Question

Summarize each of the following excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation.

“And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of states, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free;”

Answer 1

The Proclamation only gave the Lincoln Administration the legal basis to free the slaves in the areas of the South that were still in rebellion on January 1, 1863. It effectively destroyed slavery as the Union armies advanced south and conquered the entire Confederacy.It must be remembered that many whites in the North also were sympathetic to slavery. Lincoln's proclamation was condemned by the South. It did not lead to a massive slave rebellion in the South, but they began to slowly escape from slavery in small groups.