The purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, was primarily to free enslaved people in the Confederate states that were in rebellion against the Union during the Civil War. It declared that all persons held as slaves within those rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." This proclamation aimed to weaken the Confederacy by encouraging enslaved people to escape and join the Union forces, thereby bolstering the Union Army and Navy with nearly 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors by the war's end

. Additionally, the Emancipation Proclamation had significant political and military purposes. It was intended as a war measure to suppress the rebellion and to prevent foreign powers like England and France from recognizing or aiding the Confederacy. The proclamation also transformed the character of the Civil War, making the abolition of slavery a central goal alongside preserving the Union. It added moral force to the Union cause and energized abolitionists

. However, the proclamation had limitations: it applied only to the Confederate states in rebellion and exempted loyal border states and parts of the Confederacy already under Union control. Its enforcement depended on Union military victory, and it did not immediately free all enslaved people in the United States. Nonetheless, it set the legal framework for the eventual abolition of slavery, which was later solidified by the 13th Amendment