The Emancipation Proclamation Through Different Eyes
Issued after the battle of Antietam, a bloody battle in which Union forces claimed victory, the document raised the stakes for both the Confederacy and the Union. European nations, which had abolished slavery, were now less likely to recognize the rebellious Southern government. Free blacks in the North welcomed the added moral dimension to the conflict and joined the U.S. army in increasing numbers. With the subsequent passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, the promise of the Proclamation was kept, as four million people were freed from bondage, and chattel slavery came to an end.
Using your textbook, read the Emancipation Proclamation (A14), and respond to the document through the eyes of various Americans of the time. You are assigned the group by the first letter of your last name.
A-C = enslaved people, D-F = free blacks in the North, G-I = abolitionists, J-L = plantation owner in the South, M-O = Union soldiers, P-S = Confederate soldiers, T-V = factory workers in the North, W-Z = factory owners
1. Identify the group your person represents.
2. Prepare a brief biography of your person.
3. Speaking as that person, explain how you would have viewed slavery.
4. Speaking as that person, explain whether or not you would have supported the Emancipation Proclamation.
5. State one argument that a person from one of the other groups would have given in response to your point of view.
