Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation : The End of Slavery in America

by Allen C. Guelzo

Hardcover, 2004

Status

Available

Publication

New York : Simon & Schuster, c2004.

Description

"I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves...are, and henceforward shall be free...." No other words in American history changed the lives of so many Americans as this declaration from Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Born in the struggle of Lincoln's determination to set slavery on the path to destruction, it has remained a document of struggle. What were Lincoln's real intentions? Prizewinning Lincoln scholar Allen C. Guelzo presents, for the first time, a full scale study of Lincoln's greatest state paper. Using unpublished letters and documents, little-known accounts from Civil War-era newspapers, and Congressional memoirs and correspondence, Guelzo tells the story of the complicated web of statesmen, judges, slaves, and soldiers who accompanied, and obstructed, Abraham Lincoln on the path to the Proclamation. The crisis of a White House at war, of plots in Congress and mutiny in the Army, of one man's will to turn the nation's face toward freedom--all these passionate events come alive in a powerful narrative of Lincoln's, and the Civil War's, greatest moment.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member gregdehler
The Emancipation Proclamation was real and freed people. Self-Emancipation would be limited without it. President Lincoln began his administration thinking it marked the beginning of the end for slavery and the slave power. As the war progressed Lincoln became convinced that more had to be done. He
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preferred action at the level of the state legislatures because it would be "court-proof." Even after he settled on an Emancipation Proclamation as a military measure, Guelzo argues that Lincoln did not see any contradiction between it and colonization or compensated emancipation in loyal areas of the union that still had slavery. This book deftly deals with the nuances of Lincoln's policy towards emancipation, the roles of the military leaders, battles, Congress, pro- and anti- administration politicians, journalists, public opinion, etc., on the road to the Emancipation Proclamation. But that was not the stopping point. Lincoln continued to push for legislative soultions. By February 1865 six states ended slavery and Congress had sent what would become the 13th amendment to the states for ratification.
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Language

Barcode

5573
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