Editing American Civil War (section)

== Emancipation ==
[[File:Abolition of slavery in the United States SVG map.svg|thumb|upright=2|Abolition of slavery in the various states over time:{{Legend|#84c6c9|Abolition of slavery during or shortly after the American Revolution}}
{{Legend|#7be3de|The Northwest Ordinance, 1787}}
{{Legend|#64e5c5|Gradual emancipation in New York (starting 1799, completed 1827) and New Jersey (starting 1804, completed by Thirteenth Amendment, 1865)}}
{{Legend|#7ab377|The Missouri Compromise, 1821}}
{{Legend|#5f9b4a|Effective abolition of slavery by Mexican or joint U.S./British authority}}
{{Legend|#97cf2d|Abolition of slavery by Congressional action, 1861}}
{{Legend|#c7dd47|Abolition of slavery by Congressional action, 1862}}
{{Legend|#ffe86d|Emancipation Proclamation as originally issued, January 1, 1863}}
{{Legend|#f1c84e|Subsequent operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863}}
{{Legend|#d39c59|Abolition of slavery by state action during the Civil War}}
{{Legend|#f7b360|Operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1864}}
{{Legend|#f6a89a|Operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865}}
{{Legend|#d3595f|Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution, December 18, 1865}}
{{Legend|#bca4b1|Territory incorporated into the U.S. after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment}}]]
Abolishing slavery was not a Union war goal from the outset, but quickly became one.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=vii–viii}} Lincoln's initial claims were that preserving the Union was the central goal.{{sfn|Foner|2010|p=74}} In contrast, the South fought to preserve slavery.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=vii–viii}} While not all Southerners saw themselves as fighting for slavery, most officers and over a third of the rank and file in Lee's army had close family ties to slavery. To Northerners, the motivation was primarily to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery.{{sfn|Foner|1981|p={{page needed|date=September 2024}}}} However, as the war dragged on, and it became clear slavery was central to the conflict, and that emancipation was (to quote the Emancipation Proclamation) "a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing [the] rebellion," Lincoln and his cabinet made ending slavery a war goal, culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=vii–viii}}{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=506–508}} Lincoln's decision to issue the Proclamation angered [[Peace Democrats]] ("Copperheads") and [[War Democrats]], but energized most Republicans.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=506–508}} By warning that free blacks would flood the North, Democrats made gains in the [[1862 congressional elections|1862 elections]], but they did not gain control of Congress. The Republicans' counterargument that slavery was the mainstay of the enemy steadily gained support, with the Democrats losing decisively in the 1863 elections in the Northern state of Ohio, when they tried to resurrect anti-black sentiment.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|p=686}}

=== Emancipation Proclamation ===
{{Main|Emancipation Proclamation}}
The Emancipation Proclamation legally freed the slaves in states "in rebellion," but, as a practical matter, slavery for the 3.5&nbsp;million black people in the South effectively ended in each area when Union armies arrived. The last Confederate slaves were freed on June 19, 1865, celebrated as the modern holiday of Juneteenth. Slaves in the border states and those in some former Confederate territory occupied before the Emancipation Proclamation were freed by state action or (on December 6, 1865) by the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cathey |first=Libby |date=June 17, 2021 |title=Biden signs bill making Juneteenth, marking the end of slavery, a federal holiday |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-sign-bill-making-juneteenth-federal-holiday-commemorating/story?id=78335485 |access-date=June 17, 2021 |work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]}}</ref><ref>[[Claudia Goldin]], "The economics of emancipation." ''The Journal of Economic History'' 33#1 (1973): 66–85.</ref> The Emancipation Proclamation enabled African Americans, both free blacks and escaped slaves, to join the Union Army. About 190,000 volunteered, further enhancing the numerical advantage the Union armies enjoyed over the Confederates, who did not dare emulate the equivalent manpower source for fear of undermining the legitimacy of slavery.{{efn|In spite of the South's shortage of soldiers, most Southern leaders—until 1865—opposed enlisting slaves. They used them as laborers to support the war effort. As [[Howell Cobb]] said, "If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong." Confederate generals [[Patrick Cleburne]] and [[Robert E. Lee]] argued in favor of arming blacks late in the war, and [[Jefferson Davis]] was eventually persuaded to support plans for arming slaves to avoid military defeat. The Confederacy surrendered at [[Appomattox, Virginia|Appomattox]] before this plan could be implemented.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=831–837}}}}

