Emancipation Proclamation Dbq

The Emancipation Proclamation was a decree freeing all enslaved persons in states still in rebellion after January 1, 1863. Lincoln publicly announced this document on September 22, 1862, as it was encouraged by the victory of the Battle of Antietam. This decree was created because many Democrats were opposed to ending slavery and Republicans were divided on the issue. There were Republicans who were strong abolitionists, then there were ones with Lincoln, that did not want to endanger the loyalty of the slaveholding border states that had chosen to remain in the Union. The biggest priority was to preserve the Union with the continuous wars. The Proclamation only freed enslaved African Americans in states at war with the Union and had no mention of slavery in the border states. However, Lincoln could not end slavery in the border states because he did not want to risk losing their loyalty. This decree created a conflict about preserving the Union into a war of liberation. Union officer Regis de Trobriand provided a short statement about this: “We were no longer merely the soldiers of a political controversy. We were now the missionaries of a …show more content…
The great conflict of the war affected the lives of millions of Americans and turned life for many a daily struggle. During the Civil War, the economies of the North and the South had major differences. The South’s economy began to suffer massively at the end of 1862. Food shortages occurred in the winter of 1862 due to the collapse of the South’s transportation system and the presence of Union troops in significant agricultural areas. This difficulty resulted in riots and many Confederate soldiers returning home to help their families. Southern soldiers had to deal with the hardship of sleeping without blankets and walked barefoot. They had hard tack usually made from cornmeal. Rising diseases was always a big issue during