Welcome to American History 101
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION: FREEING SLAVES OR A TACTIC TO WIN THE CIVIL WAR?
WHAT WAS THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION?
Emancipation proclamation occurred on January 1st 1863 and was issued by President Abraham Lincoln ; this document caused a significant change in the way lives where lived for African Americans switching from a state of civil war and unrest to unity following 1863.The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves”[1]within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”[2], however, how far the actions of President Lincoln contributed towards the end of the slave trade has been put into question.
[1]https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation
[2]https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation
The motives behind the Emancipation Proclamation have been very much debated amongst historians. There are two principle categories that have been outlined as the incentives behind it; the first being the obvious immoral and nefarious nature of slavery, and the other simply as a tactic to win the Civil War for the Union. The root of these stem from very different places, one is about the care and well-being of slaves, but the other has a darker undertone as the slaves are used just as a means to an end. We hope to explore both of them in order to come to a conclusion as to what we believe the basis of the proclamation to be.
At this point in history slavery was practised by the majority of people however Lincoln made it clear that he disagreed with it, despite the fact that this may hinder his support. In one of Lincoln’s speeches, in 1858 at Edwardsville in Illinois, when outlining the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties and their opinions on slavery he said “slavery is an an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State…but they will use every constitutional method to prevent the evil from becoming larger and involving more negroes, more white men, more soil, and more States in its deplorable consequences.”[1]This quote alone implies that slavery is unjustified and does nothing but hinder society. He gives hope by suggesting that he doesn’t want slavery to continue to the way it is or even expand. For us, it it obvious here that Lincoln is more concerned about freeing slaves as he makes such a clear stand against slavery in a very public speech. Whilst this is a few years before the Civil war, he maintains this attitude throughout the war. This has a huge impact as he wouldn’t risk openly speaking about his opposition to slavery as he would risk losing support, which emphasises his own genuine want to free slaves.
However it is obvious that this was only part of Lincoln’s decision as there were other, arguably more important factors that led to this proclamation. What we believe to be the main one is his strategic plant win the war for the union. It is obvious that releasing the slaves from rebellious states would increase the chances of them fighting for the Union. This would have been a huge factor in the decision as it would heavily increase the chances of them being victorious in the Civil War. This indeed was the case as around 200,000 freed slaves fought for the union [2]meaning it gained both military and physical strength, as well as emotional and political support further helping the government to assert their dominance. Thus suggesting that the emancipation proclamation was based upon the benefits that the slaves from the south would bring to the Union, rather than purely for the benefit of slaves. This is further highlighted by the fact that the proclamation was only applied to the rebellious states and not the states that had already come under the control of the North, the Union. If Lincoln was concerned about the slaves he would had vowed to free all of the slaves immediately rather than leaving it until the end of the Civil War 1865.
In the book, Act Of Justice: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War, the authors Burrus M. Carnahan , and Burrus M. M. Carnahan speak extensively about Lincoln’s reasons for passing the proclamation. They say that “As a military measure, the president saw emancipation primarily as a means of weakening the rebels by withdrawing slave labor from the Confederate economy and adding the labor of newly freed slaves to the Union war effort. This could only be accomplished by persuading Confederate slaves to flee their homes and seek the protection of Union military forces .As an inducement to do this, however, section 9 of the Second Confiscation Act was a seriously flawed instrument because it granted freedom only to slaves whose masters were actively supporting the rebellion, a judgment that would be made by military officers on the scene. Slaves in the Confederacy had little reason to assume that the decisions of white officers would be in their favor even if they succeeded in fleeing to a Union military camp.”[3]This implies that Lincoln prayed upon the vulnerable slaves to increase his chance of Victory. These historians uphold the view that Lincolns main motive behind the proclamation was to save the union itself rather than freeing the slaves, as he recognized that by doing so he would therefore weaken the rebels. Moreover, if Lincoln’s true intentions were for focused solely on the benefit of the slaves, he would have introduced the 13thamendment straight away as this completely abolished slavery, not just in the rebellious confederate states. However, it is important to appreciate that at the time of the civil war, slavery was a common practice and to completely abandon would mean extensively hinder Lincoln’s support thus potentially costing him the civil war. This means that, even if Lincoln truly did want to abolish slavery for the correct reasons he would have never been able to achieve as he might not have won the war. Nonetheless, if Lincoln was truly concerned with the success of the proclamation he would have placed more rigorous enforcements rather than leaving corrupt white officers in charge with no further surveillance.
Despite all that we have explored and discussed, whilst Lincoln may have had some moral obligations to freeing the slaves, it is evident that overall his main aim was the victory of the union. This is shown by the letter he wrote to Horace Greeley: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the coloured race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union” [4]Lincoln explicitly states how his primary focus isn’t on freeing the slaves because he believes it is the right thing to do for them, but rather the right thing for the Union and thus is willing to use the freedom of slave as a token of the war if he needs to.
[1]Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln, 1953)
[2]https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation
[3]Carnahan, Burrus M., and Burrus M. M. Carnahan. Act of Justice : Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War, University Press of Kentucky, 2007.
[4] Letter to Horace Greeley 1862
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American History 101 