Before the Emancipation Proclamation was Issued
The Beginning of Slavery
Before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, there was a thing called "slavery." Africans were brought into the United States as slaves. Slavery started in 1619, when the Dutch arrived to the United States in a ship of 20 kidnapped Africans. They bartered Africans for foods and services with the colonists. The colonists used the Africans as servants (slaves), and they thought it was a great idea, so they pulled out more and more slaves from parts of Africa. Slaves were caught by “slave catchers” and brought to the United States in ships. They received little food and clothes and had to work on cotton fields with sweltering temperatures.
Slavery Receives Approval from the Government
Slavery was legalized in 1641. Any White man was allowed to own, sell, and buy slaves legally. This improved America’s cotton production and led to the invention of the Cotton Gin, but it also increased death rates of slaves, because so many of them worked with harsh conditions and little food. There was also a risk of a slave being killed. If a slave ever tried to escape, he or she would be hunted down by bounty hunters. Bounty hunters would try to find runaway slaves, return them to their masters, and watch the slaves get tortured or even killed.
Two Attempts to End Slavery
The Emancipation Proclamation tried to stop slavery. Abraham Lincoln wanted slaves to have freedom, so he tried his best to put an end to the conflict. In fact, President Lincoln tried so hard to end slavery that he passed the Emancipation Proclamation twice. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation once on September 22, 1862 and again on January 31, 1863.