Thursday, October 24, 2013

Emancipation Proclamation -- Wartime Strategy or Cry for Freedom?



The articles you are reading for today provides two very different schools of thought about the Emancipation Proclamation.  Supporters and opponents of the proclamation saw it serving two seemingly disparate purposes--one to seek foreign alliances, and one to catalyze nationwide emancipation.  It was either celebrated joyfully or distrusted and feared. 

But what was its function, really?  In this "post-racial" (no, I don't believe that we actually are, hence the quotes), country that has elected a black president, we tend to celebrate Lincoln and his Proclamation.  But we know that this 1863 decision only scratched the surface of the immense and violent racial battles that were still to come (and are still occurring today). 

So what is it that we are celebrating?  What is the Emancipation Proclamation?

13 comments:

  1. The Emancipation Proclamation was definitely a huge stepping stone towards the path to freedom for many slaves. It was an executive order sent by the Lincoln to free the slaves in the 10 areas still in rebellion against the Union. Although this did not mean the end of slavery it was liberating the cast majority of slaves, and giving them an opportunity to join the North against its fight with the Confederates. This completely changed the direction of the war from being a war about the independence of the Confederates from the Union to a war about that and slavery. By passing this order Lincoln directly made a movement to limit slavery, something that did not help the South in any way. Of course, although this was a major breakthrough for the possible freedom of slavery it had its military connection. By making the Emancipation Proclamation the North freed the slaves in the hope that they would be grateful and go up to the North to fight. Also, if the slaves were free and could leave their masters than the Souths economy would suffer because of the lack of labor and people, they would not have the funds to support the war and would therefor be made to lose in a quicker amount of time. If Lincoln real wanted to end slavery, then he would have ended slavery everywhere not just in the states that were against him, so clearly the Emancipation Proclamation was a military base decision. However, today we celebrate it thinking on the positive side of things, saying that it was a major breakthrough for the freedom of slaves.

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  2. The Emancipation Proclamation was the start to equality. I mean even today it is not totally free of racism but we have came a long way. It will probably never be a world of no racism. But it will get closer and closer. This is something to celebrate because this was the start of desegregation. But there will not be a anti-slavery movement like the Emancipation Proclamation because slavery is not as bad as it was during the 1860s.

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  3. The function of the emancipation proclamation was to proclaim the freedom of slaves. It was based on Lincolns constitutional authority as commander in chief forces. It made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal, in addition to the goal of reuniting the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation was what Lincoln made to free the slaves and stop slavery all over the states. This was made so that the slaves could be free and so that there would be more peace in the present and also to keep this peace in the future. You can tell that the emancipation proclamation worked because slavery was ended after this was made. Also, you can tell that it worked because we now have a black president and this shows that the emancipation proclamation has made every citizen of the us equal, and everyone no matter what race is equal.

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  4. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln to free the slaves of the 10 states that were still in rebellion. This changed a lot the Civil War because freed slaves would go fight with The Union and the South's biggest fear would actually happened: not having anymore slaves to pick up their cotton for free. That means their economy has Giselle said was going to go down and down and the Union would get stronger and stronger everyday.
    However it is important to say that before this Emancipation Proclamation, many anti-slavery texts had been written and published but as the authors were just some abolitionists, those never really mattered in the history and the were not meaningful. But of course this Emancipation was written by the President and that is why it got so spread out all over the country and even the world. Even though racial discrimination still exists now a days, it has become much better since then and I believe that's the reason why you, Americans, celebrate this day, because it was the beginning to a new freed nation and it actually changed the nation step by step.

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  5. Like Christina said, the emancipation proclamation was mainly about freeing the slaves.While both sides were not both completely for the freeing of the slaves, they both had their own ideas about the proclomation. Lincoln was the main suporter for the proclamation in that he wanted to end slavery and make all the slave states free. Overall the emancipation proclamation has worked, since then we have come a long ways from no one being equal to (like christina said) having a black president. While there are still many rascist people out there, we have come a long long way since the proclomation , so overall it did indeed work.

