Change to the United States Government

The Emancipation Proclamation changed the United States government by beginning a consecutive line of republican presidents which led to a reconstruction of a united US government and southern region. 

Before the Emancipation Proclamation: 

“Before the war, there was a federal government and a bureaucracy, but there was no allegiance to a national government.” - Richard Bensel, an American political historian at Cornell University

State allegiance and lack of respect for the federal government allowed for the rapid approach of the Civil War. 

Division of the United States for the Civil War. Red is the confederacy, dark blue is the union, and light blue are the boarder states. 

After the Emancipation Proclamation: 

Following the issuing of the Proclamation, Black Americans moved to the north in large numbers. This movement, upon their freedom, allowed Black Americans to help secure victory for the Union. Following the war, Americans united under the republican party and helped the party to control the oval office from Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Under this republican control, the government was able to rebuild with more nationalist, free values in the south. 

Reconstruction of the south occurred from 1863 to 1877. The main goal of reconstruction was to bring southern states back into a state where they could effectively function in the federal government and to stop inequality. 

“No republic is safe that tolerates a privileged class, or denies to any of its citizens equal rights and equal means to maintain them.” - Frederick Douglass 

Fredrick Douglass, Historian of the reconstruction period 

Reconstruction of the south displays how the new federal government worked to redesign their government and shape it to become an effective, unified system without fear of another civil war. This remodeling of the American government could not have been done without the Emancipation Proclamation letting Black Americans achieve freedom and forcing the federal government to improve unity and equality in America.