The Civil War was fought for many reasons, one of which, were for the rights of slaves in America. For four years, 1861-1865, America fought America. One of the opposing sides was the confederates or the southern states. They seceded from the union and tried to form their own country. The states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas. Those 11 states wanted to keep slavery. The other army was the union or the northern states. These states wanted to abolish slavery. The President of the union, Abraham Lincoln wrote a policy to abolish slavery in the union in hopes to weaken the confederates. This policy was called the Emancipation Proclamation. Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation as a strategic military move rather then a personal viewpoint.
Everyone in America knows Abraham Lincoln was the great president who wrote a policy and abolished slavery. That document was the Emancipation Proclamation. Some people think it was his adverse beliefs on slavery when he was a kid that led him to write the Emancipation Proclamation, but this is not all true. In Lincoln's inaugural speech he said "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." .
Even before Lincoln was inducted as president, he didn't favor abolishing slavery. In the famous Lincoln versus Douglas debate Lincoln stated: .
"I will say then that I am not, nor have ever been in the favor if bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races . . . There must be a position of superior and interior, and I . . . am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race . . . I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position that the negroe should be deprived everything.
