Boom

The Emancipation Proclamation was introduced in 1863. The proclamation had many short-term effects in terms of how it affected the lives of Americans these effects can be broken down into the civil war, African Americans, the confederate states and people’s perception of Abraham Lincoln. However the effects of the emancipation proclamation can be regarded as insignificant in terms of the scale of the effect.
The emancipation proclamation changed the civil war drastically. It gave the union a more moral position in the civil war and also gave them the upper hand in terms of military as it allowed black people to join the union army, which would of increased the amount of soldier they had. It improved foreign relations to the extent that Britain and France could not help the Confederacy as Britain had abolished slavery in 1833 and France in 1818, this would of helped the union get more powerful as the two super powers at the time could not help the confederate states. This can therefore be seen as a great tactical move from Abraham Lincoln to minimise opposition to the union also helped to secure allies and therefore secure a victory in the war. For this reason the Emancipation Proclamation can be seen as having short-term significance in terms of if it affected the civil war.
The emancipation proclamation can also be argued as being un-significant enough to of won the union the war. It is estimated that over 20,000 slaves were freed immediately after the Emancipation Proclamation this therefore suggests that the short-term effect was insignificant as it freed very few slaves. Many slaves tried to escape from the south to the union – the south however hunted down runaway slaves and put them back into servitude or even kill them, “ You will oblige my by sending instructions in reference to the manner of disposing of negroes” (Okolona Miss Jany 8th 1863) this would furthermore suggest that the emancipation proclamation had little significance in terms of the