Emancipation Proclamation Dbq Essay

The Emancipation Proclamation, when it was issued on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln, was this moment to finally stake the whole future of the United States and turn around the tide of the Civil War. This executive order declared all enslaved people within the Confederate states henceforth and forever free and changed the character of the war while expanding its moral and political objectives. The Emancipation Proclamation contributed much to the slavery issue by redesigning the aims of the war, strengthening the Union's moral position, and affecting how foreign powers decided whether to support the Confederacy or not. If one looks at the strategic and diplomatic fallouts of the Emancipation Proclamation, they may rightly call it a game changer in the Civil War.
Prior to the enactment of the proclamation, the major focus of most in the Union had been to bring back into the fold those states that had seceded; furthermore, most in the North had either been hostile or indifferent to the idea of abolishing slavery. But Lincoln was framing this war for human liberty, galvanizing abolitionist sentiment in the North into a Union cause now fought on moral grounds. This strong focus on emancipation further encouraged almost 200,000 African American men to enlist in the Army and Navy, which in turn provided the necessary manpower and significantly contributed to the North's ultimate victory. By this, the Emancipation Proclamation turned the war to aim at more and gave the Union the strong will not only to fight for the nation in unity but also in justice and