Title: Emancipation Proclamation
Headings: Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
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Content: Meanwhile, politically powerful interests in slave holding Union states, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware, threatened to leave the Union if Lincoln freed the slaves. As the War progressed, Lincoln came to see Emancipation as both a political and military strategy. To free the slaves in rebellious territories would take a crucial labor force from the Confederacy and bring it to the Union. After an indecisive but crucial battle at Antietam, Lincoln used the moment to issue the Emancipation Proclamations on September 22, 1862. This first Proclamation was an ultimatum to the South that as of January 1, 1863 all slaves in any areas under rebellion would be freed. The second Emancipation Proclamation was indeed issued on January 1, 1863 and completed the promise by freeing all slaves in all rebellious areas. The proclamation exempted the Border States and areas already under Union Control. It also said that African Americans would be able to serve in the Union military. The Emancipation Proclamation was a major turning point in the Civil War in that it changed the aim of the war from preserving the Union to being a fight for human freedom, shifted a huge labor force that could benefit the Union war effort from the South to the North and forestalled the potential recognition of the Confederacy by England or France. The Emancipation Proclamation was a major step on the path to the abolition of slavery that started with the slaves taking the initiative to escape from their owners in the first days of the war and was completed with the ratification of the 13th Amendment.