Taking a Look at the Enmancipation Proclamation - 656 Words

The Emancipation proclamation is a document that forever changed the outlook on slavery in the United States forever. The document drafted and signed by the 16th President of the United States of America would be the biggest accomplishment of Presidents Lincolns term in office as well changing the focus of the civil war. The proclamation is the most important document signed by President Lincoln and one of the most important documents in the history of the United States of America. On January 1, 1863 the Emancipation proclamation was issued, as the nation approached its third year of the bloody civil war. The proclamation is also one of the most misunderstood documents in American History as it was intended to free all slaves. The document did not end slavery in the nation; it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war. The Emancipation Proclamation was first brought to light in the summer of 1862 by President Lincoln as he addressed his cabinet of his intentions to end slavery and utilize it as a war measure to cripple the confederacy. Though Lincolns cabinet didn’t see eye to eye with him on the initial thought of the proclamation because they saw it as too radical and were very apathetic on the subject. It wasn’t until the victory of Antietam, which wasn’t necessarily a victory because it ended in a draw that Secretary of State William Seaward thought that the government could enforce such a