With the firing of the first shots at Fort Sumter in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln maintained the ensuing conflict would be about the preservation of the Union and not a response to the abolitionists who wanted to see the Cotton Kingdom crushed. In fact, on numerous occasions Lincoln actually supported the colonization of blacks outside the United States as a viable response to the “Negro problem.”
However, the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) changed everything by redirecting the military objectives of the Civil War and promising that blacks would ultimately be regarded the same as any other freed people in this country. Certainly Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox signaled the end of the war and slavery. However, the promises of equal citizenship went unfulfilled as too many of the political policies of the post-Civil War maintained the status quo of white supremacy.
Lincoln and the Civil War
During the first months of the war Abraham Lincoln clearly defined the objective of war was the preservation of the Union. This allowed the North to rally around the premise that the Confederacy was committing treason in taking up arms while simultaneously maintaining positive relationships with those slave-holding that did not join the Confederacy. However, the Emancipation Proclamation led to a significant shift in the way the country would see the war. With regards to the military, emancipated slaves would be allowed to participate in the Union Armies (albeit in segregated units), which implied that they would be allowed to fight for their own freedom.
By the close of the war nearly 200,000 blacks would don the Union colors and evidence suggests that they did so in the belief that a Union victory would led to full citizenship. Even though Lincoln believed the Emancipation Proclamation was necessary for suppressing the rebellion, it became the symbol of the integrity of a country founded on the unfulfilled principles of freedom. Such principles eventually swayed England from recognizing the legitimacy of the Confederate government. As such, the Emancipation Proclamation also served as a foreign policy tool that ultimately crippled the economy of the Confederacy.
The Colonization of African Americans
Prior to the war, Lincoln held to the belief that the answer to the country’s Negro dilemma lay in the colonization of blacks in some other part of the world. He urged Congress and the black leadership to accept this solution arguing that it was in the best interest of blacks and the United States. Since the Emancipation Proclamation omits all references to colonization, it seems that Lincoln abandoned the idea of colonization in favor of promising blacks equal citizenship in return for their support of the Union.
The impact of the Emancipation Proclamation on the black community, free and slave was profound. There was no way slavery could survive and it was only a matter of time before slaves began abandoning southern plantations. The result was a severe disruption of southern labor.
Even though Abraham Lincoln initially favored black colonization and vehemently insisted the Civil War was not about slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation changed the course of the war and this country. Unfortunately, the promise of full citizenship for blacks went unfulfilled for another century as white supremacists established one policy after another that limited black rights and freedoms. For example, Jim Crow replaced the Black Codes and real estate redlining eventually encouraged white-flight influenced segregation. Nonetheless, history will always interpret the Emancipation Proclamation as one of the defining moments of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, the Civil War, and African Americans.
Reference:
Franklin, John Hope (1968). The Emancipation Proclamation. In Black Protest edited by Joanne Grant (125-131) New York: Fawcett Publishing.
