What did the Emancipation Proclamation achieve?

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, specifically declared that all enslaved people in the Confederate states were to be set free. This was a strategic wartime measure aimed at weakening the Confederacy's ability to sustain its war effort by depriving it of labor. Although the proclamation did not immediately free all enslaved people – as it applied only to the states in rebellion and not to border states loyal to the Union – it marked a significant turning point in the Civil War, shifting the focus to the issue of slavery and positioning it as a central theme of the conflict. This executive order set a precedent for further actions that would lead to the eventual abolition of slavery in the United States, particularly with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.