Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation was an important act, the Emancipation Proclamation was

signed by President Abraham Lincoln, allowing the freedom of all in the rebelling territories of

the confederacy and allowing Blacks to join in the Union Army. At the beginning of the Civil War,

the freed black people was ready to fight with Union, yet they were prevented from doing so.

Popular racial stereotypes and discrimination against Blacks in the military contributed to the

prevailing myth that Black men did not have the intelligence and bravery necessary to serve their

country. By 1862, there was limited amount of White Union enlistment and confederate victories

at Antietam forced the U.S. government to reconsider its racist policy.

The president encouraged congress to

provide financial aid to any slave states willing to adopt plans of The Emancipation, and also funds

to the people in the colonies of the African descent with their consent.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not include the areas that had already been conquered

by Union Armies. The North benefited from the Emancipation Proclamation in several ways. The

slaves from the south fled to the north to become free but that put a hurting on the south economy.

The proclamation also gave renewed purpose to Union Soldiers, who now saw their cause

as abolition as well as the preservation of the union. The European powers to withdraw support

for the confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War.

The African American was allowed to join the armed forces and by the end of the war nearly

200,000 would honorably serve. Slavery was abolished on December 6, 1865,

In the summer of 1862 President Lincoln first proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to

his cabinet. The cabinet secretaries were worried about that the Proclamation was too radical.

The

most famous of these stories, and the one with the most significant legacy, was that of Sargent

William H. Carney. Born a slave in Norfolk, VA in 1840, Carney moved with his family to New

Bedford, MA in 1856 after being emancipated by his owner. In 1863, hearing the call for Black

men to bear arms for the Union army, Carney enlisted in the 54th Regiment where he became

Sargent, the highest rank achievable by Black soldiers at that time.

As Colonel Shaw was pierced through the heart, climbing the parapet at Fort Wagner, Carney

managed to rescue the Union flag from the hands of the slain color bearer. With wounds in his

legs, breast, and right arm, Sgt. Carney continued to crawl on one knee over the bleeding bodies

of his fallen comrades; as he placed the Union flag in the Confederate parapet, he was cheered by

his fellow soldiers. As he was carried aboard a stretcher to the Union hospital, Carney uttered the

famous words, "The old girl never touched the ground, boys." (Glathaar 1990). As a result of his

bravery, Sgt. William H.

Carney became the first Black man in history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor