3-2 Primary Source Analysis
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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Course
330
Subject
History
Date
Feb 20, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
2
Uploaded by CountChimpanzeeMaster745
Jaymi Davis
11/07/2023
HIS:330
Professor Satterfield-Price
3-2 Primary Source Analysis
The primary source I have selected to analyze and utilize in my paper is the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a speech issued by President Abraham Lincoln prior to the Civil War on January 1, 1863. He issued this speech as a call to action towards ending slavery in America and in his speech stated “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”
1
The Emancipation Proclamation was a thought-out written speech, and President Lincoln had a multitude of prior knowledge before writing the speech and issuing it to the people of America. It was written for a large audience, with the sole focus of ending slavery in slave states so that they could become free people and live amongst the other people in America peacefully. The President wished to inform the masses of how he genuinely felt about slavery and that it needed to be put to an end because it was unjust and unequal. In previous speeches, he had made his disdain for slavery apparent, but this was the official speech ending it. I do believe that President Lincoln felt strongly that slavery was wrong and that keeping and mistreating people for profit was unjust. He mentioned in a speech before the Emancipation Proclamation that often-encountered views that supported slavery. He countered those views with this example “You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.”
2
I believe that Lincoln’s feelings of opposition toward slavery can be seen as biased but it is bias backed by morality and the desire to improve the lives of people who were severely oppressed. 1
National Archives. “Transcript of the Proclamation,” May 5, 2017.
2
“Lincoln on Slavery - Lincoln Home National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service),”
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