Who Freed the Slaves

The slaves running for freedom generated increased support for emancipation. The thousands of African Americans presented a problem for Lincoln because Union generals and Congress created policies that would solidify their wartime freedom and service for the Union cause.

Although Tsar Alexander II and President Lincoln were both responsible for providing emancipation to slaves in their respective countries, they were both driven by their own unique motives. Alexander, under the cloak of selfless intentions, was first in declaring that the peasants working as serfs should be given the opportunity to become landholders themselves. Just two short years later, President Lincoln followed suit by issuing his own emancipation proclamation in an effort to build up a larger, more formidable opposition against the Confederate forces.

One September 22, 1862, the president of the Union, Abraham Lincoln, proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. If I was one of his advisors I would have encouraged Lincoln to propose this Emancipation because it is a necessity to pass it in order to preserve the Union. Through threatening the South’s life style, this will help define the Union’s perception and position of the war: freeing the slaves and preserving the union. This also makes it seem that the North is fighting for a significant moral and human cause. I would have also recommended that because this would have been a good war strategy. By emancipating all the slaves in the rebellion states, this would have crippled the Confederate army. The south army depended on slaves to aid in war efforts.

History textbooks will tell students that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation. “By pronouncing slavery a moral evil that must come to an end and then winning the presidency in 1860, by refusing to compromise on the issue of slavery’s expansion.” (Document 1). When Lincoln declared all enslaved people free from their captures, the South already succeeded and formed the Confederacy, which means that he did not have jurisdiction to declare laws for that area. ‘“Lincoln ‘freed’ slaves in Confederate areas where he had no power and left them in slavery in Border States and Union-controlled Southern areas where he had the power.

Lincoln had two roles in one, being the commander in chief. He couldn’t stop himself from alienating the people who were in favor of slavery, because it liberated him to stop property from being used to pay for war against the US. Slaves stood out and was the most important and valuable property of this sort, because they raised food for the South, worked in factories, were laborers in the army, etc. General Benjamin Butler, commander of Union forces, made legal reasoning for the capture of slave property. When three slaves who had worked on rebel areas, escaped to Butler’s lines in 1861, he declared them as a contraband of war and didn’t allow them to return to their rightful owners. At this point, there was room for emancipation, and hundreds of contrabands voted for freedom by joining Union lines. By 1862 the domino effect occured, and there a lot fo contrabands. Some Union leaders aided them by giving them shelter and protection, while other Union leaders returned them to where they came from to try to prove of the owners were nationalist, who were loyal to their country.

The shift from a struggle to save the Union into a war to destruct slavery made the Civil War a true success. Lincoln changed the military strategies after realizing that simply seizing Southern territory would not bring the victory to the Union. He decided to defeat the South’s armies instead of seizing the capital. The Union concluded that slavery was the economic and social keystone of the Confederacy and to win the war the Union must take down the slavery institution (Give me liberty! 509). With the change of military strategies came the change of the Union policy on slavery. The Union general Daniel E. Sickles noted that Negroes were the ones who provided the Union with the most valuable and reliable information of the South’s military movements (Give me liberty! 513). Northerners claimed that emancipation would weaken the enemy’s ability to sustain the war. As a result, in 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared free more than 3 million slaves

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.

Abraham Lincoln did a lot to forge freedom of the slaves but his untimely death due to his assassination by John Wilkes Booth ended and halted the work that he was doing in this area. However, later there would be others in the Republican and Democratic Party to pick up the banner and move the country forward.

Many myths surround the Civil War. One of them which Abraham Lincoln himself saved all of the slaves in one fell swoop and became the everyday American Hero who stands for what he believes in. However, the truth is that while on paper the slaves of the confederacy were free, they were physically chained. It took a force of more than 2 million soldiers, a civil war and an already

With this knowledge Congress passed Major General Benjamin F. Butler quick thinking into a policy, the First Confiscation Act, in August of 1861 which stated that the federal government had authority to seize any property owned by the Confederates which included slaves. By March the following year, an Article of War was produced which prohibited any military or naval services from returning run-away or fugitive slaves to their respective masters, nullifying the Fugitive Acts all together. When the Second Confiscation Act was announced in July of 1862 it “declared ‘forever free’ Confederate-owned slaves who made their way to federal lines or who resided in rebellious territory that fell to federal forces” (Luke and Smith 2014, 14). Also in the bill, was the legitimisation of the “president to utilise ‘persons of African descent’ in any way that he considered ‘necessary and proper for the suppression of the rebellion’” (Luke and Smith 2014, 14). Thus the Militia Act of July 1862, which “gave Lincoln carte blanche” (Luke and Smith 2014, 14) to make use of black resources. Although these acts were issued with the intention of blacks serving as military labour it gave way to many possibilities.

Abraham Lincoln and Slavery Many Americans believe that Abraham Lincoln was the “Great Emancipator,” the sole individual who ended slavery, and the man who epitomizes freedom. In his brief presidential term, Lincoln dealt with an unstable nation, with the South seceding from the country and in brink of leaving permanently. The differing ideologies between the North and South about the economy and slavery quickly lead to civil war.

Abolitionists were pivotal to the end of slavery within the United States of America. Some were simply outraged and appalled by the continued institution of slavery, and others were former slaves themselves that had wished to end the evil practice of slavery. One such Abolitionist, who is considered in my opinion and the opinion of many others, was Frederick Douglass. This famous former slave had managed to both mentally and physically escape slavery, while also managing to help many others become free by shedding more light on the subject. From his famous autobiographies and Abolitionist work, to his conflict with the segregational Jim Crow laws, Frederick Douglass truly was one of, if not the most important figure in the Abolitionist movement.

Lincoln thought freeing slaves would help him reach his goals to save the Union. Therefor, this led to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Although, the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the Confederate States in America, it was the first step in the final Emancipation of all slaves. It helped the cause of the Civil War, and was close to end slavery permanently. It was the third year into the Civil War, once the form was signed, the number of group soldiers for the Civil War and navy increased. This was because what Lincoln hoped would happen did happen. Although, the liberation of slaves allowed many slaves to volunteer and to fight in the Civil War. At that point the Civil War became a war for freedom. The result of the War was positive. The Union was saved but also the War helped free slaves.

McPherson’s book on Abraham Lincoln is about his struggle as president to keep the union together. The book explained the different strategies, decisions, and speeches Lincoln used in order to keep the confederacy from seceding from the union. His timing on military strategy and national strategy helped the outcome of the revolution. McPherson also talks about the lives of African Americans after the Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect. The most believed reason for the Civil War was Lincoln’s decision to abolish slavery and the emancipation. McPherson discusses how this outraged the south, where slavery was necessary for the everyday functions of their plantations. Lincoln immediately had to defend his decision and himself. “Thus

Given the before information I can conclude that Lincoln helped, but all in all the slaves freed themselves. They conducted and underground railroad (with some help but none from the government), they went back for family and friends, and they made very detailed plans to escape. If it weren’t for Harriett Tubman 300 more slaves would have resided as slaves until finally they were set free, which could have been years. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves remained in the borderline states and some Southern states. Ultimately, the slaves freed