Question

How did the Gettysburg address and the Emancipation Proclamation change the focus and people’s perspective of the Civil War?

Question 2 options:

It made the war strictly about secession and holding the Union together.


They gave the North a moral high ground by freeing the slaves and fighting for the sake of preserving freedom and democracy.


These documents redefined America's government structure for when the war ends.


They made the Union focus their efforts on an offensive strategy to bring a quick end to the war.

Answer 1

I believe it’s number 2

Step-by-step explanation:

Before the Gettysburg Address and the emancipation proclamation, the war was simply about the South’s succession from the Union. This address gave the war another purpose...freeing slaves. This obviously outraged the south as many of them were slave owners and their way of life depended on slaves. Slave ownership is disgusting to us now, but back then it wasn’t. When Europeans came to the Americas, they even had to come up with a reason to disregard their religion to use slaves, which led to the idea that those with darker colored skin were somehow lesser than those with lighter skin. This is also interesting since until the Portuguese started their trading post empire in the Indian Ocean, and Europe started colonizing the Americas, Europeans were behind the rest of the world economically. The Colombian exchange set into motion this entire idea that darker skin was worse than lighter skin. Anyway, sorry for the history lesson!

Thank you AP World, and thank you Heimler’s History!