USA HISTORY

What was the most important feature of the Emancipation Proclamation?

(A) ** Provided for African Americans to enlist in the Union Army

(B) It freed slaves in the Border States

(C) It abolished slavery

Concept note-1: -The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed Black men to serve in the Union army. This had been illegal under a federal law enacted in 1792 (although African Americans had served in the army in the War of 1812 and the law had never applied to the navy).

Concept note-2: -Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union (United States) military victory. Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war.

Concept note-3: -From the first days of the Civil War, enslaved people had acted to secure their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically.

Concept note-4: -Moreover, the proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union army and navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200, 000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

Concept note-5: -It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten Confederate states still in rebellion. It also decreed that freed slaves could be enlisted in the Union Army, thereby increasing the Union’s available manpower.