Summary Of Allen Guelzo's Emancipation Proclamation

In his article, “The Emancipation Proclamation: Bill of Lading or Ticket to Freedom,” Allen Guelzo introduces the three most controversial questions regarding the Emancipation Proclamation and then provides his support against the questions. There were some controversial questions that Guelzo addresses such as: Why did Lincoln take so long? Why is it so incomplete? And why is it so bland? Guelzo initiates his response to the questions by stating that the questioners do not know all of the information involved in the situation. Guelzo indicates that the questioners do not then understand why it took him so long to initiate the Emancipation Proclamation if Lincoln was against slavery. Guelzo explains that Lincoln was working on emancipation
When he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he tried to enforce it where he had no power and refused to enforce it where he did have power. According to the southern states, they had succeeded from the United States of America and had formed the Confederate States of America (Kennedy). Since the southern states had succeeded from the United States, the confederate leader, Jefferson Davis, considered Abraham Lincoln to be a foreign president; therefore, Davis did not listen to the proclamation Lincoln had issued because a president does not have to listen to the orders of a foreign president (Kennedy). Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in an attempt to end slavery in the south and bring them back into the Union, the south viewed themselves as a separate nation and the North would have to win the Civil War in-order-to end slavery and bring the South back into the nation (Kennedy). Slaves in the southern states did try to leave upon hearing of the Emancipation Proclamation, but only one out of seven slaves were able to escape to the north and support northern war efforts; most of the slaves in the South were not freed until the Union military went through the South and forcefully freed the slaves after winning battles (Kennedy). Altogether, the Emancipation
The Emancipation Proclamation was sectionalized, did not free the slaves, and did not give blacks rights as citizens of the United States. For these reasons, the Emancipation Proclamation should be seen in the realm of everything as a good idea and a stepping stone to the actual emancipation of the African Americans by the thirteenth amendment; however, by itself, it should be seen as a bill of lading. The Emancipation Proclamation did not do enough in the effort to free the slaves; therefore, it should only be seen as a bill of lading, a “receipt” from the north stating that the southern slaves have been “sold their freedom”