During the war, sentiment concerning slaves, enslavement, and emancipation in the United States was divided. Lincoln's fears of making slavery a war issue were based on a harsh reality: abolition did not enjoy wide support in the west, the territories, and the border states.{{Sfn|Donald|1995|pp=417–419}}<ref name=":4" group="lower-alpha" /> In 1861, Lincoln worried that premature attempts at emancipation would mean the loss of the border states, and that "to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game".<ref name=":4" group="lower-alpha">{{multiref2 |Lincoln's letter to O. H. Browning, September 22, 1861. | {{harvnb|Wittke|1952}}{{failed verification|date=May 2025}}<!-- Cited source does not contain the following quoted text -->. "Sentiment among [[German Americans]] was largely antislavery especially among [[Forty-Eighters]], resulting in hundreds of thousands of German Americans volunteering to fight for the Union." | {{harvnb|Keller|2009}}. | for primary sources, see Walter D. Kamphoefner and Wolfgang Helbich, eds., ''Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home'' (2006). "On the other hand, many of the recent immigrants in the North viewed freed slaves as competition for scarce jobs, and as the reason why the Civil War was being fought." | {{harvnb|Baker|2003}}. "Due in large part to this fierce competition with free blacks for labor opportunities, the poor and working class [[Irish American|Irish Catholics]] generally opposed emancipation. When the draft began in the summer of 1863, they launched [[New York Draft Riots|a major riot in New York City]] that was suppressed by the military, as well as much smaller protests in other cities." | {{harvnb|Schecter|2007|loc=ch. 6}}. "Many Catholics in the North had volunteered to fight in 1861, sending thousands of soldiers to the front and suffering high casualties, especially at [[Battle of Fredericksburg|Fredericksburg]]; their volunteering fell off after 1862."}}</ref> Copperheads and some War Democrats opposed emancipation, although the latter eventually accepted it as part of the total war needed to save the Union.{{sfn|Baker|2003}}

Lincoln reversed attempts at emancipation by Secretary of War [[Simon Cameron]] and Generals [[John C. Frémont]] and [[David Hunter]], in an effort to retain the loyalty of the border states and the War Democrats. Lincoln warned the border states that a more radical type of emancipation would happen if they rejected his plan of gradual compensated emancipation and [[back-to-Africa movement|voluntary colonization]].<ref>McPherson, James M., "Lincoln and the Strategy of Unconditional Surrender", in [[Gabor Boritt|Boritt, Gabor S.]] (ed.). ''Lincoln, the War President'', pp. 52–54; also in McPherson, James M., ''Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution'', pp. 83–85.</ref> But compensated emancipation occurred only in the District of Columbia, where Congress had the power to enact it. When Lincoln told his cabinet about his proposed emancipation proclamation, which would apply to the states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, Seward advised Lincoln to wait for a Union military victory before issuing it, because to do otherwise would seem like "our last shriek on the retreat".<ref>[[Stephen B. Oates|Oates, Stephen B.]], ''Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind the Myths'', p.&nbsp;106.</ref> Walter Stahr, however, writes, "There are contemporary sources, however, that suggest others were involved in the decision to delay", and Stahr quotes them.<ref>Stahr, Walter, ''Stanton: Lincoln's War Secretary'', New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017, p. 226.</ref>

