Emancipation Proclamation Dbq

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The Emancipation Proclamation was a document forged in the midst of the early American Civil War. It would go on to define The United States of America. The Emancipation Proclamation is a significant document because it freed all slaves in the Confederate States of America. This fact is one of the most important parts of the document and its meaning. Firstly, the document’s proceedings meant that once in contact with the Union a slave was unbound. In addition, the document took away from the South, a vital workforce. In turn crippling the economy and making it harder for the Confederacy to fight longer, being that they were already being cut off by the Union. Lastly, it created the environment for which the 13th amendment could be drafted and …show more content…
The Emancipation Proclamation is a significant document not only because it freed the slaves, and crippled the South but, because it cleared the way for a constitutional amendment. The Proclamation could be broken down into a few things, one of which was a war measure. Being a war measure, Lincoln needed something that would hold its ground after the war was over. That would lead to the drafting of the 13th Constitutional Amendment. This Amendment marked the end of legal slavery in the States with its ratification by congress in December of 1865, after the war had be declared victorious for the Union. The document stated that slavery or any form of forced, unpaid labor was not to be permitted except in a situation where the party had been convicted of a crime that warranted the enlistment as an unpaid servant anywhere that the United States had power or jurisdiction. History has proved that the Emancipation Proclamation was used as an opener to the 13th amendment along with the 14th and 15th which were sadly retracted. The Emancipation Proclamation can be viewed as the predecessor to these Amendments. Amendments that would broaden the civil rights for Americans and specifically African Americans for the years to come. These facts stated prove that the Emancipation Proclamation was used to generate momentum for the ratification of the 13th Amendment. In turn leading to the eradication of slavery in the