what is the emancipation proclamation?

Question

please give breif summary

Answer 1

First, your brief summary:

This was a formal legal proclamation by which President Lincoln

a) acting as commander-in-chief, in order to better prosecute the war--
b) declared that ALL slaves in territories then under rebellion were "henceforth and forever free"
c) directed the armed services to enforce the proclamation, including by assisting fleeing slaves
d) provided for blacks, including those freed by this act, to join the U.S. military if they so chose [nearly 200,000 did so by war's end, and made a vital contribution]
_______________

The Document(s):

There were actually TWO parts to this -- a "preliminary" proclamation, made on Sept 22, 1862, announcing his plans to act in 100 days (Jan1, 1863), and the "final" proclamation of Jan 1, 1863 which refers back to parts of the Sept 22 document and specifies the territories affected. They are actually rather brief and worth reading through to see how they worked -- so I'll provide a link for each:

http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/library/features/ep/
http://www.nps.gov/ncro/anti/emancipation.html

_______________

Specific language:

In fact, to illustrate the points in the summary above, here are the main parts of the final Proclamation (plus one or two from the preliminary form):

a) 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. . . .

b) 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;

c) and [I order and declare] that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
[preliminary includes: will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.. . . And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act and sections above recited.]

d) 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.

Conclusion: 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.

_______________

Finally, some clarifications of this act, esp. of points most often misunderstood or misrepresented:

1) It dealt first with slaves who had ALREADY escaped, assuring them that they would NOT be returned... and also encouraged others to flee, with the same promise

2) Of course it could not immediately put into EFFECT the freeing of all slaves in rebel territory. (For that matter NO legal declaration can succeed all by itself) BUT as soon as the Union forces were able to take a territory slaves there WERE freed.

Thus the claims that it "freed no one" are utterly untrue. In fact, for the territories it covered it freed ALL the slaves by war's end (lastly in Texas -- on June 19, 1865, thereafter celebrated as "Juneteenth"). The 13th did not actually free these folks, but it DID act as a guarantee to KEEP them free, lest someone try to undo the Emancipation Proclamation in court after the war ended.

3) As for why he did not declare freedom for slaves in border slaves states that had not seceded -- Lincoln did not have ANY authority under the Constitution to discard state laws in this way. Had he attempted it, the proclamation would surely have been struck down in federal court, esp. by the Supreme Court, which had opposed other war measures, and which still sat under Roger Taney (who wrote the Dred Scott Decision). That would have doomed this or any similar effort from then on.

In addition, even if he had thought it Constitutional and dared to test its legality, the backlash would have been enormous, esp. in the slave border states, likely pushing one or more to secede and probably dooming the whole war effort. (Even as it was, Lincoln suffered greatly at the polls for this measure in the fall of 1862.)

4) But Lincoln did NOT ignore these "Union slaves". Indeed, for more than a year before the Proclamation he had been lobbying these states (DE, KY, MD, MO) to emancipate their slaves themselves... though they refused. Also, following the Proclamation he began to lobby hard for Congressional action to FULLY end slavery (and overcome any challenges to the Proclamation) -- for what finally became the 13th amendment -- including expediting statehood for Nevada, calculating that their vote would be needed for ratification. (That amendment, incidentally, did effectively free a handful of slaves in Northern border states.)

So the claim that he did nothing about slaves in the Union states is absolutely false.

5) This was a LEGAL document, not an "inspirational speech". This explains why it does not have the high rhetoric of his speeches. The need here was NOT to "inspire" or motivate. It needed to be able to withstand the likely court challenges. The legal arguments had to be as strong as he could make them.

Answer 2

It is the official order of Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves.

Isn't it just as easy for you to look it up on Wikipedia or something and create your own summary, rather than copying something written here. I could feed you a bunch of false info and you might believe it and turn it in.

This is for homework help.....not homework do it for me!

Answer 3

The proclomation by Abraham Lincoln to abolish slavery.

Answer 4

It is the statement made by Lincoln that freed the slaces. Do a Google or Yahoo! search and you will find dozens of web sites on it.

Answer 5

Its a proclamation about emancipation. Do your own homework!!!!