Question

In September of 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This executive order freed slaves in states that were in rebellion against the United States. Consider what you have read in your online resources and answer the following questions: What reasons could Lincoln have for making such a move during the Civil War? Why didn’t Lincoln free slaves in all of the United States?

Answer 1

Here's the thing: President Lincoln had absolutely no way to actually enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a mere gesture.
Now, he had his reasons for making such a gesture.
For one, Lincoln hoped that, when the slaves heard that they had been granted their freedom, the sudden wave of freedmen, as they would come to be called, would help disrupt the war effort.
Perhaps some of these freedmen would join the Union army. That was another small reason.
As for why he didn't extend the Proclamation to the entire country...well, the thing was, he planned to.
Lincoln's greatest ambition was to free the slaves. But even in the North, there existed strong racism. Plus, some Northerners had slaves too, and Lincoln needed the North's support, not only to win the war, but also to support the Thirteenth Amendment he planned to propose after the war ended. This Thirteenth Amendment would make outlaw slavery in the United States forever.

Answer 2

Lincoln used the Emancipation Proclamation as a war weapon during the Civil War. This will allow the freedom of the slaves belonging to the states against the country’s union, most of them the southern ones, taking out their main source of production of their agriculture. Consequently, the free black people joined to the army of the states that support the Union showing Lincoln’s power as a commander of the army. He did not free the slaves of all the states because the supportive states used slavery as a force of work, besides that he argued that the black people were not equal to the white ones, they were just for work. Taking out slavery in the enemies will be a low point to them to take advantage, if they took out slavery in their own states, they would have been weak as well.