1. African Americans and the Civil War Chapter 11 Section 2

2. Objectives
Analyze why Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and what it achieved.
Assess the different roles that African Americans played in the Civil War.

3. Emancipation
As war progressed, abolitionist Frederick Douglass urged Lincoln to abolish slavery and allow African Americans to fight for the Union.

4. Lincoln was further pressured to address the issue of slavery because
• Union troops did not know what to do with enslaved people who came under their control in conquered territories. (Union General Benjamin Butler declared the fugitives under his protection contraband.)
• slavery was very unpopular among the Union’s European allies.

5. Emancipation
Lincoln didn’t have the constitutional authority to abolish slavery
He could, however, pass military orders
The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in Confederate held territory

6. Antietam Lincoln needed a big victory to announce his plan
The British were ready to recognize the Confederacy, but were waiting for a Confederate win on enemy soil
McClellan and Lee met at Antietam Creek in Maryland

7. The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single day in American history, over 25,000 casualties
The Union won only a slight victory, but it was enough.

8. Massachusetts 54th Infantry
Lincoln needed soldiers to supplement the draft.
African Americans volunteered in droves.
The 54th Mass. Was the first all African-American regiment in the war.

9. Prejudices faced by African American troops
often assigned menial tasks and longest guard duty
fought three years to win equal pay
killed if captured by Confederate troops

10. Enslaved people also contributed to the war effort by
using various forms of resistance against the Confederacy
refusing to work for their southern owners
running away to Union camps and working for the Union, often serving as spies or scouts

11. Objectives
Analyze why Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and what it achieved.
Assess the different roles that African Americans played in the Civil War. 11