Mcerino's List: Emancipation Proclamation

• the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free

  • "rebellious states" Why does Lincoln specifically mentioning them when, currently, he is not acknowledged as their president? What good does this do? What is his purpose?
• the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons

  • How will they do this?
• • What does this paragraph mean?
• are not then in rebellion against the United States."

  • How does he clarify who is not in rebellion?
• as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion

  • What does he see as a fit and necessary war measure?
• • In your opinion is Lincoln ordering the slaves to be free because it is ethically the right thing to do or is it military tactic to undermine the economic system in the Confederacy?
• 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;

  • Why doesn't he just say, "everyone everywhere is free?" 
• And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

  • Why does he add this? Does it seem like advice?
• And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States

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• "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."
• His decision was prompted by the realization that slave labor provided the foundation of the South's ability to wage war.
• On the battle front, slaves dug the trenches, built the battlements, cooked the meals and drove the wagons. On the home front, they tilled the fields, ginned the cotton, and performed many other duties that underpinned the South's economy.
• Slave labor freed the Confederate soldiers for combat. Without their slaves, the South's military power would be seriously diminished.
• He revealed his plan and a first draft of the proclamation to his Cabinet on July 22, 1862. He made it clear that he was not seeking their approval, as he had made up his mind to issue the proclamation
• Seward felt that announcing the proclamation at this time would appear to be a desperate attempt of a broken government to rally opinion at home and abroad to its cause. Better to wait for a victory on the battlefield. Lincoln agreed.

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• Although  the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, it did  change the basic character of the Civil War. Instead of  waging a war to restore the old Union as it was before  1861, the North was now fighting to create a new Union  without slavery.
• The proclamation also authorized the recruitment  of African Americans as Union soldiers. By the end of the  Civil War, approximately 180,000 African Americans had  served in the Union army and 18,000 in the navy.

• On July 12, 1862, Abraham Lincoln met privately in the White House, for the second time, with most of the senators and congressmen from the loyal slave states – Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri.
• It wasn’t the most relaxed of meetings: most of these delegates were Democrats; some grudgingly supported the war effort, while others were more enthusiastic about the Union cause, as long as the conflict was solely for the purpose of restoring the Union.
• Lincoln’s strategy was to argue that the loyal slave states would help the war effort by showing the rebels “that, in no event, will the states you represent ever join their proposed Confederacy.”
• While Lincoln did not expect the border states to secede and join the Confederacy, he argued that voluntary emancipation in those states would be a blow to Confederate hopes and morale.

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• Maryland’s status heading into the Civil War was hotly debated. For many Marylanders, particularly in St. Mary’s County, secession was the obvious choice. However, pressure from the Federal Government resulted in Maryland remaining part of the Union
• For enslaved African Americans, this meant continued slavery throughout most of the War; even the Emancipation Proclamation did not effect them, as it freed only those who were enslaved in the Confederate states. Nonetheless, the shackles of slavery had weakened, and many African Americans used the War as a means for taking their freedom through various means.

• The Emancipation Proclamation also failed to apply to the slave-holding border states that had remained loyal to the Union, such as Maryland.
• On April 25, 1864, Annie Davis, an enslaved woman living in Maryland, wrote a brief but touching letter to President Abraham Lincoln, asking if she was free.
• No reply from the President has been located. The answer to Davis’s question, however, would have been ”no.”
• Since Maryland was a border state loyal to the Union, slavery existed there until November 1, 1864. The following year, however, the 13th Amendment finished the work of freeing the slaves by abolishing slavery.

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• This eBook presents the Emancipation Proclamation in its social and political context with documents in the National Archives' holdings that illustrate the efforts of the many Americans, enslaved and free, white and black, by whom slavery was abolished in the United States.