The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on the first day of 1863, amid the United States Civil War. While a first step towards the abolition of slavery, at the time it was issued it could not truly be enforced. It would be followed nearly 3 years later by the Thirteenth Amendment, which would abolish slavery in the United States for good. The Emancipation Proclamation also had other, more immediate effects, and it may have played a role in the Union’s victory.
Who issued the Emancipation Proclamation?
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln, then president of the United States, which included only the Union states in 1863. The proclamation declared that all enslaved people held within Confederate states would be henceforth free. It did not address slavery in the Union states, where President Lincoln could have taken immediate action.
So why would the president of the Union make a ruling applying only to the Confederate states, a place where he had no power? The proclamation impacted the way that northern troops behaved in southern territory. If individuals could escape from slavery and reach either Union troops or union territory, they would be safe and could not be returned to slaveholders.
What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
The Emancipation Proclamation declared slavery illegal in all Confederate states. It was an executive order, made during wartime with the intention of crippling the south’s resources, for which they relied heavily on enslaved people. While he could not enforce it in any territory that the north did not seize, once a town or farm was captured, the soldiers would free the enslaved people living there.
The proclamation served as an incentive for free African Americans in the north to aid in the fight to prevent the south from leaving the United States. If the south could be brought back into the United States, then legally all enslaved persons living there would be free. Even before winning the war, any African American who was enslaved in a Confederate state would be free if he or she could make it to Union soil, because the Union no longer acknowledged slavery as legal in any southern state. At this time, many free African Americans worked as laborers, and the war effort needed many things made for its soldiers, such as shoes, railroads, and weapons, and it needed manpower to move these items to the front lines.
In addition, the Emancipation Proclamation officially allowed African Americans to join the US Army and Navy, thus permitting people of color to fight for the end of slavery.
The United States government issued General Order No. 143 later in 1863. This order established the United States Colored Troops. While these soldiers were segregated from white soldiers, they usually had one white commander leading them. It was because of the establishment of the United States Colored Troops that people of color with medical training could now also join the war effort as military doctors or nurses. There were 8 known African American doctors who served in the Civil War.
Over the remaining course of the Civil War, more than 200,000 African Americans would take up arms for the Union. It is estimated that 10% of the Union Army consisted of Black men. Many of these men fought on the front lines or worked for the United States Military Railroad by repairing and maintaining the iron roads that carried soldiers and goods to the front lines. This contribution of manpower from soldiers, doctors, nurses, railroaders, and spies would help secure victory for the north, the preservation of the union, and the end of slavery in the United States.
Another important military reason to issue the Proclamation was to keep foreign interests from supporting the Confederacy. The European countries of Britain and France saw the rebel states as a potential way to regain power in the Americas. However, both of those nations were against slavery, and after the North made it clear that they were fighting to end it, they chose not to aid the South.
When did slavery in the United States end?
Slavery in the United States was abolished on December 18, 1865, with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment. Since the Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order, whether it would hold up after the war had ended was a concern, and something had to be done to end slavery forever in the United States. A constitutional amendment was the answer.
After the Emancipation proclamation in 1863, all but 2 of the slave states in the Union ended slavery within their states on their own. Once the Thirteenth Amendment passed, slavery was finally and permanently ended in these 2 states and in all former Confederate states.
Did your ancestors fight in the United States Civil War?
Do you know where your ancestors were during the United States Civil War? Were they able to move or find a new career thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the war? Look for your ancestors’ names in the 1870 census and more on FamilySearch.org.