{{multiple image
| align = right
| total_width = 500
| image1 = Contrabands at Headquarters of General Lafayette by Mathew Brady.jpg
| alt1 =
| caption1 = [[Contraband (American Civil War)|Contrabands]], who were fugitive slaves, including cooks, laundresses, laborers, teamsters, railroad repair crews, fled to the [[Union Army]], but were not legally freed until the [[Emancipation Proclamation]], which Lincoln signed on January 1, 1863, more than two years before the end of the Civil War.
| image2 = Soldiers White Black 1861.jpg
| alt2 =
| caption2 = In 1863, the [[Union Army]] accepted [[Freedmen]]; seen here are black and white teenaged soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Union.
}}
Lincoln laid the groundwork for public support in an open letter published in response to [[Horace Greeley]]'s "The Prayer of Twenty Millions"; the letter stated that Lincoln's goal was to save the Union, and that, if he freed the slaves, it would be as a means to that end.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 14, 2022 |title=Horace Greeley (1811–1872). "The Prayer of Twenty Millions". Stedman and Hutchinson, eds. 1891. A Library of American Literature: An Anthology in 11 Volumes |url=https://www.bartleby.com/400/prose/1279.html |website=www.bartleby.com}}</ref><ref>Lincoln's letter was published first in the ''Washington National Intelligencer'' on August 23, 1862. [[Holzer, Harold]], ''Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion'', New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014, p. 401.</ref><ref><!-- Lincoln (1862-08-23) A LETTER FROM PRESIDENT LINCOLN.; Reply to Horace Greeley. Slavery and the Union The Restoration of the Union the Paramount Object.-->{{cite Q|Q116965145}}</ref> He also had a meeting at the White House with five African American representatives on August 14, 1862. Arranging for a reporter to be present, he urged his visitors to agree to the voluntary colonization of black people. Lincoln's motive for both his letter to Greeley and his statement to the black visitors was apparently to make his forthcoming Emancipation Proclamation more palatable to racist [[white people]].<ref>White, Jonathan W., ''A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House'', Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022, ch. 3.</ref> A Union victory in the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, provided Lincoln with an opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and the [[War Governors' Conference]] added support for the proclamation.<ref>Pulling, Sr. Anne Frances, ''Altoona: Images of America'', Arcadia Publishing, 2001, 10.</ref>

Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. It stated that slaves in all states in rebellion on January 1, 1863, would be free. He issued his final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, keeping his promise. In his letter to Albert G. Hodges, Lincoln explained his belief that "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong&nbsp;.... And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling&nbsp;... I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."<ref>Lincoln's Letter to A. G. Hodges, April 4, 1864.</ref>{{efn|In late March 1864 Lincoln met with [[Thomas E. Bramlette|Governor Bramlette]], Archibald Dixon, and Albert G. Hodges, to discuss recruitment of African American soldiers in the state of Kentucky. In a letter dated April 4, 1864, Lincoln summarized his stance on slavery, at Hodges' request.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lincoln Lore – Albert G. Hodges |url=https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/LegislativeMoments/moments08RS/49_web_leg_moments.htm |access-date=January 20, 2022 |website=Kentucky Legislature}}</ref>}}

Lincoln's moderate approach succeeded in inducing the border states to remain in the Union and War Democrats to support the Union. The border states, which included Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and Union-controlled regions around New Orleans, [[Norfolk, Virginia]], and elsewhere, were not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation. Nor was Tennessee, which had come under Union control.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Andrew Johnson and Emancipation in Tennessee – Andrew Johnson National Historic Site |url=https://www.nps.gov/anjo/learn/historyculture/johnson-and-tn-emancipation.htm |website=National Park Service}}</ref> Missouri and Maryland abolished slavery on their own; Kentucky and Delaware did not.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harper |first=Douglas |year=2003 |title=Slavery in Delaware |url=http://www.slavenorth.com/delaware.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016062740/http://slavenorth.com/delaware.htm |archive-date=October 16, 2007 |access-date=October 16, 2007}}</ref> Still, the proclamation did not enjoy universal support. It caused much unrest in what were then considered western states, where racist sentiments led to a great fear of abolition. There was some concern that the proclamation would lead to the secession of western states, and its issuance prompted the stationing of Union troops in Illinois in case of rebellion.{{Sfn|Donald|1995|pp=417–419}}

Since the Emancipation Proclamation was based on the president's war powers, it applied only in territory held by Confederates at the time it was issued. However, the Proclamation became a symbol of the Union's growing commitment to add emancipation to the Union's definition of liberty.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=McPherson |first=James |author-link=James M. McPherson |date=March 1990 |title=A War that Never Goes Away |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/war-never-goes-away |magazine=American Heritage Magazine |volume=41 |issue=2}}</ref> The Emancipation Proclamation greatly reduced the Confederacy's hope of being recognized or otherwise aided by Britain or France.{{sfn|Asante|Mazama|2004|p=82}} By late 1864, Lincoln was playing a leading role in getting the House of Representatives to vote for the Thirteenth Amendment, which mandated the ending of chattel slavery.{{sfn|Holzer|Gabbard|2007|pp=172–174}}