what does the emancipation of proclamation mean to you?

Question

it's for a geography essay.

Answer 1

As a political document the Emancipation Proclamation is an interesting. The text of this document follows and within it you will notice that it freed no one. Yes, it made a claim of freeing people but it had no effective power to do so and the Union federal administration had no legal authority to do so in claim or in fact.

Within this document Lincoln states, “. . . all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. . . “ which establishes the tone of the document. That is, it addresses only those States which he considers as being in rebellion, those States within the union are not effected and within the context of the Constitution slavery is yet legal within the Union. Secondly, the assertion that these States being in rebellion is based on a false assumption. That is, they were never in rebellion but had simply enacted their sovereign power to secede from the Union and to form a new consolidation of sovereign States. It was the Union which invaded the Confederacy.

The Proclamation was also intended to accomplish two other things. The first was to keep the European States from siding with the Confederacy and to instigate rebellion within the Confederacy by Blacks. It succeeded on the former and failed on the latter.

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Emancipation Proclamation Text.

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, 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.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, 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; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

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.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

Answer 2

The only connection between the Emancipation Proclamation (no 'of') geography I can is it kept the South from becoming a separate nation. It did so by discouraging the French from coming into the Civil War on the side of the South. That war had nothing to do with slavery and everything to do with money and power.

Answer 3

The Emancipation Proclamation was when they freed the slaves. So it would have been a win for the North, which was either anti-slavery or anti-South, and a loss for Southerners, who lost a bunch of money and people and stuff in the Civil War.

They shouldn't have gotten so het up about keeping slaves and seceding. They only wound up shooting themselves in the foot over all their "freedom"--they spent years reeling from the loss and trying to rebuild. They should have just given in to the North, stayed with the Union, given up on their freedom. I mean, keeping slaves is wrong, but on a pragmatic level, they should have quit just because the costs of losing were so incredibly high. They should have surrendered because it was right, but if not that, they should have surrendered because it would have been way easier.

Bad Southerners! BAD!

I may be a Southerner, but I certainly don't agree with all their policies.

Answer 4

Geography essay???
wouldnt it come under "history" not geography.
anyway...

it is a document that officially states that black=white. and every man is equal.

but just bc its official doesnt mean everyone follows it. we still had segregation after it. racism was still prominent. people just werent slaves.

so basically: African American people were "free" but still segregated.

Answer 5

I was a major declaration that all people are equal and that people should not be enslaved just because of ethnic origins. Also it rhymes which is funny.

Answer 6

freedom to me since im black