The End of Slavery in the United States
By Michael Jennewine
Individual Project
Slavery was one of the greatest problems America
ever faced. It began shortly after the arrival of the English colonists and
unfortunately would last until 1865 with the passing of the Thirteenth
Amendment. At one point in history there were more than 4.5 million slaves in
the United States.
Slavery was one of the main reasons for the start of the Civil War; however,
ending slavery was not a goal of the war. Lincoln once said: “I would save the
Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the
national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was’... My paramount object in this struggle
is to save the Union, and is not either to
save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union
without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all
the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving
others alone I would also do that.” Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 as a measure of war in order to
weaken the Confederate force by destroying the basis of their economy. This
greatly helped the Union to win the Civil war.
After the war had ended, Lincoln
proposed the Thirteenth Amendment to insure that slavery would never again
resurface, but died before it was ratified.