The goal of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, was to declare that all enslaved people in Confederate territory were to be set free. The Proclamation aimed to weaken the Confederacy's economy by depriving them of their labor force and to ensure that enslaved individuals could join the Union forces and fight against the Confederacy. Additionally, it sought to shift the focus of the Civil War from solely preserving the Union to also abolishing slavery.
