I guess I could see how I could reference african american soldiers, but the other 4 don't make a whole lot of sense to me. In what way were slaves and former slaves directly involved with the creation of the Emancipation Proclamation? None as far as I know. The Confiscation Acts was an attempt to free slaves made by Congress. Why would slaves deserve credit for this? I just don't get it. If anyone could, please help me out with a couple of these.
 
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Actually, I take all that back. This didn't hit me until I was on lunch break a half hour ago but there was a very strong Abolitionist movement in the Northern states, of which freed slaves (and the writings and stories of several still in the South) played a very powerful role. You could argue that the Abolitionist movement - and the related involvement of African Americans along with concerned caucasians - played a key role in most of those points you've listed.
 
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Yeah it's important to remember that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free slaves in the border states, because Lincoln was trying to make sure they would stick with the Union.
 
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Yeah it's important to remember that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free slaves in the border states, because Lincoln was trying to make sure they would stick with the Union.

I should make it a little more clear.

The slaves there were freed by the EP were those in the Confederate States of America.

Those in the Union or those in the border states were kept as slaves, as what was really needed at the time was a willingness to fight, and with a sudden influx of African Americans willing to fight for their freedom, the EP did just that.

The EP MADE slavery a key issue of the war. A common misunderstanding is that the civil war was fought over slavery, but it really wasn't. Yes it was an integral part but the main focus of the war was to keep the country together, not to abolish slavery. The EP made the abolition of slavery a key issue of the war.
 
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Aw man, I was just going to say that it was a trap. I used to see this kind of thing in high school all the time. They word the questions just a certain way, as to catch people not paying attention.

The slaves themselves had little to no impact on any of those things listed. It was all politics.

Sorry I didn't see this sooner.
 
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Proud WG member from January 2006 - Fall 2009

Aw man, I was just going to say that it was a trap. I used to see this kind of thing in high school all the time. They word the questions just a certain way, as to catch people not paying attention.

The slaves themselves had little to no impact on any of those things listed. It was all politics.

Sorry I didn't see this sooner.

Technically, when the question says "assess" it's like an opinion.

There's no right or wrong answer when it's asking you to use certain things to asses a quote.

Take for instance this statement "RoT is an honor clan." Most of us would disagree and use facts like how they've crashed countless wars and such. But I could come back and say that they are because I've had personal experiences with RoT where they put up a clean fight. My assessment would be that the statement is valid.

True, it was mainly politics that made things legal and illegal, but say for instance slaves had done nothing at all? Had they not complained, would anything have happened? Sure some people would have said "Hey, that's not right!" but others would just say, "They're not complaining...".

On the AP all the essay questions are like this. Don't be fooled into thinking there is one and only one answer because that's completely not true. On each of the essays you could attack it several ways (especially the DBQ).
 
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Too late, this is like 3 weeks old.
 
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are you allowed to say that?
 
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"If at first you don’t succeed, call it version 1.0"