Why did Union leaders believe the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation would harm the South's ability to wage war?
A
.
By offering amnesty to Confederate deserters, the Confederate Army would rapidly decrease in size.
B.
By encouraging slaves to flee North, the Confederacy would lose a key source of labor for the war effort.
C.
By freeing all slaves held in the United States, the Union hoped to attract more soldiers to its cause.
D.
By establishing abolition as a goal of the Union, the Union was able to gain the support of Great Britain.
B. By encouraging slaves to flee North, the Confederacy would lose a key source of labor for the war effort.
B. By encouraging slaves to flee North, the Confederacy would lose a key source of labor for the war effort.
To understand why Union leaders believed the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation would harm the South's ability to wage war, we need to analyze the potential effects of the Proclamation on the Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declared that all slaves in Confederate territory were to be set free.
Option A: By offering amnesty to Confederate deserters, the Confederate Army would rapidly decrease in size.
While the Emancipation Proclamation did not offer amnesty to Confederate deserters, it is true that it could have potentially decreased the size of the Confederate Army indirectly. By declaring that all slaves in Confederate territory were free, the Proclamation encouraged slaves to flee to Union lines or seek refuge in areas under Union control. This could have potentially led to a decrease in the available labor force for the Confederate Army.
Option B: By encouraging slaves to flee North, the Confederacy would lose a key source of labor for the war effort.
This option aligns with the potential consequences mentioned in the previous explanation. If slaves were encouraged to flee to the North or areas under Union control, the Confederacy would indeed lose a valuable source of labor. Slaves played a significant role in agricultural labor and other support roles for the Confederate war effort, and their loss could have negatively impacted the Confederacy's ability to wage war effectively.
Option C: By freeing all slaves held in the United States, the Union hoped to attract more soldiers to its cause.
Although the Proclamation did not directly free all slaves held in the United States, it did declare that the slaves in Confederate territory were free. The Union likely hoped that by taking this action, it would encourage slaves to escape and seek freedom in Union-controlled areas. In theory, this could have led to an increase in African American recruits for the Union Army, thereby strengthening their military forces.
Option D: By establishing abolition as a goal of the Union, the Union was able to gain the support of Great Britain.
While the Emancipation Proclamation did make abolition an official goal of the Union, it did not directly lead to support from Great Britain. Britain had already abolished slavery in its own territories, so the Proclamation did not significantly impact its stance on the subject. The Proclamation was primarily aimed at altering the Confederacy's labor force and undermining their war effort, rather than gaining international support.
In conclusion, based on the options provided, option B seems to best reflect why Union leaders believed the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation would harm the South's ability to wage war. By encouraging slaves to flee North, the Confederacy would lose a key source of labor for the war effort, which could have negatively impacted their ability to sustain their military operations.