Question

what extent was the Emancipation Proclamation a document that spurred political action? To what extent was it a document that reflected a new reality?

Answer 1

The Emancipation Proclamation was more of a result of previous political action than a spur to future political action, as it was signed after the tensions of the Civil War had already reached an apex. It was a document that reflected the new reality of equality that the majority of citizens in the North had already accepted, and forced that reality on the Southern slave owners who had previously refused to accept it.

Answer 2

It did spur political action and it didn't. The emancipation stated that slaves were free but those slaves were still enslaved in the Southern territories so obviously they were not free. In order for them to be free they had to be freed or free themselves physically from their masters. It didn't spur political action to those who kept being enslaved, but it did to those who started sabotaging and running away from their masters.

It didn't reflect a new reality because it stated that the freed slaves would have the same rights and could obtain political power and education and similar things, but the reconstruction was a disaster for their rights since they were sabotaged in every way possible.