Allen C. Guelzo

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes 'Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America' by Allen C. Guelzo. According to the paper, Guelzo believes that President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was "surely the unhappiest of all of Lincoln's great presidential papers," due to the fact that the proclamation is now "best known for what it did not do," meaning that it failed to truly free the slaves from bondage in the South.

Outline:
Introduction
Chapter One: Four Ways to Freedom
Chapter Two: The President Will Rise
Chapter Three: An Instrument in God's Hands
Chapter Four: The Mighty Act
Chapter Five: Takes Him by the Hand

From the Paper:

"With the election of President Lincoln in 1860, many Southerners were convinced that Lincoln was going to do everything in his power to limit slavery in other parts of the country, especially beyond the Mississippi River. As a result, South Carolina, "the most defiant and fiery of the slave states," convened a special state convention "to secede from the federal Union" and declared "the dissolution of the union between South Carolina and other states. . . " (15). Also, most slaveholders in the South realized that Lincoln's Presidency meant "emancipation" which meant "insurrection and race war on the model of the Nat Turner slave revolt in 1951" (16). Thus, due to these events, including the shelling of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 which effectively started the Civil War, Lincoln's decision to issue the proclamation was justified, for he knew that slavery was at the heart of the war and sadly realized that only by bloodshed would slavery in America be forever eradicated."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Guelzo, Allen C. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America.New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

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