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  6. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was a huge step towards racial equality in our nation, it was not enacted for the moral reasons that we usually attribute with it. Instead, Lincoln passed the proclamation as a wartime action. He hoped that it would garner support from European countries. Perhaps, he also did it to prevent those European powers that depended on the South's cotton from supporting the immoral Confederacy. Most importantly, what proves the fact that the proclamation was a wartime tactic was the fact that Lincoln did not banish slavery in the border states that were still part of the Union, he only freed the slaves in the states that had seceded. This was done to keep the border states in the Union, and to shift the focus of the war away from the Southern independence to the freeing of slaves. Also, it had no immediate impact because the Confederate states didn't consider themselves to be part of the Union so they didn't even follow the Emancipation Proclamation. So the Emancipation Proclamation was a huge step towards racial equality that was made for military reasons and had little immediate impact.

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  7. Although the Emancipation Proclamation wasn't the end all to racism that it was hoped to be it was a step in the right direction for america. It reassured people that the government was on bored with the inevitable ending of this institution. It was an official end to slavery as they knew it but the mindset that blacks were inferior prevailed for almost a century after this. There will always be some sort of racism going on although we have indeed come such a long way in the equality of all people since this time period.

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  8. The Emancipation Proclamation was not completely created to end slavery, but rather to gain support from other countries. Only the slaves in the seceded states were liberated. In a way, this was kind of a push for the war to move faster because more progress was being made with slavery. It changed the character of the war, and enabled the freed slaves to join. Instead of fighting because the South wanted to be independent, the Emancipation Proclamation created a moral reason.

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  9. Today, we look at the Emancipation Proclamation as a magnificent feat, done by Lincoln. It freed the slaves of the rebellion states which were confederates. Although we celebrate it today as the first step of ending inequality of race, I believe Lincoln, more likely, used the Emancipation Proclamation to gain advantages in the civil war. Because the ex-slaves from the south would just run away from their masters and go to the North, so the union army could have more power and the South gets less labor. I think, Emancipation Proclamation was one of the reason why the North won the war. Was it truly out of the pursuit of equality reason, no, but it was a big step closer to racial equality.

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  10. The emancipation proclamation was definitely a bomb for all the people when Lincoln announced it. From the view of the supporter of the proclamation, this is a great change. It does not only achieve the goal of all men are equal, but also established a great reputation internationally, especially among Europe, for the union. In these supporters' eyes, this action might be a gateway for foreign alliance. People who deplored the proclamation, who were also from the North, thought that the proclamation will increase the power of the rebel. Furthermore, if they recruit the free-blacks to troops, there would be not enough arms for them. Therefore, they did not really see any benefit besides taking away private properties from the Southerners, which irritated the South even more. Overall, the emancipation proclamation is not of the most significant events in the U.S. history. It was not just a war time strategy, but the evolution of modern society.

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  11. In United States that we live in today, The Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln is considered and celebrated as a big step towards racial equality. However, even though it was to some degree a step towards equality, the proclamation had a different purpose. Lincoln only freed slaves in order to attract foreign alliances, because Lincoln was afraid that European countries would help the South because many countries were dependent on South's cotton production. The fact that Lincoln was actually a person who wanted to send the african slaves back to Africa exemplifies how Emancipation Proclamation was only done for its military purposes. Plus, after Emancipation Proclamation, many blacks from all over the country actually participated to join the Union Army and fight. They wanted to prove the fact that they are worth something. Therefore, not only Emancipation Proclamation provide Union with more black soldiers but also, it helped the Union to keep the South helpless for european foreign alliances.

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  12. Even though in the past there were other anti- segregations acts before Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation, his act became more noticed because of the fact that one, it was Lincoln who passed the act and two, his act had a bigger impact on the lives of the people compared to the ones that were already passed. Lincoln’s overall goal of the war was to keep the Union the way it was and to (maybe) save the southern states and bring them back. Even though Lincoln himself at one point did have slaves and isn’t the anti slave person we thought he was, he knew that slavery had to end. However some people started fights over the proclamation, it was the first step towards the dream of a post racial society even though I think that no matter how hard anyone tries or no matter how many laws there are, a post racial society would be unattainable.

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  13. A country is never going to play up their faults. The same goes for if they were caught doing something bad. The emancipation proclamation is so largely and passionately celebrated because it was the country's first real step against slavery. I think it's purpose was more to have a safety net when questioned about slavery. Yes it was practiced, but they obviously are done with it. Although slavery and everything surrounding it was purely for money the government knew exactly what to say to satiate a slew of different stories to write in history books.

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