The Emancipation Proclamation
Towards the beginning of the Civil War the main focus of the war effort for the Union was to preserve the North and reconnect with the southern regions that had seceded. However, after 3 years of vicious fighting, Abraham Lincoln carried out the Emancipation Proclamation, being the United States’ 16th President at the time. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass were thrilled, while the South was furious. This action would have been surely impossible to order, given the Union had lost the war by the time it occurred, since slavery was deemed necessary to the economic life and survival of the South. The image below represents the Battle of Antietam, which supplied the obligatory Union triumph that enabled President Lincoln to present the Emancipation Proclamation.
Bondage was greatly influenced by the Emancipation Proclamation which stated that “all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Due to the specific terminology of the Proclamation, it only applied to the states that had removed themselves from the Union. Nonetheless, this entire announcement was dependent on the Union winning the war and made the battles such as Gettysburg and Vicksburg vitally important to the Union’s war endeavors as they let key positions be attained. This new declaration also added a sense of liberty and justice for the Union fighters, molding their new goal into bringing freedom to the South and liberating the slaves while concurrently unifying the forces that had previously withdrawn. The support for the Civil War was also strengthened in the North by this proclamation as it encouraged the sanctity and indispensability of the war. The document attracted freed slaves into the war to assist the fight for freedom in the Union army.
Bondage was greatly influenced by the Emancipation Proclamation which stated that “all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Due to the specific terminology of the Proclamation, it only applied to the states that had removed themselves from the Union. Nonetheless, this entire announcement was dependent on the Union winning the war and made the battles such as Gettysburg and Vicksburg vitally important to the Union’s war endeavors as they let key positions be attained. This new declaration also added a sense of liberty and justice for the Union fighters, molding their new goal into bringing freedom to the South and liberating the slaves while concurrently unifying the forces that had previously withdrawn. The support for the Civil War was also strengthened in the North by this proclamation as it encouraged the sanctity and indispensability of the war. The document attracted freed slaves into the war to assist the fight for freedom in the Union army.
The Future of Slavery
Although slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation heavily impacted the Battle of Gettysburg, the conflict itself also affected the future of bondage. The Battle of Gettysburg captivated considerable abolitionist support, since the struggle entailed Lee’s confederate forces capturing and abducting slaves from the town of Gettysburg. This garnered more aid as the Union fought in order to recover the men, women, and children that had been taken unlawfully by Lee’s men. Gettysburg was discerned as the pivoting point of the war that was able to secure the Union the reinforcements they required and establish their resilience against the assaulting Confederate armies. This allowed for a swifter ending to the war which in turn meant a quicker end to slavery in the United States. Had the Battle of Gettysburg not occurred, the Union would have been unsuccessful in beating the Confederates, leading to a slave-filled society today. The Emancipation Proclamation encouraged the Union soldiers in the Battle of Gettysburg, who essentially brought equality and the abolition of slavery to America.