Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Louren Vogelbaum. Here,
Speaker 1: here's a question for your next trivia game. How many
Speaker 1: enslaved people did the United States Emancipation Proclamation free? The
Speaker 1: answer zero. You may have learned in school that President
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln freed the enslaved with the Emancipation Proclamation, but
Speaker 1: those history books were stretching the truth. Lincoln was a
Speaker 1: savvy politician. The Emancipation Proclamation was a document that officially
Speaker 1: changed nothing. The proclamation only covered the Confederate States, where
Speaker 1: Congress had already passed laws essentially outlawing enslavement. Lincoln the
Speaker 1: politician didn't want to risk alienating his voters in the
Speaker 1: border states, and he didn't issue the proclamation until January
Speaker 1: first of eighteen sixty three, two years after the Civil
Speaker 1: War began. So what took Lincoln so long? He was
Speaker 1: waiting for a big Union win. Issuing such a decree
Speaker 1: while the North was losing the war would have looked
Speaker 1: like an unenforceable, hollow threat. He got his win at
Speaker 1: Antietam in the fall of eighteen sixty two, which turned
Speaker 1: the tide. But unless they've lived in a state that
Speaker 1: had abolished the institution of slavery. Enslaved people living in
Speaker 1: the Union had to wait for their freedom until December
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty five, after Lincoln's assassination for the passage
Speaker 1: of the thirteenth Amendment, which nationally abolished the practice, and
Speaker 1: many people in the South waited nearly as long. June
Speaker 1: nineteenth of eighteen sixty five was the day that news
Speaker 1: of the proclamation finally reached parts of Texas, with the
Speaker 1: Union soldiers two and a half years after it was
Speaker 1: issued and two months after the Confederacy surrendered. The day
Speaker 1: is now observed as June teenth. The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily meant to free anyone. It was part of Lincoln's
Speaker 1: strategy to demoralize the South, and it worked. Poorer white
Speaker 1: people in the South were upset the war's cause could
Speaker 1: no longer be claimed to be about states' rights. They
Speaker 1: resented fighting to protect the quote unquote property of wealthy
Speaker 1: landowners who themselves could buy their way out of having
Speaker 1: to serve in the Confederate Army. Additionally, the proclamation ended
Speaker 1: the quiet support that European countries like England and France
Speaker 1: had given the Confederacy. Early in the war, the South
Speaker 1: had hoped that these European powers would officially recognize the
Speaker 1: Confederacy as an independent country, but England and France had
Speaker 1: abolished slavery decades earlier and would not openly oppose a
Speaker 1: country fighting to eradicate it as were it. Of the proclamation, spread,
Speaker 1: formerly enslaved people left the South en mass. Some joined
Speaker 1: the war effort on the Union side, which the proclamation
Speaker 1: officially allowed, and the Confederacy suffered for the lack of
Speaker 1: their labor. For example, the Union's victory at Vicksburg, which
Speaker 1: gave them control of the Mississippi River, has been attributed
Speaker 1: to the South's lack of fortifications there post proclamation. All
Speaker 1: of which is why, despite its hefty limitations, the Emmancipation
Speaker 1: Proclamation is remembered. It's still impressive for a seven hundred
Speaker 1: word document. Unlike Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, the Proclamation is
Speaker 1: very legal and dry, apparently very much on purpose. The
Speaker 1: Supreme Court was heavy with Southern sympathizers, so Lincoln knew
Speaker 1: that if there was any sort of legal loophole that
Speaker 1: the Court could use to challenge the proclamation. The Institution
Speaker 1: of slavery would be preserved. In the document, Lincoln used
Speaker 1: his authority as the commander in chief to end enslavement,
Speaker 1: specifically as leverage against the rebelling states. He claimed that
Speaker 1: this was a military tactic to suppress the rebellion, thus
Speaker 1: skirting the Supreme Court's jurisdiction. Of course, by confining the
Speaker 1: proclamation to areas of open rebellion, Lincoln had to exclude
Speaker 1: areas that had been recaptured by the Union. Knowing this,
Speaker 1: he actually issued a preliminary version of the proclamation back
Speaker 1: in September of ai eighteen sixty two, with a note
Speaker 1: that it wouldn't be enacted until January first of eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty three. He was giving the rebels one last chance
Speaker 1: to hold onto the institution of slavery for a little
Speaker 1: while longer as long as they agreed to rejoin the Union.
Speaker 1: So in the proclamation, there's an entire paragraph devoted to
Speaker 1: which states and in some cases, individual counties, were currently
Speaker 1: in rebellion. Lincoln left this paragraph with blanks in it
Speaker 1: until the day before it was published, a waiting for
Speaker 1: word from military commanders about any new territories that could
Speaker 1: be added to the list of exceptions. By listing counties individually,
Speaker 1: Lincoln was able to avoid enslaver's lawsuits in federal courts.
Speaker 1: The border states Missouri, Delaware, Kentucky, and Maryland were also excluded,
Speaker 1: though enslaved people sometimes were able to cross to freedom
Speaker 1: before those states governments revised their constitutions to include freedom
Speaker 1: from enslavement. Lincoln may have wanted to completely abolish slavery,
Speaker 1: but his main objectives were preserving the Union and winning
Speaker 1: the war. He couldn't do that if he continued to
Speaker 1: bleed states and the popular support of voters who were
Speaker 1: at the time entirely white men, many of whom were landowners.
Speaker 1: He told newspaper reporter James Scovell that the proclamation would
Speaker 1: be quote my greatest and most enduring contribution to the
Speaker 1: history of the war. Many abolitionists were unhappy with the
Speaker 1: proclamation's limitations, though some did celebrate January first as Freedom Day.
Speaker 1: In April of eighteen sixty four, the U. S. Senate
Speaker 1: pushed for a constitutional amendment to abolish the institution of slavery,
Speaker 1: which Lincoln supported. Though it was ultimately defeated in the
Speaker 1: House of Representatives, the issue nearly caused lincoln re election
Speaker 1: and his party, the Republicans, control of Congress. But Lincoln's
Speaker 1: dedication is an argument that not all of his anti
Speaker 1: slavery measures were politically motivated. A two other national constitutionals
Speaker 1: that Lincoln had pushed for were passed in the five
Speaker 1: years after his death. In addition to the Thirteenth, there's
Speaker 1: the fourteenth, which grant citizens due process, and the fifteenth,
Speaker 1: which opened voting rights to black men. We've talked about
Speaker 1: these amendments on the show before and how they were
Speaker 1: moves towards equity, but how they ultimately fell short of
Speaker 1: guaranteeing these rights to black people in the face of
Speaker 1: both racist policies enacted by state and local governments and
Speaker 1: discriminations enforced by private companies and citizens. These rights didn't
Speaker 1: stand on firm ground across the United States until the
Speaker 1: Civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties. A full century later,
Speaker 1: and we are still coping and sometimes failing to cope
Speaker 1: with the repercussions of these centuries of inequity. So if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this episode the day it comes out
Speaker 1: on June teenth, or any day really we hear it,
Speaker 1: brain stuff, hope that you'll observe it. Well, anyway that
Speaker 1: you want to. I'm not going to tell you what
Speaker 1: to do, but I would suggest continuing to seek out
Speaker 1: the real, complicated history of our world as so to
Speaker 1: better understand the way that it is and to see
Speaker 1: how it could be better. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article how the Band's Patient Proclamation Work on how
Speaker 1: stuffworks dot Com, written by Tiffany Connors. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.