Abraham Lincoln Deserves Recognition as “Great Emancipator” The title “Great Emancipator” has been the subject of much controversy. Some people have argued that the slaves themselves are the central story in achieving one's freedom. Others demonstrate that emancipation could result from both the extraordinary heroism of the slave and the liberating actions of Union forces. However, my position is that Abraham Lincoln deserves the title “Great Emancipator” for his actions during and after the Civil War. His personal beliefs had always been against slavery. He believed that the Founding Fathers had put slavery on the path to extinction and he wanted to continue on that path. Lincoln behaved very professionally; Lincoln declared that “all persons held as slaves” in the areas of rebellion “shall then, henceforth, and forever be free.” Not only did he free slaves in the border slave states, but the President deliberately made the proclamation in all the places in the South where slaves existed. While the Emancipation Proclamation was a major turning point in the war. He transformed the struggle to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. According to the history book “A People and a Nation,” the Emancipation Proclamation was a legally ambiguous document, but as a moral and political document it had great significance. It was a delicate balancing act because it defined the war as a war against slavery, not the war between the peoples of the North and the South, and at the same time it protected Lincoln's position vis-à-vis conservatives, and there was no breakthrough. The Emancipation Proclamation did little to clarify the status or citizenship of freed slaves; opened the possibility of military service for blacks. In 1863, the need for men convinced the administration to recruit blacks from the North and South for the Union Army. Lincoln came to see the black soldier as “the great force available and yet unused to restore the Union.” African Americans helped ensure that military service granted equal rights to their people. If the black soldier had fought for the Union, Frederick Douglass wrote, “there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States.” Lincoln showed a remarkable ability to change his attitudes depending on the circumstances. He thus became sincerely admired by black soldiers during the Civil War. In June 1864, Lincoln called on the party to “place in the platform as the keystone, the amendment of the Constitution abolishing and forever prohibiting slavery.” The party promptly called for the Thirteenth Amendment. The proposed amendment passed in early 1865 and was sent to the states for ratification. Finally, the war to save the Union had also become the war for liberation