Well, howdy there internet people, it's Bo, again. So this is going to be another

one of those videos in the series about history that you should know, but you might

not. This is something that gets debated pretty often and it's funny because

there's no debate on this one. The historical evidence is pretty heavy. There's a metric ton of

historical documentation deciding this little debate. It's funny because it is historians who are to blame for this

debate. Historians tend to assume that Americans know American history.

It's not really the case. Most Americans know American mythology.

The two aren't always the same.

So when a historian gets a hot take, gets a piece of information they think will

spark interest in history they put it out there and they don't always put it in

context and that's kind of what

happened here. The theory that got advanced was that well the Emancipation Proclamation wasn't really about ending slavery.

And that's true.

There's a lot of truth in that statement.

In fact, in the US

slavery still isn't abolished not really but that's topic for another video

the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves within a defined geographic area, the areas that were

still rebelling. That's it. That's what it did. And there is the theory, one that I personally

believe, that there was a political maneuver going on at that time because a lot of Europe was considering

entering the war on the side of the South. However, once freeing the slaves

became an explicit goal of the Union. You know, they're openly

saying we're going to do this. Well, Europe didn't want to get involved anymore

...