Abraham Lincoln's Expansion Of Slavery During The Civil War

Slavery, as America knew it 1860 change with the election of the Republican President, Abraham Lincoln. The South wanted to expand slavery to the West while the republican party wanted to prohibit the expansion of slave states. Emancipation of the slaves and expanding slavery westward had been an emerging conflict between the North and South for some time. The South vowed to withdraw from the Union if Lincoln claimed victory. The Confederate leaders believe that if Republican abolitionists won, they would employ violent tactics by the federal government to deprive them of their right to have their slave property (Scott et. al, 2006). Lincoln won the election without a single vote in the South which resulted in the withdrawal of eleven southern states from the Union. The new republic refused to
During the Civil War, thousands of slaves sought refuge and freedom in the Northern states. The North refused to return the slave and protected them to deprive the South of man power (Scott et al., 2006). However, the influx of runaway slaves required the Republican party to define the “status of the ex-slaves (Scott et al., 2006, p. 435). Since the Republican Party dominated Congress, they acted to abolish slavery by putting pressure on the President. In response, Lincoln gave the states an ultimatum to stop the fighting and rejoin the Union and they could keep slavery, and if they refused, the fighting would resume and he would emancipate the slaves (Scott et al., 2006). The fighting continued because the southern states ignored the president’s ultimatum. In return, Abraham Lincoln formulated a proclamation that emancipated the slaves. However, without the emancipation written into the constitution, the weak proclamation did not mean the Union states would readily