USA HISTORY

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR(1861 1865)

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

[SOURCES]
How did the Emancipation Proclamation help the Union?

(A) ** freed slaves were recruited to join the Union army

(B) it made people care more about the war

(C) It made the Confederacy Powerless

(D) It didn’t

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -A few individual commanders in the field had taken steps to recruit southern African Americans into their forces. But it was only after Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation that the federal army would officially accept black soldiers into its ranks. African American men rushed to enlist.

Concept note-2: -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-3: -The Proclamation broadened the goals of the Union war effort; it made the eradication of slavery into an explicit Union goal, in addition to the reuniting of the country. The Proclamation also prevented European forces from intervening in the war on behalf of the Confederacy.

Concept note-4: -The Proclamation itself freed very few slaves, but it was the death knell for slavery in the United States. Eventually, the Emancipation Proclamation led to the proposal and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolished slavery throughout the land.

Concept note-5: -In September of 1862, after the Union’s victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued a preliminary decree stating that, unless the rebellious states returned to the Union by January 1, freedom would be granted to slaves within those states.