans for Southern states require abolition in new state constitutions. Congress passed the 13th Amendment by the necessary two-thirds vote on January 31, 1865, and it was ratified by the states on December 6, 1865, ending legal

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