When the Union Army invaded the South in 1861 starting the Civil War, their motive was not to end slavery, according to President Abraham Lincoln. He said the War was

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The Civil War and Emancipation

The Civil War that began in 1862 is mainly associated with the end of slavery. At the start of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s goal was not to end slavery but to keep the Union of States together. Therefore, Lincoln refrained from making public comments that could have associated the war with the rights of enslaved people, even though he was morally opposed to it. Instead, his primary concern was to act constitutionally and have a shift victory to ensure that the Union did not dissolve. However, by 1863, the war had become about ending slavery. Therefore, the paper seeks to examine the events that brought about the change and the person who convinced Lincoln that the goal of the war should be to end slavery in the United States.

Abraham Lincoln became the United States President on November 6, 1860. His election outraged southern states. The Republican Party had a considerable interest in running an anti-slavery platform, which led many southern states to feel that there were no longer valued in the Union. Thus, the southern states began to secede from the Union. States, including Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia, seceded from the Union in 1861 and created the Confederate States of America (Mauldin 221). They elected a provisional president, Senator Jefferson Davis, to lead the Confederate States of America. The Civil War began after Lincoln’s inaugural address, where he declared that his main focus was maintaining the Union and had no intention of abolishing slavery. This statement did not satisfy the Confederacy; thus, they began the Civil War by attacking Fort Sumter.

The Civil War made more states secede from the Union. President Abraham Lincoln insisted that the war was meant to preserve the Union, not slavery or black rights (Mauldin 175). His words were meant to retain the loyalty of the remaining Border States. The government upheld laws that prevented African Americans from engaging in the war since most white northerners were not advocating for black rights and had to maintain their race privilege. However, African Americans were allowed to work as sailors in the U.S. Navy. The blacks were willing to join the war but did not support the idea of fighting to preserve the Union, which had rejected them and did not uphold their right to citizenship. As a result, the enslaved people started to escape from the Union and aid the Confederacy. On August 6, 1862, enslaved people who helped the Confederacy were declared “contraband of war” and free (Mauldin 144). Even after declaring contrabands free, Lincoln insisted that the war was to save the Union and not free enslaved people.

By 1862, Lincoln saw emancipation as an effective way to win the war. The South used the labor of enslaved people to aid in war, while the North barred black volunteers from participating in the war. Also, several European governments had gained interest in recognizing the Confederacy and intervening against the Union. Lincoln knew that if he declared that the war aimed to end slavery, he could gain the support the European public opinion. Therefore, he drafted an Emancipation proclamation that proposed the freeing of enslaved people in all rebel areas (Mauldin 243). Lincoln was convinced by the Secretary of the State, William H. Seward, to issue the proclamation after the Union had a significant victory. After the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam in 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (Mauldin 186). The proclamation aimed to free enslaved people in the Confederate states that surrendered. The proclamation helped to free many enslaved people and changed the purpose of the Civil War.

Works Cited

Mauldin, Erin Stewart.  Unredeemed land: An environmental history of civil war and emancipation in the cotton South. Oxford University Press, USA, 2018.

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