In the transcript of the Emancipation Proclamation, it states that
"And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service."
This quote refers to slaves that Lincoln "freed" in the rebellious states. The passage above shows that one of the main reasons behind Lincoln's desire to sign the Emancipation Proclamation was to gain more soldiers, specifically African-Americans in the South who wanted to fight against the people who oppressed them for so long. This resulted in the development of different all black regimes for the Union army.
This quote comes from the now famous Four Freedoms speech, delivered by Roosevelt as the State of the Union address on January 6, 1941. The international context was very negative. Hitler and his Axis allies were winning in Europe. Britain was greatly menaced and the Japanese were gearing up for all-out war in the Pacific and in Asia.
Roosevelt, aware that scientific progress had eliminated the physical advantage of the USA being separated from Europe and Asia by such vast expanses of water had been arming and funding the British for years and had also increased military spending and the Navy in order to keep Japan at bay.
He knew that once Hitler had conquered Europe and Japan had conquered the East, all the populations and resources of these vast reasons would be used to directly attack the USA, which would eventually find itself in numeric inferiority so in order to prevent such a dark future he chose to send weapons, supplies and money to the British.
His role in establishing the Pan-African Congresses and his agitation for an end to colonialism, made him an inspiration to many African leaders, among them Nigeria's Nnamdi Azikiwe, who met him while a student in the US, and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, who first met Du Bois at the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Britain.
