“The Proclamation is the drawing of a sword that can never be sheathed again.”
This is the story of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Anti-slavery, moderate-Republican President Abraham Lincoln has never liked slavery. He wants to prevent it from expanding to new US territories. But he also never intended to go on the offensive against the “peculiar institution” within those states where it already exists. The Illinois Rail-Splitter knows the law; he’s aware that the constitution protects slavery at the state level.
Then the Civil War came. As the South breaks away from the Union, the North breaks philosphically on slavery. The abolitionists say ending slavery must be a war aim. The Democrats and border-states say this war is only about preserving the Union. Moderate Republicans and still others are mixed. Meanwhile, enslaved Americans within the Confederacy are seeking refuge in Federal army camps. How should Union Generals respond? Can they give sanctuary without upsetting the border-states that may still join the Confederacy? And do seceded states still have constitutional rights? Or does war mean the president can use his constitutional war powers to end slavery among rebelling states by proclamation? And if he does … what will that outcome be?
The questions are boundless. The answers are unknowable without taking the plunge. Your move, President Lincoln.
99: The Gilded Age’s Singer Sewing Machines & Dangerous Bananas w/ Dr. Ben Sawyer of The Road To Now
98: Silver & Gold: From Grover Cleveland to William Jennings Bryan & William McKinley
97: The Gilded Age’s Robber Barons: John D. Rockefeller & Andrew Carnegie
96: The War of the Currents: (Thomas Alva Edison v. Nikola Tesla & George Westinghouse)
95: "Several Thousand Things that Won't Work:" Thomas Alva Edison and His Electric Light
94: Epilogue to Gilded Age Part I (or Gilded Age interlude w/ Significant HTDS Updates)
93: La Liberté éclairant le monde: Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty
92: The Brooklyn Bridge, or the Story of the Roebling Family
91: The Gilded Age, Industrialization, and Assassination of President James Garfield
90: Epilogue to the Wild West
89: Closing the Wild West: (Wounded Knee, Buffalo Bill & the 1893 Colombian Expo)
88: “The Last Frontier:” The Purchase of Alaska and the Klondike Gold Rush
87:Gunslingers & Outlaws (pt 2): Pearl Hart, Tombstone, Jesse James, B. Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
86: Gunslingers & Outlaws (pt 1): The Second Industrial Revolution, Sam Bass & Billy the Kid
85: Transcontinental Railroad (pt 3): The Central Pacific, Chinese Workers, & The Golden Spike
84: Transcontinental Railroad (pt 2): Dr. Thomas Durant, The Union Pacific & “Hell on Wheels”
83: Transcontinental Railroad (pt 1): Industrialization, Ted Judah & The Rise of the Central Pacific
82: Best Mini Episodes and Cold Opens of 2020
81: Epilogue to Volume 6: Reconstruction and The Indian Wars
80: “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus:” A History
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