Question

In September of 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This executive order freed slaves in states that were in rebellion against the United States. Consider what you have read in your online resources and answer the following questions:

What reasons could Lincoln have for making such a move during the Civil War?

Why didn’t Lincoln free slaves in all of the United States?

Answer 1

Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation was designed to destabilize the South and preserve the Union. His focus on the states in rebellion was a political move designed to punish states from seceding from the Union. Border states, which were also slave states, were viewed as too valuable in maintaining the uneasy balance between Union and Confederate states. Lincoln's intent in 1862 was not to abolish slavery but to preserve the Union.