Title: Thirteenth Amendment Ends Slavery But Makes Way for a Different Kind - New Jersey State Bar Foundation
Headings: Thirteenth Amendment Ends Slavery But Makes Way for a Different Kind
Thirteenth Amendment Ends Slavery But Makes Way for a Different Kind
Lincoln’s Proclamation
Calling it Slavery
A Loophole

Content: As a result, slavery was legal in Connecticut until approximately 1848. Lincoln’s Proclamation
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which said, “slaves within any State, or designated part of a State…in rebellion…shall be then, thenceforward and forever free.” The Proclamation was important for a number of reasons, including changing the focus of the war and putting the issue of slavery front and center. Prior to the Proclamation, President Lincoln’s main goal was to preserve the Union. With the Emancipation Proclamation, freedom from slavery became the goal as well. According to the American Battlefield Trust, issuing the Proclamation was also a tactical maneuver on Lincoln’s part, as it prevented the involvement of foreign nations (Great Britain and France) that might have helped the Confederacy. Since most Europeans were against slavery and had abolished the institution in their homelands, they would not want to aid the side fighting to preserve it. In addition, the Proclamation was a way to diminish the South’s labor force, paving the way for African Americans to fight for their own freedom. The U.S. military took in more than 200,000 former slaves, forming the United States Colored Troops. One shortcoming of the Proclamation was that it only applied to the Confederate states that were rebelling, not in the border states (Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware and Maryland), which allowed slavery but had not joined the Confederacy.