After decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states’ rights, and westward expansion, the united states civil war broke out in 1861. Seven southern states seceded and formed the confederate states of America after Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860; four more states quickly joined them. The civil war, often known as the war between the states, ended in 1865 with the confederate surrender. The war was the most expensive and deadly ever waged on American soil, with 620,000 men killed out of a total of 2.4 million, millions more injured and most of the south destroyed. ( (Historytm n.d.))
One of the main causes of the American civil war was while the united states were enjoying tremendous growth in the mid-nineteenth century, a fundamental economic divide existed between the country’s northern and southern areas, the northern economy was based on large-scale farming that relied on the labor of colored enslaved people to grow crops, cotton, and tobacco, whilst the souths economy was based on a system of large scale farming that relied on the labor of black enslaved people to grow certain crops, especially cotton and tobacco. Many southerners feared that the existence of slavery in America and hence the backbone of the economy built on the back of slavery was in jeopardy as a result of growing abolitionist sentiment in the north after the 1830s and northern hostility to slavery’s development into new western territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed by the united states congress in 1854, effectively opened all new territories to slavery by emphasizing the primacy of popular sovereignty over congressional fiat. In ‘bleeding Kansas,’ pro and anti-slavery factions clashed brutally, while opposition to the act in the north resulted in the founding of the republican party, a new political body founded on the basis of opposing slavery’s expansion into the western territory. The election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 was the final straw, and within three months, seven southern states had seceded from the United States: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. ( (Historytm n.d.))
Therefore, this led to the introduction of the Emancipation proclamation. President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, ‘shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free’ declaring that all enslaved individuals in the states currently engaged in rebellion against the union would be freed on January 1, 1863. When he signed the formal emancipation the following January, he didn’t actually release all of the estimated 4 million men, women, and children enslaved in the united states. The document only applied to enslaved person’s confederacy, not those in union-aligned border states. However, despite its primary purpose as a military measure, the proclamation signaled a significant shift in Lincoln’s views on slavery. Emancipation would change the nation after the civil war, shifting the focus from preserving the union to abolishing slavery. ( (Historytm n.d.))
Although the emancipation proclamation did not abolish slavery in the united states, it won the hearts and minds of millions of Americans and changed the course of the war. Every advance of federal forces after January 1, 1863, increased the realm of liberty. In addition, the proclamation proclaimed that black males would be accepted into the union army and navy, allowing the released to become liberators. Almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors fought for the union and freedom by the end of the war. Slaves had fought for their own freedom since the beginning of the civil war. The emancipation proclamation reaffirmed their belief that the union’s fight had to become a war for liberty. It gave the Union cause more moral heft and strengthened the union military and politically. The emancipation proclamation has earned a place among the great documents of human freedom as a watershed moment on the path to slavery’s ultimate abolition ( (National Archives n.d.))
The original of the January 1, 1863 emancipation proclamation can be seen in the National Archives in Washington, DC. The document was originally tied with slender red and blue ribbons and wafered impressions of the United States seal on the signature page, with the content filling five pages. The majority of the ribbon is largely intact; sections of the seal may still be read. While others have worn away. The text was combined with other proclamations in a big volume that the department of state kept for many years. It was reinforced with strips along the center folds and then mounted on a bigger sheet of strong paper when it was ready to be bound. The number of the proclamation, 95, is written in red ink on the upper right-hand corner of this big sheet, long after it was signed by the Department Of State. The book containing the Emancipation Proclamation was transferred from the Department Of State to the National Archives Of the United States in 1963, along with additional papers. ( (National Archives n.d.))
Therefore, after freeing all the enslaved on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln explained his action as a wartime measure, but he did not go so far as to free the enslaved people in union-aligned border states. Nonetheless, the emancipation proclamation freed the majority of the confederacy’s workforce and shifted foreign public opinion dramatically in favor of the union. By the time the war finished in 1865, 186,000 black civil war troops had joined the union army, with 38,0000 of them dying. ( (Historytm n.d.))
Consequently, the main reason why the emancipation proclamation was directly caused by the American civil war was because of the economy and politics of slavery which led to conflict ultimately leading to the civil war. This was due to the humongous growth of the economy built on the back of slavery from the start of the 17th century (1601) to the end of the 18th century. Building a business out of the wilderness necessitated a lot of hard work. For much of the 1600s, the American colonies were primarily agricultural economies. The ‘cotton slavery’ existed from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the civil war and was one of the biggest ‘businesses’ throughout the whole country made to maximize profits. Cotton picking and washing was a time-consuming operation that delayed manufacturing and limited supply. An inventor by the name of Edward Whitney invented the machine in 1974 that combed cotton bolls for free of their seeds in a matter of seconds. One enslaved worker could manually harvest the seeds from ten pounds of cotton in one day. Whitney, therefore, designed the ’cotton gin’ in 1794 that could process 100 pounds of cotton at once 10x more in a matter of seconds than the average enslaved worker could do in a whole day. However, there was a sense of irony about it all. Many individuals assumed that because the cotton gin could replace human labor, it would eliminate the needs of enslaved people. However, the extra processing capacity actually sped up demand. The more cotton that is treated, the more it may be shipped across the world and as a result of the increased demand, more land is needed for cultivation with the increased number of plantations expanded. ( (vox n.d.))
