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the war itself was brutal and bloody, especially for the south .and

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the aftermath in many ways was even worse. once again especially for the

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south. well some southerners did benefit a little bit, around four million slaves [man stands in front of destruction]

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who were freed as a result of the war . sure life for freed slaves and their

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descendants wasn't going to be a walk in the park. unless we're talking about a

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park whose main attractions are violent extreme prejudice and discrimination

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both inside and outside of the law. still slaves were finally legally whole people.

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sad that it wasn't an accomplishment isn't it. of course freedom didn't come

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to slaves all at once. during the war Lincoln wanted everyone to know that he

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was a moderate. he was like listen guys we aren't in a war right now because I

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love slaves we're at war because the South broke the law by ditching the

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Union. in Lincoln's inaugural address he actually specifically said that he

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wasn't going to freed the slaves already in the south. it wasn't until the battle [Lincoln stands in front a crowd]

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of antietam in September 1862 that Lincoln got real about the issue. on

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january 1 1863 Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation which freed

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the slaves in the Confederate territory. emphasis on Confederate territory.

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this technically meant that the slaves in the union states like Maryland were

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still slaves. of course this wasn't necessarily because Lincoln was sneekly

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planning to keep slaves for the north, that'd be almost as weird as him secretly

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being a vampire hunter. Lincoln used his executive power to free the slaves in

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the south. see since the south was in a state of rebellion that meant that

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legally it was under martial law or rule by the military. this gives the president

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a commander in chief the right to declare a lot of stuff. so legally

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Lincoln only had the power to unilaterally free the slaves in states

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that had seceded . if you wanted to free slaves in states that hadn't succeeded [confederate states are happy about free slaves]

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he needed Congress's help. and even though Congress was only made up of

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northerners at this point ,there was tons of opposition took freeing the slaves. the

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Lincoln did what he could with the power he had. a lot of people on his side

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advised him to not do it, but know what he did it anyway. some say Lincoln acted

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like a military dictator which well yeah he kind of did.

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but it's hard to argue that he didn't use that power in a good way by freeing

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the slaves. a good military dictator. our heads hurt .well it wasn't until after

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the war in December 1865 that Congress finally ratified the 13th amendment

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which actually freed every slave in America. that Spielberg movie Lincoln [session of congress pictured]

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gives us a sort of kind of accurate version of just how hard it was to ram

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the amendment through Congress. despite the great big war that had just been

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fought people were still scared of what would happen once slaves everywhere were

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officially freed. today America's top. fears include clowns, heights, and bugs

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maybe we've made progress. [roller coaster, bugs pictured]

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