Advanced Placement-Style United States History
Practice Question of the Day
Answer and Explanation


"President Lincoln Writing the Proclamation of Freedom" by David Gilmour Blythe
Image Source: Wikipedia Commons (public domain)
Question 909:

Four of the following statements about the Emancipation Proclamation are true. Which one is not?

    (A) it did not apply to slaves in the border states
    (B) it changed the goals of the North in the Civil War from being just about preserving the Union to also include ending slavery
    (C) it was viewed with ridicule by Confederate President Jefferson Davis who in response declared that all blacks living in the North were now slaves
    (D) slaves throughout the South were set free when it went into effect on January 1st, 1863
    (E) it had a diplomatic impact, as England and France would now be supporting a slave power if they aided the Confederacy
Answer:
    (D) slaves throughout the South were set free when it went into effect on January 1st, 1863
Explanation:
In fact, very few slaves were actually freed immediately by the Emancipation Proclamation. But it had a powerful motivational force to blacks both in the North and South and to abolitionists who had long vowed to fight to end slavery. Lincoln's Proclamation, issued after the inconclusive battle of Antietam in September 1862, changed the basis of the Civil War by now including the elimination of slavery as one of the North's goals. It also neutralized European nations who were tempted to aid the Confederacy, for to do so would put them on the side of slavery. Lincoln omitted the border states which had remained in the Union but kept slavery.
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