Motivated by his growing concern for the inhumanity of slavery
as well as practical political concerns, President Abraham
Lincoln changes the course of the war and American history by
issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Announced a
week after the nominal Union victory at the Battle of Antietam,
near Sharpsburg, Maryland, this measure did not technically free
any slaves, but it expanded the Union’s war aim from
reunification to include the abolition of slavery. The
proclamation announced that all slaves in territory that was
still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. Lincoln
used vacated congressional seats to determine the areas still in
rebellion, as some parts of the South had already been
recaptured and representatives returned to Congress under Union
supervision. Since it freed slaves only in Rebel areas that were
beyond Union occupation, the Emancipation Proclamation really
freed no one. But the measure was still one of the most
important acts in American history, as it meant