Emancipation proclamation of the United States of America : a humanitarian motive or military imperative

Abstract EN

This study attempted to trace the real motives behind US President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation in the midst of the American Civil War of 1861-1865 by investigating the potential declared and undeclared factors that could have caused the emancipation of slaves.

This study constitutes a serious attempt to demonstrate whether a humanitarian motive or military imperative were behind that declaration in order to answer the following question: Did the emancipation of slaves come for humanitarian motives in order to eliminate the principle of slavery in the United States of America - as indicated by most of the studies that dealt with this topic? Or was it that the military imperatives imposed by the course of the civil war and the desire to preserve the Union in place were what prompted President Abraham Lincoln to declare the emancipation of slaves according to the wording and conditions contained in that declaration? What are the consequences of the declaration of the emancipation of the slaves? To know whether the declaration of emancipation was a deliberate and planned decision or was it just a military action intended to end the war by surrendering the rebellious states and declaring their obedience and loyalty to the Union government.

And that, based on the papers of President Abraham Lincoln, is a main source for this study.