1 Place the sweet potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. 2  Bake until tender, about 45 minutes. 3  Make a slit in the top of each sweet potato. 4  Top with 1 tablespoon of butter and season with the salt and pepper.
The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed for the enrollment of freed slaves into the United States military. During the war nearly 200,000 blacks, most of them ex-slaves, joined the Union Army.
In September 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in areas that were still in rebellion against the Union. This measure opened the issue of what to do about slavery in border states that had not seceded or in areas that had been captured by the Union before the proclamation. In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of statesâ rights.