U.S. History 1877-Present 1: The Outcome of the Civil War

park whose main attractions are violent extreme prejudice and discrimination

both inside and outside of the law. still slaves were finally legally whole people.

sad that it wasn't an accomplishment isn't it. of course freedom didn't come

to slaves all at once. during the war Lincoln wanted everyone to know that he

was a moderate. he was like listen guys we aren't in a war right now because I

love slaves we're at war because the South broke the law by ditching the

Union. in Lincoln's inaugural address he actually specifically said that he

wasn't going to freed the slaves already in the south. it wasn't until the battle [Lincoln stands in front a crowd]

of antietam in September 1862 that Lincoln got real about the issue. on

january 1 1863 Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation which freed

the slaves in the Confederate territory. emphasis on Confederate territory.

this technically meant that the slaves in the union states like Maryland were

still slaves. of course this wasn't necessarily because Lincoln was sneekly

planning to keep slaves for the north, that'd be almost as weird as him secretly

being a vampire hunter. Lincoln used his executive power to free the slaves in

the south. see since the south was in a state of rebellion that meant that

legally it was under martial law or rule by the military. this gives the president

a commander in chief the right to declare a lot of stuff. so legally

Lincoln only had the power to unilaterally free the slaves in states

that had seceded . if you wanted to free slaves in states that hadn't succeeded [confederate states are happy about free slaves]

he needed Congress's help. and even though Congress was only made up of

northerners at this point ,there was tons of opposition took freeing the slaves. the

Lincoln did what he could with the power he had. a lot of people on his side

advised him to not do it, but know what he did it anyway. some say Lincoln acted

like a military dictator which well yeah he kind of did.

but it's hard to argue that he didn't use that power in a good way by freeing

the slaves. a good military dictator. our heads hurt .well it wasn't until after

the war in December 1865 that Congress finally ratified the 13th amendment

which actually freed every slave in America. that Spielberg movie Lincoln [session of congress pictured]

gives us a sort of kind of accurate version of just how hard it was to ram

the amendment through Congress. despite the great big war that had just been

fought people were still scared of what would happen once slaves everywhere were

officially freed. today America's top. fears include clowns, heights, and bugs

maybe we've made progress. [roller coaster, bugs pictured]