What effect did the Emancipation Proclamation have on African American soldiers?
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As early as 1849, 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." Support was not forthcoming. Show
In September of 1862, 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. The proclamation declared, "all persons held as slaves within any States, or designated part of the State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves in the United States. Rather, it declared free only those slaves living in states not under Union control. William Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, commented, "We show our symapthy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free." Lincoln was fully aware of the irony, but he did not want to antagonize the slave states loyal to the Union by setting their slaves free. The proclamation allowed black soldiers to fight for the Union -- soldiers that were desperately needed. It also tied the issue of slavery directly to the war. On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863. But for the enslaved, this was not the long-awaited Day of Jubilee. The Confederacy ignored the president’s decree, and the order didn’t apply to those held in areas that remained under Union control. In truth, the Emancipation Proclamation freed no one.The Implications of the Emancipation ProclamationSymbolically, though, it was important—the North was now fighting to end slavery. Strategically, it mattered, too—European powers were unlikely to side with a slavocracy over a government fighting to end slavery. It was most significant, though, as a military measure because it allowed African Americans to enlist in the armed forces. And enlist they did. About 185,000 Black men donned Union blue, determined to deliver a death blow to slavery. The “Marching Song of the First Arkansas Negro Regiment”, set to the same tune as “John Brown’s Body” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, captured the fighting spirit of Black soldiers. As these volunteers went off to battle, they sang:
African Americans Fought Any Way They Could These Black soldiers helped turn the tide of the war, fighting with bravery and determination despite facing discriminatory treatment from their side, including unequal pay, and receiving no quarter from the other side. If captured, Black soldiers would be enslaved or outright massacred. Several hundred Black men were slaughtered at Fort Pillow in Tennessee in April 1864 after their white commander surrendered—against their desperate pleas not to—to Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Beyond the battlefield, enslaved African Americans engaged in a general strike, refusing to work at the same pace and in the same way as they did before. Others continued to flee, bound for the contraband camps that sprang up in the shadow of Union encampments, some of which evolved into free Black communities like Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Day of Jubilee and Its ConsequencesThe Civil War came to an end in April 1865 at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. But word of the Confederacy’s defeat took time to spread. Enslaved African Americans in Texas did not learn about it until June 19, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston with the good news. Two and a half years after Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the Day of Jubilee had finally arrived. From that day forward, Black Texans would mark the occasion with picnics and parades as a part of their annual Juneteenth celebrations. The significance of emancipation in African American history cannot be overstated. It marked a critical turning point in the Black experience. Prior to emancipation, the primary focus for African Americans was abolition. Whether enslaved or free, Black people understood that no one could be free unless everyone was free. Freedom Rights Are Human RightsAfter emancipation, the focus shifted. Now the aim was securing freedom rights. Freedom rights were those rights that African Americans identified as the essence of freedom. Without them, emancipation would be meaningless. Freedom rights combined two kinds of rights. The first were civil rights, or rights conferred by government and enumerated in law, such as the right to free speech, the right to vote, the right to keep and bear arms, and the right to due process under the law. The second set of rights were human rights, or rights inherent to all people regardless of their status in society, such as the right to form families, the right to personal safety, the right to adequate food and shelter, the right to learn to read and write, and the right to enjoy the fruit of one’s labor. What effect did the Emancipation Proclamation have on African Americans?Impact of the Emancipation Proclamation
Black Americans were permitted to serve in the Union Army for the first time, and nearly 200,000 would do so by the end of the war. Finally, the Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for the permanent abolition of slavery in the United States.
What did the Emancipation Proclamation say about black soldiers?In 1862, President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation opened the door for African Americans to enlist in the Union Army. Although many had wanted to join the war effort earlier, they were prohibited from enlisting by a federal law dating back to 1792.
What effect did the Emancipation Proclamation have on African American soldiers quizlet?The Emancipation Proclamation and the efforts of African American soldiers affected the course of the war in that all slaves would be freed after the war, it increased the North's will to win the war, and it gave the North a reason to keep fighting and to win the Civil War.
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