Ep.9 - The Emancipation Proc-LIE-mation

The Emancipation Proclamation is not what the general public is led to believe it is. This is because it did not actually free any slaves upon its issuance, stating, “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The dictate issued by President Lincoln during the Civil War freed slaves only in territories held by the Confederacy, which, as implied, the Union did not have even the slightest control over. Not only that, but it did not free the over 450,000 slaves in Union States which Lincoln did control, including those owned by his Generals Ulysses Grant snd Sherman.