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Before the war, most Northerners did not feel strongly about slavery. They generally agreed with Lincoln that it was acceptable in its traditional heartlands, but should not be allowed to extend into the new Westerm states.

There had always been a powerful Abolitionist lobby in New England, but they were not very numerous. The publication of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' did attract many new converts to the cause of Abolitionism, but they were nowhere near a majority. When the war started, the Northern mission was to reunite the states, not to end slavery.

As the war progressed - or failed to - Lincoln began to allow his troops to 'confiscate' (his word) any slaves they came across in their Southern campaigns - plainly classifying those slaves as property, not citizens.

Foreign policy then took a hand. Lincoln was seriously worried at the prospect of Britain and France granting recognition to the Confederacy. So he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, turning the war into an official crusade against slavery, so that free nations abroad could no longer aid the South without looking pro-slavery themselves.

Tactically, this had the desired effect, but it did not do much to change Northern sentiment about slavery, and although the Union armies gradually came to accept freed slaves into their ranks, the average Northerner never became a heartfelt Abolitionist.

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Dahlia Kemmer

Lvl 10
3y ago

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