What were the immediate, the political, of the Emancipation Proclamation in America?

What were the immediate, the political and the international impact of the Emancipation Proclamation in America?|||Immediate impact


It is common to encounter the claim that the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave. This statement may be found at such government and media websites as a National Park Service page[16], and a user-generated wiki run by the BBC[17]. However, the claim directly conflicts with multiple eyewitness accounts of celebrations where thousands of blacks were informed of their new legal status of freedom, for example at Hilton Head, South Carolina[18] and Port Royal, South Carolina[15]


The Emancipation took place without violence by masters or ex-slaves.[citation needed] The proclamation represented a shift in the war objectives of the North鈥攔euniting the nation was no longer the only goal. It represented a major step toward the ultimate abolition of slavery in the United States and a "new birth of freedom".





Runaway slaves who had escaped to Union lines had previously been held by the Union Army as "contraband of war" under the Confiscation Acts; when the proclamation took effect, they were told at midnight that they were free to leave. The Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia were occupied by the Union Navy earlier in the war. The whites had fled to the mainland while the blacks stayed. An early program of Reconstruction was set up for the former slaves, including schools and training. Naval officers read the proclamation and told them they were free.





In the military, reaction to the proclamation varied widely, with some units nearly ready to mutiny in protest. Some desertions were attributed to it. Other units were inspired by the adoption of a cause that ennobled their efforts, such that at least one unit took up the motto "For Union and Liberty".





Slaves had been part of the "engine of war" for the Confederacy. They produced and prepared food; sewed uniforms; repaired railways; worked on farms and in factories, shipping yards, and mines; built fortifications; and served as hospital workers and common laborers. News of the Proclamation spread rapidly by word of mouth, arousing hopes of freedom, creating general confusion, and encouraging thousands to escape to Union lines.











Political impact


Lincoln plays the trump card鈥攁n 1862 cartoon by the Englishman John Tenniel often reprinted in the Copperhead press, note the horns.The Proclamation was immediately denounced by Copperhead Democrats who opposed the war and tolerated both secession and slavery. It became a campaign issue in the 1862 elections, in which the Democrats gained 28 seats in the House as well as the governorship of New York. Many War Democrats who had supported Lincoln's goal of saving the Union, balked at supporting emancipation. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in November 1863 made indirect reference to the Proclamation and the ending of slavery as a war goal with the phrase "new birth of freedom". The Proclamation solidified Lincoln's support among the rapidly growing abolitionist element of the Republican Party and ensured they would not block his re-nomination in 1864.[21]