How did the emancipation proclamation change the civil war for the union?

Answer 1

It prevented Britain from sending aid to the South - it would have made the British look pro-slavery.

This had been Lincoln's biggest headache in the summer of 1862, when the British were treating Lee's campaign as the test of Confederate viability.

Answer 2

The Emancipation Proclamation has faced criticism as a document of little actual impact, because it offered freedom only to slaves "within any state or designated part of a state … in rebellion against the United States"-not to slaves in areas that the Union actually controlled. (The March 1862 Confiscation Act had freed slaves in rebellious states, though it only described such slaves as "captives of war" who would not be returned to "claimants.") Some have therefore challenged the Proclamation's importance in ending slavery. But in formally tying the Union's war aims to a policy of abolishing slavery, Lincoln dramatically expanded the scope of the conflict. From black soldiers to European statesmen, from Lincoln's political enemies in the North to outraged rebels in the South, observers understood that the war, and the future course of the nation, had undergone a fundamental change. Whether they approved or not, after January 1, 1863, Americans no longer could deny that freedom for African Americans was now a central part of the Union war effort. As issued in September 1862,

Answer 3

It made the Confederates think that if they won the war, they could keep slavery no matter what Abraham Lincoln said in the Emancipation Proclamation. So this war was a really big deal to the Confederates because they think it's their right to own slaves. Not only did Southerns believe that slavery was legal, so did the US Supreme Court in 1857. As was seen, it took until December of 1865 to pass the 13th Amendment to end slavery.

Answer 4

It did not greatly change the reasons for fighting. But it put Abolitionism at the top of the agenda, and therefore made it impossible for free nations abroad to help the Confederates without looking pro-slavery. Keeping Britain and France out of the war was the most urgent reason for issuing the Proclamation, and it was entirely successful in this.

Lincoln was also hoping to give the North a more emotive reason for staying in the war, as morale as suffering, but the mid-term elections did not suggest any great rush of Abolitionist fervour. The only difference was that the Union troops were now licensed to free any slaves they came across in their Southern campaigns, and this did a lot of damage to the Confederate economy.

Answer 5

The goal of the war changed from saving the Union to saving the Union and eliminating slavery.