Emancipation Proclamation Summary: The Little People's Petition

The Little People’s Petition “That the President will free all the little slave children,” were the words written on a petition given to Abraham Lincoln in 1864 (Swanson 1). These few words and the 195 signatures that accompanied it were enough to touch the president’s heart (Emancipation Proclamation Little People 2). Although Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a document freeing about 3.1 million slaves in the United States, a year earlier, many felt it did not go far enough (Emancipation Proclamation 3). The abolitionists, moderate anti-slavery advocates, slaves, and people from the South each reacted differently toward the Emancipation Proclamation and pressured the President from different directions about the future of slavery (Stowell 9). Upon receiving this petition, from students in Massachusetts, the President felt more of that same pressure (Emancipation Proclamation Little People 2). Nonetheless, the 16th President responded in a surprising way. …show more content…
This document gave freedom to over 3.1 million slaves in the Confederacy (Emancipation Proclamation 3), but excluded the border slave states, which included Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland (Foner 241). Many in the Union were very pleased at the step the nation was taking towards abolishing slavery in the Confederacy. (Stowell 6). Nonetheless, it was not long before the abolitionists were not content with the Emancipation Proclamation, that did not free every single slave in the Union, and began to pressure Lincoln to make another stand against slavery to complete abolishing slavery from the nation (Emancipation Proclamation