What is emancipation of slaves

Many of them used this moment of uncertainty to secure freedom. When the British forces called upon slaves to join their ranks and promised them freedom in return, black men enlisted. When the Colonial army made the same offer, black men joined their lines as well.

Others, men and women, petitioned the courts for freedom, making their arguments on the same philosophical grounds that the patriots used to validate the war. The Declaration of Independence. The Southern states used slaves to support their armies on the field and to manage the home front so more men could go off to fight. Up until September , the main focus of the war had been to preserve the Union.

With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation freedom for slaves now became a legitimate war aim. Fact 7: The Emancipation Proclamation helped prevent the involvement of foreign nations in the Civil War.

Britain and France had considered supporting the Confederacy in order to expand their influence in the Western Hemisphere. However, many Europeans were against slavery.

Although some in the United Kingdom saw the Emancipation Proclamation as overly limited and reckless, Lincoln's directive reinforced the shift of the international political mood against intervention while the Union victory at Antietam further disturbed those who didn't want to intervene on the side of a lost cause.

Fact 8: The Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for African-Americans to fight for their freedom. By the end of the war, over , African-Americans would serve in the Union army and navy. Fact 9: The Emancipation Proclamation led the way to total abolition of slavery in the United States. With the Emancipation Proclamation, the aim of the war changed to include the freeing of slaves in addition to preserving the Union.

Although the Proclamation initially freed only the slaves in the rebellious states, by the end of the war the Proclamation had influenced and prepared citizens to advocate and accept abolition for all slaves in both the North and South. The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States, was passed on December 6th, As early as , Abraham Lincoln believed that slaves should be emancipated, advocating a program in which they would be freed gradually. Early in his presidency, still convinced that gradual emacipation was the best course, he tried to win over legistators.

To gain support, he proposed that slaveowners be compensated for giving up their "property. In September of , after the Union's victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued a preliminary decree stating that, unless the rebellious states returned to the Union by January 1, freedom would be granted to slaves within those states. The decree also left room for a plan of compensated emancipation. No Confederate states took the offer, and on January 1 Lincoln presented the Emancipation Proclamation.