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.
It would be difficult for the United States for two reasons, the fact that none of the land was mapped other than the areas that previous voyagers had gone through, and the natural landscape of the area, and last, Native American Hostility.
Three examples: When pioneers would voyage to the west, there would often be encounters were they would be attacked by animals that had not been seen before, bears, sneaks, different wolves, and many more. They barely knew the natural resources of the area, such as food, etc.
The next example, no mapping, would be difficult because for the most part, they had no sense of navigation except for the few maps that had been made, even then, would be difficult to navigate.
Native Americans did not appreciate the pioneers coming into the land they considered their own, they resembled hostility and would even kill the civilians that would travel through the land, or capture them.
Hope this helps!! <3
Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and then settled in Rhode Island and started the Baptist Church.
1123 years. (330 CE-1453 CE)
