On
January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.
However, slavery continued to be legal in a areas which were not
in rebellion. Final abolition of the institution came with the
passage of the Thirteenth Amendment after the end of hostilities.
By the end of the war the South became so desperate that the use
of slaves in the Army was sanctioned, and they were promised
freedom at the end of the conflict. As the end of the war, some
questions had been solved and new ones had been
created. Lincoln's belief in the fact that the Union was
indissoluble had been vindicated, and it was also evident that
national unity could not go hand in hand with sectional slavery.
But three new questions were now emerging. How should sectional
strife be healed? What should be the status of the ex-slave? Who
should determine that status?
Reconstruction and Its Failure
At the close of the war more attention was given to the
reconstruction of Southern institutions than to the elevation of
the ex-slave. While a handful of the Radical Republicans, such as
Sumner and Stevens, were aware that slavery had not prepared the
ex-slave for participation in a free competitive society, most
liberals assumed that the termination of slavery meant the end
of their problems.
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