Why do you think emancipation proclamation is important today?

Answer 1

The Emancipation Proclamation is often viewed as a Moral Repudiation of the institution of slavery. While in reality, it did not abolish slavery in the United States, it is nonetheless seen as adding abolition as a formal goal to the North's side in the US Civil War.

In effect, it is seen as a formal promise by the President of the United States to abolish slavery as soon as the Civil War was over. While the practical impact of the Proclamation itself inside the U.S. was very limited, it had an immense political impact on the course of the Civil War. In effect, the Emancipation Proclamation made European intervention on the side of the South a political impossibility. By proclaiming that the North was now fighting to abolish slavery, that now meant that the South was de facto fighting for slavery. As all major European powers had abolished slavery prior to the 1860s, their own public opinion was strongly against slavery. Thus, no European government would have been able to survive the outcry from their citizenry if they were seen to support slavery. And since the South now appeared to support slavery, no official support could every be forthcoming for the South.

This was decisive for the outcome of the Civil War. For, without access to European goods (and, in particular, assistance with breaking the Union blockage of Southern ports), the South would lose. It had neither the industrial capacity nor the finances to fight an extended war against the richer and highly industrial North. The EP also provided a huge boost to Northern morale, removing the only real other chance for a Southern victory (i.e. that the Northern public opinion would sag so much as to force a settlement before the North's industrial might could crush the South).

Today, the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation are seen in several ways: firstly, in the preservation of the Union as it now stands, and not a divided country. Secondly, it was the driving force between several major legal equality movements, primarily the 13, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and the 1960s Civil Rights Act (and movement as a whole). Furthermore, the Emancipation Proclamation is seen as adding a fundamental value to the American psyche: that all persons should be seen as equal, and that all Americans should aspire to treating each other with respect and dignity, regardless of race.

Answer 2

The Civil War was originally about the secession of the South from the Union, not slavery. It was not until President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that the US took an official position of opposing slavery. It should be noted that the Emancipation Proclamation did not actually end slavery, which required a constitutional amendment. However, by taking this position, Lincoln provided the leadership that did result, in due course, in the end of slavery in America.