Abraham Lincoln Brings the End to Slavery

Akshita Bajaj

CLU3MO-C

Mr. Nirwal

Feb 29, 2016

Abraham Lincoln Brings the End to Slavery

Abraham Lincoln has made an incredible reputation for himself by ending slavery in America. Lincoln was the 16th president of The United States of America and he significantly impacted laws that were held in the early revolutionary America. Abraham Lincoln brought the emancipation of slaves.

Prior to Lincoln's successful election as president, several southern states seceded from The United States. They feared the possible abolishment of slavery because Lincoln was questioning the ability of new states in the Westward expansion to make slavery legal or not. Although Lincoln stated he would not try and change the slavery laws in states where slavery already exists, no trust was put in him or his efforts. Society was divided, the north was more fluid, they did not believe in slavery. However, the south was more repulsive. The Southern side of America believed slavery was an important component to everyday life because it regulated economy, increased imports and exports (mainly cotton), made people more reputable and brought change to society. Slavery in the south regulated economy because the trade of slaves and the cost helped with daily expenses. Countless Southern civilians heavily relied on slaves back in the day for their work load that was present.

In addition, slavery promoted imports and exports because with slavery came the invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney. All work was done by hand by slaves, but with the cotton gin, the cotton fibers easily separated from their seeds, allowing much more productivity than manual cotton separation. Society use to judge people based on the amount of slaves they held. The more slaves one had, the more reputable he would be in society, and those who did not have any slaves under possession were considered as "white trash". There was no respect for black people and they never got treated like animals instead of humans.

The Civil war in America inspired Lincoln to make a positive change towards how society viewed slaves and towards the well-being of slaves. On that note, Abraham Lincoln brought up the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln saw that the abolishment of slavery was a morally correct path to tread on in order to bring the realization of equalization between blacks and whites based on human rights. On January 1, 1863, all slaves in rebellious states were free. Approximately 3.1- 4 million slaves were freed with the help of this proclamation. As an individual, Lincoln detested slavery and wanted to get rid of it but he was bound by constitution because of his presidential stance. But there was no guarantee that this proclamation would stay in place after the war was over and done with, so Lincoln took a drastic step and also created the 13th amendment. This amendment stated that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude … shall exist within the United States”. This resulted in all the slavery being abolished in America. But that did not stop the differences between whites and black in America. Racial segregation still continued in America but slavery was not present. Present day America, slavery is illegal however, there are still racial differences lingering in America. Differences such as white privileges and race preferences still exist in America.