“Up to now, we have witnessed only the first act of the civil war – the constitutional waging of war. The second act, the revolutionary waging of war, is at hand.”
Karl Marx 1862
150 years ago this month, the Emancipation Proclamation went into affect — declaring that ending slavery was now a war aim of the Union armies. A war against secession had become a revolutionary war.
The following essay was written by Eric Foner to commemorate the announcement of this proclamation, which happened in September 1862.
The U.S. Civil War is not just a profound historical event (and one of the rare revolutionary victories in U.S. history) — but also a touchstone for understanding how the U.S. works today — (just look at the debate over the recent films Lincoln and Django!)
The Emancipation Proclamation at 150
by Eric Foner
One hundred and fifty years ago this week occurred one of the crucial turning points of the American civil war and, indeed, of American history. Not on the battlefield, although at Antietam on 17 September 1862, a Union army forced Confederates under Robert E Lee to abandon their invasion of Maryland. Rather, it came five days later, when Abraham Lincoln issued “A Proclamation” warning the south that if the war did not end within 100 days, he would declare slaves in areas under rebellion “forever free”.
