Question

Why do you think lincoln proposed this proclamation? who did it affect? how? did it really free all the slaves?

Answer 1

Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1 1863 as a means to follow up on his statement made in September of 1862. In this statement he threatened that any state rebelling against the Union and continued to do so would result in him freeing the slaves in their state. He followed up on this threat by signing this law.

Even though his intentions were good, this does not free any slaves. This is because the states rebelling against the Union do not seem themselves as American citizens who have to listen to the president. Rather, they see the Confederacy as a nation of its own, with its own laws and its own president (Jefferson Davis).