It was a good day for the US when Lincoln finally freed slaves in 1865. But why did he do it? Did he free the slaves out of political necessity or did he free slaves because he felt sorry for them.
At the start of the US Civil war Lincoln believe it or not main priority was just to preserve the Union not to free the slaves. Lincoln pursued no clear policy regarding the slaves for the first 15 months of the war perhaps hoping that it would be possible to defeat the south quickly. But as by 1865 Lincoln realised his objective was to end slavery. Lincoln knew black slaves as a military necessity for the civil war and would be a great advantage, he also wanted to take the labor force from the south to create a wanted a stronger Union. By this time Britain and France threatened to enter the war Lincoln with this going on Lincoln concluded that freeing the slaves would help win the war so he set free slaves in rebel states. He knew that if the South had no slaves, it would cripple their economy. Without slaves, the South had no one to grow food their crops, or does most of the unskilled labor. If there was no one to grow food, the Army starved, and if the Confederate Army starved, the US Army would win. This is basically saying that Lincoln wanted to make a stronger Union. In order to make a stronger Union, he had to make a bigger Union and there weren’t enough soldiers for that, so in the Emancipation Proclamation he stated that the African-American people had to be a military necessity and had to fight in the civil war.
After it was certain Lincoln would win re-election he decided to ensure slavery would be ended, the only way Lincoln would guarantee it was the 13th Amendment. During this time Lincoln was pressured to revoke the Emancipation but he refused, and stood he thought was best. Lincoln knew that by passing it this legacy would be secure forever so he pushed it through congress. This is when slavery was ended once and for