Slavery can be considered as one of the most resilient institutions in America, having lasted almost two and a half centuries (Berlin, 2015) . This is in spite of the fact that it was extremely barbaric and so much effort had been put towards eliminating it legally and practically. It is surprising that slavery and indeed slave trade managed to outlive the Declaration of Independence and even the American constitution by almost a century. Yet a massive change in America began in 1860 and within five years thereof, slavery was forever eliminated (Calomiris & Pritchett, 2016) . It must be noted that the aforementioned five years were among the most tumultuous in the history of the United States and the Union all but fell apart. In the end, however, the Union got back together and grew much stronger after 1960, and in a world where freedom was a constitutional guarantee. Definitively, it is the election of Abraham Lincoln towards the end of 1860 that heralded the eventual and speedy end of slavery and slave trade in the United States.
Elections are among the most important political and democratic institutions in America. This is because it is not just about the election of individuals into power, but rather a form of a referendum of ideals that indicate what way forward the American society aspires to (Calomiris & Pritchett, 2016) . In the rundown for the elections, political parties and their candidates give out manifestos that state their agendas once they are in office. When the people vote for and/or against the party or candidate, they are expressing their agreement or otherwise to the said ideas. The election of Lincoln to be president of the United States complete with the Republican majority in both houses in itself was the first step towards the end of slavery. This is because the Republican Party was then championing the end of slavery as opposed to the Democratic Party. The main reason for the opposition to slavery by the Democratic Party was based on the fact that it was dominated by members of the Southern States (Calomiris & Pritchett, 2016) . These states genuinely believed that their economies would collapse upon the end of slavery. Through the elections of 1860, America spoke up against slavery and the institution began its inevitable fall.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The resilience of the Southern States against the abolition of slavery in America manifested immediately Lincoln was elected president. Seven Southern States within the USA immediately declared that they have left the Union and immediately formed the US confederacy (Du Bois, 2013) . In early 1861, Lincoln was sworn in and installed as the US president and soon after, four more states joined the Confederacy making eleven states. Suddenly, the United States of America was divided and slavery was part of the primary basis for the division. The United States Constitution gave the President power to force states that sought secession to remain in the Union and it is on this basis that the Civil War began (Du Bois, 2013) . At the beginning, the Civil War was supposed to be a war against secession. This, however, did not make the war very popular as it seemed to infringe on the rights of the Confederate States to chart their own way forward. Indeed, at the beginning, the war became a major political problem for Lincoln but to his credit, he was a circumspect politician (Berlin, 2015) .
In 1862, during the pendency of the Civil War, the United States and the United Kingdom, under the auspices of the African Slave Trade Treaty Act, entered into a treaty to abolish slavery. The Lincoln Presidency, as well as the Republican Party, started changing the narrative of the war to make it into a war against slavery and not a war for cessation. Indeed, the President himself began touting the idea of the emancipation of all slaves in all the states that were still continuing with the rebellion (Brown, 2017) . This was not only a strategic move but also a powerful propaganda tool. Indeed, it must be said that the initial push for the emancipation had very little to do with the actual freedom of the slaves. For a start, emancipation would eliminate the greater part of the Confederate labor force at a very critical time. This would work well in favor of their enemies. Secondly, the Confederate States had petitioned foreign powers for support in the Civil War and there was a high possibility that either the UK or France would come to their aid (Schwartz, 2015) . However, if the war was made about slavery, then these powers would not even consider coming to the aid of the Confederates as they would be seemed to be fighting for, not against, slavery.
On the 22nd day of September 1862, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, also called the Proclamation 95. However, it was not until January 1863 that the said proclamation was finally issued (Schwartz, 2015) . Its effect was to declare all the slaves being held within the rebelling states free immediately and, therefore, empower them to seek to achieve the said freedom. From a practical perspective, emancipation was crucial because traditionally, there was an underlying obligation for escaping slaves to be returned to their owners. With the declaration in force, this did not apply and what used to be runaways slaves were now free men (Brown, 2017) . Further, with the law, a slaveholder could only use force to control slaves. Forcefully controlling about three mission slaves while still fighting a war would be a major challenge for the Confederates. Finally, a place was found for the freed slaves in the Union Army not only as support staff but also as soldiers who actually fought in the Civil War and with a considerable level of success (Du Bois, 2013) . Ending slavery, then became both the major cause of the Civil War as well as a major tool for ending it.
It must be understood that with America being a country that embraces the rule of law, not the rule of men, an Emancipation Proclamation could only go so far until it was legally challenged. The American judicial system had been known to lean towards slavery and the Republican administration did not want to take any chances (Goluboff, 2009) . As the Civil War was still ongoing, the Administration began working towards a constitutional amendment that would absolutely end slavery. This was the Thirteenth Amendment. This Amendment was passed by the Senate in April 1864 but lacked the numbers to pass in the House of Representatives until January 1865. But then, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had finally surrendered ending the Civil War. Alabama became the 28th state to ratify the amendment on the 2nd day of December 1865 thus making it part of the American Constitution (Goluboff, 2009) . Therefore, by the end of 1865, slavery had legally and practically come to an end in America.
A careful evaluation of the above leaves no doubt that it is the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 that inevitably got America on the path towards the end of slavery. The fervent opposition to the end of slavery started the Civil War that almost tore the Union apart. Lincoln, however, wittily used the same issue of slavery to aid the military effort both practically and through propaganda. The president also ensured that by the time the war ended in 1865, there was already prepared a law that would ensure that the emancipated slaved remained free. This was the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. When it was ratified, slavery in practice and in law ended in America.
References
Berlin, I. (2015). The Long Emancipation: The Demise of Slavery in the United States . Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Brown, S. (2017). Today is Juneteenth: Read the emancipation proclamation, & learn more about the strategy behind it. Retrieved from http://www.digitalafro.com/today-is-junteenth-read-the-emancipation-proclamation-learn-more-about-the-history-behind-it/
Calomiris, C. W., & Pritchett, J. (2016). Betting on secession: Quantifying political events surrounding slavery and the civil war. The American Economic Review , 106 (1), 1-23
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2013). Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 . Piscataway: Transaction Publishers
Goluboff, R. L. (2009). The Thirteenth Amendment in Historical Perspective. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law , 11 (5), 1451-1473
Schwartz, B. (2015). The Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln’s Many Second Thoughts. Society , 52 (6), 590-603
