Did the Emancipation Proclamation Free the Slaves?

Question

If you think it did, you should read it. The Emancipation Proclamation did not free the slaves, and it did not outlaw slavery.

In Spetember of 1862, Lincoln issued a decree that all slaves in those states that are still in rebellion against the Union on January 1 1863 would be considered free. He outlined the definition of what it meant to be in rebellion. Then he gave the South 100 days to give up their fighting. If they did, they would be allowed to keep their slaves since the decree would not apply to them.

The Emancipation Proclamation was the decree that defined the sections of the country that were still in rebellion (most of them) and to which the earlier decree applied. A few small areas stopped fighting and kept their slaves.

This entire process, therefore, was an attempt to persuade the South to give up the war and keep their slaves in return.

The fact that the South did not is evidence that slavery was not their primary reason for going to war.

Answer 1

After the southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, Lincoln had lost a great portion of the tax base for the Union. The Union was going into a depression.
He needed to provoke the South into returning to the Union. President Davis had told Lincoln the Union could keep Ft. Sumter in Charleston Bay but not to place additional troops or arms in the fort. Lincoln on 3 occasions increased the troops and arms in the fort and on 2 of the occasions President Davis sent emissaries to Washington telling Lincoln it would be an act of war. Lincoln provoked the south into firing on the fort essentially starting the "Great War of Northern Aggression" (AKA Civil War). The war was never about slavery until Lincoln had to have an excuse for starting the war. He then came up with the Emancipation Proclamation to try and save face.

Lincoln used the Emancipation Proclamation to attempt to get the South back. He was out of line because the CSA was another country and he was trying to legislate to another country. (Hey does that sound familiar with Iraq today?) Lincoln was trying to pull a bluff. All it did was cause hatred and unrest that exists yet today between the races.


After the war, the Union never abided by any of the agreements that were agreed upon with any of the states of the CSA.

Answer 2

he freed our black brothers and sisters because they might would run away and join the union forces that were attacking the south, the war was NOT about slavery. the winners write the history books. the north had slaves. also Lincoln only freed the slaves in the south.they hung 1000 blacks on lampposts in n y c alone during the war. gen grant said he was not going to free HIS slaves. help was to hard to find. for example.Lincoln said that he was going to ship all Negroes to south America he called it colonization. but he was killed.my wish is that the Yankee Lincoln burns in hell. for what he did.500.000 dead.a devastated down trodden. oppressed people in the south for many many years and the Yankees STILL don't realize that we are the real Americans.we were the ones that ceded. because of an oppressive government. look what we have now. lets do it again folks, and make it stick this time. before its to late.

Answer 3

HELL NO! Slavery still exists today. Instead of the kkk, they have the police. Don't get caught while driving black! Instead of genocide by giving the community tainted vaccines, they gave us (black women) better jobs, and took us out of the homes, and supped our heads up into putting our babies in these daycare centers, and told our men we don't need them anymore. Slavery whether it's in the mind or the physical, it still exist. Slavery has broken up generations of families. I blame slavery for a lot of the broken homes these days, but I blame (some) of the parents who just don't give a damn about trying to raise their kids!

Answer 4

that's y we have the thirteenth amendment to abolish slavery