Critical Issue Of Slavery Research Paper

The topic of slavery was extremely prevalent during the 1800s. There were many people both for and against the topic of slavery. Slavery is defined as.. Although it was thought that the creation of The Declaration of Independence was going to solve all of our problems, it realistically left out a major problem in our society back then. Abraham Lincoln, being the president of the Union at that time decided to take a stand on this critical issue and create a document that would hopefully alter the course of humanity forever. Slavery during that time divided the nation in half, the Northern states vs the Southern states and led to the beginning of the Civil War on April 12, 1861 in Fort Sumter, South Carolina.The Confederate Army consisted of 11 states, while the Union was comprised of 20 states. The drastic divide in the nation caused extreme amount of turmoil, destruction of cities, the loss of many lives and economic downfall for both sides.
The Southerners wanted to protect there economy, which relied heavily on slavery and the Northerners were fighting to abolish slavery and preserve the Union. Torn with how to deal with such a drastic problem, Lincoln’s idea on how to end slavery was through emancipation, which is defined as “the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, and political liberation.”( ) Conflicts arose however, as many claimed that Lincoln did not have the power to end slavery under the Constitution. Lincoln was extremely torn with how to end such a drastic problem and refused to let slavery to be spread to western states. Therefore, after the Battle of Antietam, which was said to be the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, Lincoln and his cabinet drafted the first version of the Emancipation Proclamation on July 13th 1862. There were many pros and cons of the document that raised many questions as many meetings took place before the final copy was published on January 1st