To what extent did emancipation improve the condition of former slaves in the U.S?

Question

this is what my essay is about and i need help PLEASE!!!!!

Answer 1

uh...they weren't slaves anymore, so that's gotta be an improvement...

Answer 2

First the Emancipation Proclamation had nothing to do with the cause of the Civil War for the reason the that the war began in 1861 and this Presidential Order was not issued until 1 January 1863 and was not effective until 100 days subsequent to that date.

As to improving the lives of “former” slaves it did nothing. Here the reason is that it was directed at stating that it was focused only on existing slaves of specifically named areas States not specifically named continued with any slaves maintaining their slave status. The States named were: 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.

Even in the States named it had no impact since these States were under the Sovereign Country of the Confederacy and not under the control of the President Lincoln.

This was primarily a political document which would keep England (or any other foreign entity) from supporting the Confederacy.

The only acts which impacted the slaves were, first, the wining of the war by the Union federal government, second, the application of the 13th Amendment, third, the 14th Amendment, fifth, the reconstruction acts subsequent to the war, and finally, recognition that the only thing making these events and acts legal was the right of conquest through winning the war as recognized in Texas v. White [1869].

Answer 3

The emancipation proclamation did very little - if anything - except cause the South to secede from the Union and incite a civil war.

The North already did not utilize slavery by then, and the South did not recognize Lincoln's authority because they had declared themselves a separate country.

It was the civil war that prevented the South from becoming a separate country, eventually forcing them to abolish slavery.

Still, African-Americans were not treated well in the North. We all know how it was up until the late 60's and even to some extent, today

Answer 4

To be honest....for most, it didn't. Yes, they were free...but now they were put out on the streets with no jobs, no training, no education, and no where to go. Grant it, they weren't all it such bad shape...but the vast majority were. This is all on top of the fact that most people did not like them! They had a really hard time after being set free.

Answer 5

The initial response to the Emancipation Proclamation was not unfavorable as the south was recovering from the Civil War. In addition there was a great deal of sympathy for the slain president, Abraham Lincoln, who took on the cause of the blacks, secondarily to the original cause of the war. A bloc of states were opposed to Lincoln mainly for his stance against individual states rights. After the war, Blacks served in elective positions in legislative bodies in the south, and even in congress. But as the economy improved whites saw the blacks as a threat to their economic integrity
and formed the ku klux klan. This was a
secret organization with a following in both north and south but mostly the south. it's goals were to intimidate, by force if necessary, all blacks and sympathizers for their cause. Fueled by greed and fear, as well as a grab for power, the klan became a force for whites that burned out black families suspected of such "crimes" as learning to read. A black man who looked at or made reference to a white woman could expect to be hanged. Failure to abide by a curfew could get a black put into jail, a beating, or worse. Several hundred blacks were put to death without trial.
Those responsible were never held accountable for their crimes and even bragged they would never be convicted in a southern courtroom. They were right.
Many blacks stayed on with former owners who gave them a piece of land to work for a share of the harvest. The arrangement worked but no economic system could ever replace the slave labor
that had helped the south to prosper for
several centuries. To lose the rank and privilege of a plantation owner was the ultimate disgrace for the white former slave owners; the south never fully recovered its once mighty agrarian economy and harbored deep resentments, some of which smolder below the surface today. Blacks left the south in droves, seeking better factory wages in the North
and to escape the klan and other organized discrimination, fear and terror of the all white police and legal establishment. Those who stayed on did so at their own risk. They achieved little support from the federal government. Congress feared retaliation from whites and turned their back on the movement.
Most of the gains in later times occured after the asassanation of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and
Robert Kennedy.
It's been a tough fight. Lyndon Johnson was an unlikely candidate to carry the banner for equality for blacks to the nation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
was to have immense symbolic granting of rights and became the touchstone for other legislation that followed. the Supreme Court was instrumental in striking down blatently racist laws that maintained the status quo. It was a tremendous battle to give blacks rights already enumerated in the Constitution.
Mainly, whites began to see blacks in a different perspective as laws with teeth in them began to wipe away hundreds of years of ignorance and prejudice. Blacks are beginning to seed, bloom, and flower.
Many are reaching their potential, and to the applause of whites, not just in the north, but in the south as well.
What a shame is is that all this good talent, intelligence, humor, and wisdom has been lost to the chains of slavery.

Answer 6

Check out this link from Harper's Daily. Really cool image & symbolism. It might give you a few ideas for your essay. Read the description below.

Good luck

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1863/january/emancipated-slaves.htm

Answer 7

Possibly the fact that they could now move around the country and find work, have an education, own property legally. It was not easy and still has some problems for those blacks not wishing to be part of this society, although their modern counterparts have greater chances of success now.
Spartawo...

Answer 8

For one thing it gave them freedom of movement allowing hundreds of thousands to move north. The millions who stayed in the south mainly became sharecroppers whose economic lives weren't much better, but at least they weren't having their babies sold and they could keep their families together.