The cotton gathered by thousands of enslaved men and women labeled as the property was used to accoutre people around the world and fuel global industrialization. These men and women were America’s largest financial asset; they were forced to maintain America’s most exported product, and the amount of cotton gathered daily by a slave surged by 400% in 60 years, from 1801 to 1862. Subsequently, between 1801 and 1835, the US cotton exports increased from 100,000 to over a million bales, accounting for half of all US exports. This was the start of America’s big business. A historian and the author of the book The half has never been told: Slavery and the making of American capitalism by the name of Edward E. Baptist reports that ‘cotton was the No.1 export from the US, which was largely an export-driven economy as it was modernizing and shifting into industrialization. The slavery economy of the US south is deeply tied financially to the North, and to Britain, to the point that we can say that people who were buying financial products in these other places were in effect owning slaves, and extracting money from the labor of enslaved people.’ ( (vox n.d.)) Edward insinuates that the US economy expands into different parts of the world and those who purchased supplies from America, therefore, had a share in the slavery market and were not bothered as this business made them richer. The book argues that as America observes 400 years since the 1619 arrival of enslaved Africans to the colony of Virginia, these deprivations are seeing increased attention and so are the ways America’s economic empire, built on the back of the enslaved, connects to the present. So therefore, as a result of the massive increase in profit earned from the demand for cotton growth and picked out by the enslaved, there were more millionaire slave owners in cotton enslavement districts than everywhere else in the united states. This is significant because the use of slavery to gather cotton increased demand for everyday necessities like clothing and led to a boom in the US economy and industrial power. As a result of this enslaved people became a legal form of property that could be used as collateral in business transactions or to pay off outstanding debt. ( (vox n.d.))
Therefore, on the rise of the civil war, states in the south realize that the regions around them plan to abolish slavery. The southern therefore become fearful as what once made them millionaires is soon about to be gone so, southern states wanted to retain as much power in their states as possible. However, when southern states so that the idea of slavery was becoming less popular and the abolition of slavery was becoming more popular, they began to panic. They saw the land which was given to them was very slow and wasn’t growing as fast as the Northern states which therefore had feared them so much that soon enough they would lose slavery and not become economically powerful as they were before from the enslaved. Therefore, as the nation expanded and people move west, Southern states develop a strategy, an idea that they need to expand slavery into these new territories out west especially those territories that are more along the southern paths of the United States. However, with slavery being an economic activity it is difficult for southern states to move plantations across to the west to achieve this task. They also realize that they are being surrounded by political opposition such as John Brown with the main focus on fighting slavery which makes them fearful of losing this economic and industrial power known as slaves. Therefore, as the united states expand they start to see more and more compromises being made such as the compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska act which therefore leads to more conflict as new territories came in with the fight of whether it would be slavery or free causes more political conflict. This leads to the victory of Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1860. However, Abraham Lincoln did not get any votes in any of the southern areas as they feared he would abolish slavery. therefore, with his election, southern states begin to secede to protect slavery. This, therefore, begins to start the war as the Northern states say that the southern states do not have the right to secede away from the union and that if they try to leave the northern states would forcefully make them stay in the United States. This is consequential as this then leads to the American civil war as southern states try to not become part of the United States by seceding away from the union which therefore leads to the northern states forcefully making them stay. Ultimately leading to Abraham Lincoln introducing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
On the other hand, however, the Emancipation Proclamation was directly not caused by the American civil war, in fact, as a war tactic to shorten the war and stop the Southern states. The civil war is commonly thought to have been fought to abolish slavery in the United States. Slavery’s abolition was not a top priority for the North even a year into the civil war. Despite the presence of a strong abolitionist movement in the North, many people particularly soldiers, opposed slavery but did not support emancipation. They expected slavery to die over time. ( (U.S History n.d.))
By the middle of 1862, Lincoln had come to believe in the necessity of abolishing slavery. Apart from his dislike for the institution, he believed that the south could not rejoin the union after attempting to destroy it. The democratic party, which is in opposition has threatened to become an anti-war party. General George McClellan, Lincoln’s military leader was a staunch opponent of emancipation. Many republicans opposed giving black people more rights because they supported measures that prohibited black settlement in their states. When Lincoln told his cabinet in mid-1862 that he wanted to issue a declaration of freedom, they persuaded him that he ought to wait until the union had gained a significant military victory. The win came at Antietam in September. No foreign country wants to form an alliance with a country that could lose power. This union’s triumph revealed that the south could lose. They refused to recognize the confederate states of America as a result, and Antietam became one of the war’s most important diplomatic engagements, as well as one of the bloodiest. Lincoln opted to issue the emancipation proclamation five days after the battle, which went into effect on January 1, 1863. He said their slaves ‘should be then, thenceforward, and permanently free’ unless the confederate states re-joined to the union by that day. ( (U.S History n.d.))
The Emancipation Proclamation is sometimes believed to have freed no slaves. In some ways, this is correct. as an act of seizing enemy resources, the proclamation would not only apply to the confederate states. Lincoln was freeing people he didn’t directly control when he freed slaves in the confederacy. Much of the union forces accepted the proclamation because of the way he explained it. He promoted emancipation as a means of shortening the war by draining Southern resources and therefore weakening the confederacy. As a soldier, even McClellan backed the policy. The border states received no such pledge of liberty from Lincoln. ( (U.S History n.d.))
However even though Abraham Lincoln used the Emancipation Proclamation as a tool to shorten the war and stop the South from seceding, the Emancipation proclamation established an atmosphere in which the abolition of slavery was considered one of the war’s principal goals. Overseas, the North appeared to be the most morally justified. Even if a foreign government wished to intervene on the South’s behalf, the people of that country might resist. although the Proclamation only freed a few slaves, it was the end of slavery in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation eventually led to the proposal and adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the constitution, which effectively ended slavery in the United States.