Rhetorical Analysis: The Emancipation Proclamation

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Rhetorical Analysis On The Emancipation Proclamation

Mohamed Hassan

In 1863, the United States had been engaged in civil war for two years. As the country was struggling to stay united (and break off) a moral question was raised: Should slavery be condoned? President Lincoln, one of the greatest, most influential, and tallest presidents of the United States, answered the question not with words, but with legislation. The Emancipation Proclamation, put into action January 1st, 1863, claimed that all slaves in the rebelling states were no longer bound to their owners. However, the document is controversial in terms of where Lincoln’s true purpose for producing it; to free the slaves, or to aid the Union Army in winning the war. President Lincoln ultimately wanted the liberation of slaves in the United States, but at the same time valued preserving the nation as a whole. The commonplaces, audience, and context surrounding the document are what led to the controversy surrounding one of the most significant historical documents in United States history.

Contemporarily, “All men are created equal,” is a phrase that describes men and women of all color, race, ethnicity, cultural background, and gender. In the 1800s, the “men” in the phrase referred to white males. Women and people of color were very oppressed. Only white men had a say in anything, and that was the commonplace. Blacks, being in a much worse social position than white women, were not granted access to education for the most part (depending on the owner). When the Emancipation Proclamation was released, a person of color who got hands on media that contained the document would not have been able to read what was being said and spread the message. The states mentioned in the document also had different accepted commonplaces than the north. The North did not practice slavery and treated those of color generally better than those in the South, allowing them to work for money.  The rebelling states however were not so kind to black people. Southerners were very inelastic when it came to slaves. It did not necessarily matter to them what President Lincoln did or said, they would still keep the same values and beliefs they grew up with, that most of the nation grew up with, that black people are inferior and enslaving them is right action to take. Additionally, southerners chased down runaway slaves and killed them or returned them to their owners for a prize.  The Emancipation Proclamation did very little to inform slaves of their newly acquired freedom, and to move Southern slave owners to cease their practice of slavery.

To any piece of legislation, there are people it affects, and those that it does not. The intended audiences of the Emancipation Proclamation are the eleven rebelling states. Slaves in the Confederacy were freed by law, but not action. Additionally, President Lincoln had an excluded audience to his legislature. Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware were union states that practiced slavery and were left out of the Emancipation Proclamation, questioning the morality and goals of the Union and Lincoln himself. The unintended audience to the legislature was the Union. The Union Army received many enlistments from slaves who ran away from their Southern owners if they took the risk and fled due to hearing about the Emancipation or have just had it with the lifestyle they had to live. Blacks who escaped to the Union Sates were put to work in factories to provide for the army. Again, the question regarding the true purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation is raised, having aided the Union Army more than actually freeing the slaves it advocated for.

The Unites States was literally split into two sides during the civil war, North, and South. The Union (North) did not practice slavery in contrast to The Confederates (South).  This is due to the North being much more industrialized than the South, having factories and manufacturing more goods. The South on the other hand, had less technology and more tedious physical work that required lots of human labor. Simply put, the need for slaves in the South was much higher than in the North. The South also felt like it can sustain itself economically without its Northern counterpart. This is part of the reason the confederacy wanted to secede in the first place. When the Union advocates for freeing slaves, the rebelling states were furious, making them much more resistant to legislature proposed by the Union or the President. It can be argued that the Emancipation Proclamation was designed to suck away the South’s free/ cheap labor to use it against them to stop them from seceding.

President Lincoln. Many question where his true intentions lie with the Emancipation Proclamation. On multiple occasions, Lincoln talked about his hatred for slavery. An example of this came July 10, 1858 in Chicago, where he said: “I have always hated it (slavery), but I have always been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska Bill began.” (Michael). In his most memorable and historically significant speech, The Gettysburg Address, Lincoln refers to the network of interpretation that built the United States- The Declaration of Independence; “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” (The Gettysburg). At the same time, he talks about preserving the nation and making sure the United States does remain intact. Although it can be argued that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave and that the document was purely a military strategy, it is a poor argument to claim that President Lincoln had poor moral values regarding the liberation of the slaves.

In conclusion, it is apparent that the Emancipation Proclamation did very little to actually free any of the slaves in the eleven rebelling states of the Confederacy. This is due to the commonplaces such as that whites are superior to blacks, the need in the South for a slave/labor force, and who the document actually effected with its legislature. After the Civil War, slavery was abolished with the 13th amendment in 1864, before the civil war actually officially ended. This can put to rest the arguments that President Lincoln had no interest in freeing the slaves and only wanted to win the war. The Emancipation Proclamation allowed him to hit two birds with one stone. Even though slavery has been Abolished for over 150 years, we can still see those residual commonplaces and ideologies from the days of muskets and cannons.

 

Works Cited:

Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life,  “Abraham Lincoln and Slavery – Abraham Lincoln’s Classroom.” Abraham Lincoln’s Classroom. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.

“The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln.” The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.

(Google Images for the pictures)

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