Slavery: Lincoln’s Dilemma
· The Civil War began as a war to restore the Union, NOT to end slavery.
· Lincoln was afraid that if he ended slavery, it would anger the four proslavery states in the Union. (DE, MD, KY, and MO)
· Therefore, Lincoln decided to free enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states only.
Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipate – to set free
· On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
“On the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or…part of a state (whose) people…shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
· Now the Union had two goals:
- restore the Union
- end slavery in all Confederate states
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