Now, professional historians all know this, but I’m going on the assumption that most folks really haven’t taken the time, or had the opportunity, to think through the Emancipation Proclamation. So, here are the basics, for those of you that need to catch up:The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free anyone. It applied only to slaves in states currently in rebellion, and areas not under federal control. Border states that had slaves still had them legally. Areas of the South occupied by Federal troops still, legally, had slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation applied only to the Confederate States, which did not recognize any Federal jurisdiction at the time. It would be akin to the United States declaring, in 1943, that all Jews were free from concentration camps in Germany.
This brings up some questions, then. Who freed the slaves? There’s a case to be made that God did, that they were free from birth. There is a case to be made that the slaves freed themselves. There’s a case to be made that they were freed by Northern troops, or by the slavemasters through the surrender of the CSA. From the legal perspective, however, it was the 13th and 14th amendments that freed the slaves, passed after Lincoln was long dead.
So, what was the Emancipation Proclamation about? Well, the timing of the Emancipation Proclamation can tell us, perhaps, something about that. Lincoln talked with his cabinet about issuing the EP in July of 1862. However, it didn’t come until September 22, 1862 (and then again in January of 1863). Why the delay? The answer was in the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam for you Yanks). The perceived Union victory (some military historians will argue whether it was a real victory) at Sharpsburg was the momentum that Lincoln needed to put forth his agenda. It would be akin, in our time, to a president who hated Muslims waiting until after September 11, and then banning Islam from the United States. Or more rather, banning Islam from the Middle East.
What does this tell us, then? What is the point? There are a couple of messages here:
- Whoever or whatever it was that freed the slaves, it wasn’t Lincoln or the Emancipation Proclamation;
- Lincoln was astute enough a politician to take advantage of the patriotism that comes with military victory in order to push through an agenda;
- Finally, though we haven’t talked about it here, the EP itself demonstrates Lincoln’s willingness and desire to legislate from the executive branch. It is this overreaching of Federal power that marks the Lincoln administration, and signals a shift in the power structure of American politics.
Tomorrow, slavery and race.
