| How does one free slaves in another country? How | | | | government will compensate slave owners who free |
| does one free slaves over which one has no control? | | | | their slaves; this begins in Washington, D.C. On April |
| President Abraham Lincoln attempted to do just that, | | | | 16, when slaveowners are compensated upon the |
| when he issued the two-part Emancipation | | | | release of their slaves. |
| Proclamation in 1862 and 1863. Criticized by | | | | - June 19, 1862: Slavery is prohibited by Congress in |
| Northerners, sneered at by Southerners, the | | | | United States territories. This decision opposes the |
| Emancipation Proclamation evidenced more than | | | | 1857 ruling in the Dred Scott Case that stated |
| anything Lincoln's foresight and conviction that the | | | | Congress did not have the authority to regulate |
| Union would be once again be the United States of | | | | slavery in the United States. |
| America - all states of America. | | | | - January, 1862: Republican leader of the House of |
| The beginnings of the Emancipation Proclamation | | | | Representatives Thaddeus Stevens calls for total |
| were in the Fugitive Slave Law, enacted in 1850. The | | | | war against the perceived Southern rebellion, including |
| Fugitive Slave Law demanded that fugitive slaves, as | | | | the emancipation of slaves, in an attempt to destroy |
| property, be returned to their owners if they | | | | the Confederate economy. |
| escaped, even if in escaping they made it to a free | | | | - July, 1862: Lincoln signs Congress' "Second |
| state. The Fugitive Slave Law became controversial | | | | Confiscation Act" which liberates slaves held by |
| as abolitionism gained ground in the North; | | | | southern "rebels." |
| abolitionists, flouting the law, often refused to comply | | | | - September 22, 1862: President Lincoln issues the |
| and return escaped slaves to their southern owners. | | | | first executive order of the Emancipation |
| While the Fugitive Slave Law caused uproar both | | | | Proclamation, declaring freedom for all slaves in any |
| North and South, it caused even larger problems | | | | state of the Confederacy that did return to the |
| once Civil War was declared. When Union troops | | | | Union January 1, 1863. |
| encountered runaway slaves, there was no | | | | - January 1, 1863: President Lincoln issues the second |
| consensus as to how to treat them; while a few | | | | executive order of the Emancipation Proclamation, |
| returned them to their owners, many considered | | | | which specifies that slaves in Arkansas, Texas, |
| slaves who were living in occupied areas war | | | | Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South |
| contraband. Others still freed the slaves, often | | | | Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia were free. |
| resulting in their own dismissal. | | | | Yet the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all |
| Treating the slaves as contraband did not sit well | | | | slaves; exempted from the Proclamation were the |
| with President Lincoln, as treating them as | | | | contested states of Kentucky and Missouri, the |
| contraband was, in a sense, recognizing the | | | | soon-to-be West Virginia, and two Union slave |
| Confederate States of America as a separate nation. | | | | states, Maryland and Delaware. It would be 1865, the |
| Lincoln flatly refused to recognize the Confederacy | | | | conclusion of the war, before all slaves were |
| as anything but a band of infidels, and as such, | | | | emancipated in these states. |
| decided to attack the issue of slavery as an act of | | | | In fact, it would be 1865 before the majority of the |
| war, knowing that by doing so, he would both decide | | | | slaves held in the states addressed by the |
| the issue of slavery and attack the South where it | | | | Emancipation Proclamation were freed. Until the |
| was most vulnerable. | | | | Confederacy was defeated, many of these slaves |
| Thus a series of events began to both free slaves | | | | remained under the control of their masters. |
| and place a stranglehold on the South, still reliant on | | | | While the Emancipation Proclamation did not |
| slavery to support their largely agricultural economy, | | | | immediately free all slaves, it did finally address the |
| events that resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation: | | | | major schism between the North and the South - |
| - March 13, 1862: Lincoln forbids officers of the Union | | | | slavery. It was President Abraham Lincoln's message |
| Army officers from returning fugitive slaves to their | | | | to the Confederacy that slavery was indeed a |
| owners. | | | | matter of war, and that their short-lived rule would |
| - April 10, 1862: Congress decides that the federal | | | | not outlast the Union. |