Preview

Emancipation Proclamation

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2310 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation
The American Civil War and the ending of slavery through issuing the Emancipation Proclamation are the two crucial events of U.S. history. Perhaps the war would not have occurred if slavery did not exist because it is one of the main reasons that the southerners and northerners got into conflict. However, if there was no Civil War and Lincoln did not issue the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America, then slavery and liberation would not have taken the same course. Thus, the Emancipation Proclamation was a momentous event that many historians have been discussed its significance in U.S. history and that a lot of people now are still wondering whether or not freeing the slaves was the original intent of the president at that time.
Prior to the Civil War, the existence of slavery in some parts of country had always been an unsolved complicated issue of the United States of America. Since the very first days when American leaders gathered to revise the Articles of Confederation at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, the slave population in the South was already one of the discussing topics because the Southern and Northern State could not reach agreement on the issue of popular representation in the House. The delegates of the convention eventually agreed to the Three-Fifths Compromise, which allowed the Southern States to count three-fifths of all non-free people toward population counts and allocations. Indeed, American leaders knew that the institution of slavery was going to be a problem right at that moment but they were afraid that the convention would be dissolved if they ever proposed things such as abolishing slavery. Therefore, they have accepted some measures that helped preserve the institution well into the nineteenth century and keep it from dividing the nation. Among these was the Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress in 1793 that required the



Bibliography: Brands, H. W., T. H. Breen, Robert A. Divine, George M. Fredrickson, Ariela J. Gross, and R. Hal Williams. America Past and Present, Volume I (8th Edition) (MyHistoryLab Series). 8 ed. New York: Longman, 2006. Foner, Eric. Review of Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln 's White Dream, by Lerone Bennett, Jr. Los Angeles Times Book Review, Jun 30, 2008. Guelzo, Allen. Lincoln 's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2004. Perman, Michael. Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction- Documents and Essays. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999. Vorenberg, Michael. The Emancipation Proclamation: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2010. [ 2 ]. Harold Holzer, "A Promise Fulfilled." Civil War Times, Vol. 48 Issue 6 (December 2009): 3 http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/ehost/search?vid=1&hid=104&sid=7c9bc048-5713-4643-ba6c-ac2345357d1f%40sessionmgr114 (accessed July 31, 2010). [ 3 ]. Michael Vorenberg, The Emancipation Proclamation: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010), 71 [ 4 ] [ 5 ]. Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln 's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (New York : Simon & Schuster, 2004), 229 [ 6 ] [ 7 ]. Eric Foner, Review of Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln 's White Dream, by Lerone Bennett, Jr. Los Angeles Times Book Review, Jun 30, 2008.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Fiery Trial Summary

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner is a great read that brings to light many of the messy issues and problems regarding slavery before and during the Civil War. The author specifically discusses Abraham Lincoln and the changing of his views over time. The Fiery Trial has humanized Abraham Lincoln for me and I am able to more clearly understand the motives for the Civil War. I found that the book did a fantastic job of thoroughly describing Lincoln’s opinions and views and explaining why he felt the way that he did. While reading the book it is easy to see that the author has spent a tremendous amount of time researching Lincoln.…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Pulito, B. (2011). Lincoln’s Abuse of Power During the American Civil War. Retrieved from http://www.civilwarhome.com/pulito.htm…

    • 1396 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Young, Andrew An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America, Harper-Collins, New York, 1996…

    • 3245 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    [5] Stauffer, John. Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass & Abraham Lincoln (Warner Books, 2008)…

    • 2916 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    why the war came

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages

    David Herbert Donald, Lincoln biographer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has ... it ushered in the process of rethinking the Civil War that continues to…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Woodstock

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Foner, Eric. (2006). Give me liberty! An American History (Seagull ed.) New York; W.W. Norton.…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Skinner, E. Benjamin. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery. New York, NY: Free Press. 2008.…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lies My Teacher Told Me

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Lalire, G. J. (2010). Lincoln Looks West: From the Mississippi to the Pacific. Wild West. , 1.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It was issued during the time of the Civil War, which was a war between the North and South in a disagreement over slavery. Lincoln used the War to his advantage by issuing the emancipation as a war aim to preserve the union. In the document Lincoln declares “ including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom”, to reassure people that the purpose of the emancipation is not to necessary free slaves but to use them in the military.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ryan, A., Tim.(2008). Calls and responses: The American novel of slavery since Gone with the Wind. United States of America: Louisiana State University Press.…

    • 7141 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bibliography: Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton & Company,…

    • 2514 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    African American Retribution

    • 2513 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Horton, J. & Horton, L. (2005). Slavery and the making of America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.…

    • 2513 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jesse James

    • 2149 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Stiles, T.J. Jesse james last rebel of the civil war. New York, NY: Vintage books, 2003. Print.…

    • 2149 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I issued the Emancipation Proclamation which started the process of freeing the slaves. It was issued during the American Civil War that allowed black soldiers to fight for the Union against the Confederacy. It was also a precursor of the Thirteenth Amendment, which made slavery and indentured servitude illegal in the United States. "The Emancipation Proclamation was as much a political as a military document," Eric Foner notes in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Fiery Trial: Lincoln and American Slavery." Before the war, many others, including myself, had argued that slavery should be ended by the states, gradually, and that slaveholders should be compensated. A key part of the Emancipation Proclamation is its invitation to freed slaves and other African American men to enlist in the Union Army. My proclamation addressed slaves directly not as the property of the country's enemies but as persons with wills of their own whose actions might help win the Civil War. More than 180,000 black men served in the Union Army, the great majority of them emancipated slaves. More than one-fifth of the nation's adult male black population younger than 45 fought for the Union, about 10% of the entire Union…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hannah Johnson, the mother of an African-American soldier and the daughter of a run away slave, writes to President Abraham Lincoln in hopes of emotionally appealing to him on the subject of equality amongst African-American soldiers. Johnson’s main argument, visited throughout her letter, is her deep concern for her son along with thousands of other African-American men fighting for their country and the unjust treatment they are receiving despite their service.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays