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 determine why Union leaders believed the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation would harm the South's ability to wage war, we should consider the reasons behind their thinking. I'll go through each option to help you understand the logic involved:
A. By offering amnesty to Confederate deserters, the Confederate Army would rapidly decrease in size.
This option does not directly relate to the Emancipation Proclamation, which was about freeing slaves, so we can cross this off as a possible reason.
B. By encouraging slaves to flee North, the Confederacy would lose a key source of labor for the war effort.
This option seems more plausible. The Emancipation Proclamation stated that slaves in Confederate territories would be considered free, and many enslaved people took advantage of this opportunity to flee their masters and seek freedom in Union-controlled areas. As a result, the Confederacy would lose a significant portion of their labor force, which would impact their ability to carry out the war effort effectively.
C. By freeing all slaves held in the United States, the Union hoped to attract more soldiers to its cause.
While this option is not directly related to the South's ability to wage war, it could indirectly affect it. By issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union hoped to win the support of abolitionists and free African Americans in the North. This could potentially translate into more recruits joining the Union Army, strengthening its forces and weakening the Confederacy's chances of victory.
D. By establishing abolition as a goal of the Union, the Union was able to gain the support of Great Britain.
This option also doesn't address the South's ability to wage war directly. While the Emancipation Proclamation did have implications for the international perception of the Union and their position on slavery, it was not a primary factor in the Union leaders' concerns about the South's ability to wage war.
Based on this analysis, option B - by encouraging slaves to flee North, the Confederacy would lose a key source of labor for the war effort - seems to be the most relevant reason for Union leaders' belief that the Emancipation Proclamation would harm the South's ability to wage war.