January 1st, 1863, is the day that the 16th President of the
United States of America, President Abraham Lincoln, issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, proclaiming that all slaves in the
Confederacy were “forever free” because these Southern states
refused to rejoin the Union and were in “rebellion” against the
United States of America. Ironically, the Union states were
allowed to maintain their slaves because President Lincoln did
not want to risk friction among them. Subsequently, freedmen
fled to the North to join the Union Army, and slavery became the
pivotal focus of the Civil War. The initial conflict began over
various other reasons regarding states’ individual rights, such
as taxation, the South demanding control over their own
political and socio-economic infrastructure, as well as states’
resources. With slavery perceived as the central issue, the
Emancipation Proclamation has been lauded as a giant step for
man-kind, when in fact; it was a strategic political and
military move at best. At the time,