Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation (1863).Abraham Lincoln's presidency began in March 1861 with a pledge to maintain slavery by enforcing the federal fugitive slave law. By May, however, Lincoln accept a de facto “contraband” policy that permitted Union commanders to protect and employ black fugitives who came within their lines from disloyal regions. Congress suspended federal enforcement of the fugitive slave law and provided in the summer of 1862 for the confiscation and emancipation of “contraband” slaves. Gen. George B. McClellan vehemently opposed these measures, but Lincoln soon acted as commander in chief to declare emancipation a Union war aim.

On 22 September 1862, Lincoln declared that all slaves would be freed in states or regions of states still in rebellion on the first day of the following year. After this proclamation, the prospect of pro‐Southern intervention by Britain faded. The proclamation also marked a fundamental shift in Union military policy. Initially opposed to enrolling any blacks as soldiers, Lincoln authorized an aggressive recruitment campaign immediately following the issuance of the final proclamation on 1 January 1863.

The Emancipation Proclamation was Lincoln's most direct action to hasten the end of slavery. Historians have offered varied interpretations of its relative significance in the process of wartime emancipation. Louis Gerteis in From Contraband to Freedman argues that military necessity created the conditions that first prompted Congress and later required Lincoln to adopt emancipation policies. Ira Berlin and his colleagues in The Destruction of Slavery emphasize the roles played by African Americans in securing their own liberation within the conditions created by war and federal policy. In his Pulitzer Prize‐winning Battle Cry of Freedom, James McPherson insists that emancipation—and the Union victory necessary to obtain it—rested fundamentally on Lincoln's leadership.
[See also: African Americans in the Military; Civil War: Domestic Course; Colored Troops, U.S.]

Bibliography

Louis Gerteis , From Contraband to Freedman: Federal Policy Toward Southern Blacks, 1861–1865, 1972.
Ira Berlin,, Barbara J. Fields,, Thavolia Glymph,, Joseph P. Reidy,, and and Leslie S. Rowland , Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867, Series I, Vol. I: The Destruction of Slavery, 1985.
James McPherson , Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, 1988.

Louis S. Gerteis