The Pros And Cons Of The Emancipation Proclamation

South Carolina was one of several states in America that supported slavery. Many citizens that lived in southern states during this time were in support of slavery because the southern economy was based on it. Slaves traveled to America from West Africa through the Middle Passage. In addition, if they survived the travel through the Middle Passage then they were well fed and cleaned for a few days after their arrival. This was in order to make them look healthier to the slave owners that they were to be auctioned off to. As a result, they were worth more at the auction. The West Africans were brought to America because of their knowledge on how to produce and cultivate rice (“African Slaves on South Carolina Plantations”). On the southern …show more content…
Some people were not in favor of it when it was first passed, but grew into liking it. Delegates that worked with Abraham Lincoln did not support and agree with the Emancipation when he first proposed it. They felt it was “too radical”, but later supported it (“Facts on the Emancipation Proclamation”). However, not everyone felt this way. Some supported the emancipation from the beginning. Frederick Douglass was a man born into slavery in the United States. When he found out about the Emancipation Proclamation he gave a speech to a “packed house at New York’s Cooper Institute” (“Emancipation Proclamation: Frederick Douglass Responds”). He said, “We are all liberated by the proclamation… [I want to] congratulate you upon this amazing change- the amazing approximation toward the sacred truth of human liberty.” Frederick Douglass was one of many others that were in favor of the proclamation. Although, not everyone in the United States was not as delighted as others with the Emancipation Proclamation. The white northerners and abolitionists along with the black abolitionists were in support of the Emancipation Proclamation from the start and agreed that it would help the Union “destroy the Confederacy” in the Civil War (“How Did Americans React to the Emancipation Proclamation”). Many from the north liked the Emancipation Proclamation because it would help them in the Civil War, but the southerners did not feel the same way. Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederacy during the Civil War. In one speech he said, he thought the Emancipation Proclamation was a “crime against humanity” and would be “decried and reviled throughout history”. Therefore, he along with other men and women from the southern states were not in support of the Emancipation Proclamation unlike the abolitionist and many citizens of the northern