There is some debate, Jamaal, about how widespread was Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Even in its writing it only effected the slaves of the states of the Confederacy. It would take a Constitutional amendment to abolish slavery nationwide. And the proclamation was a military declaration designed to weaken the Confederacy during time of war. So, it’s not likely that it granted freedom and equality to all. It did have a very freeing affect on the slaves in the south. Many of them left their plantations in mass, while others remained to work as laborers. But, no doubt, others stayed on to serve the masters they had worked for for generations.
There is some debate, Jamaal, about how widespread was Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Even in its writing it only effected the slaves of the states of the Confederacy. It would take a Constitutional amendment to abolish slavery nationwide. And the proclamation was a military declaration designed to weaken the Confederacy during time of war. So, it’s not likely that it granted freedom and equality to all. It did have a very freeing affect on the slaves in the south. Many of them left their plantations in mass, while others remained to work as laborers. But, no doubt, others stayed on to serve the masters they had worked for for generations.