William Johnson His.222.1901 Dr. M.

Pash February 17, 2012 During the civil war Abraham Lincoln policies and attitude towards blacks changed to protect the union; according to the text throughout the war, President Lincolns primary objective was preserving the union and any policies that either helped or hindered black people were subordinate to this goal (Darlene Clark-Hine, 2011). Lincolns initial position towards slavery and race problems included compensating slave owners for their slaves and colonizing freed slaves outside of the country. After two failed attempts to have the compensated emancipation passed through the legislature Lincoln moved towards emancipation and the abolishment of slavery but remained committed to recolonizing blacks. In 1862 President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation which allowed slaves in states that seceded from the union to become free but the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to slaves in states that remained in the union. Lincoln does deserve some credit for the emancipation proclamation; but not the title of the Great Emancipator. The purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation was to force states that had seceded from the union to rejoin the union or have the slaves in those states still in rebellion freed. Before the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation several thousands of slaves had already freed themselves but President Lincoln did do a great thing by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation which clearly helped in the efforts towards abolishing slavery, but the Emancipation Proclamation was limited, it did not free the slaves in the north and it

had no impact on slavery in the south; for the most part no slaves were freed. In fact slavery was not abolished until the passage of the 13th Amendment