What impact did the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 have on slavery in the US?
The Emancipation Proclamation had no real impact upon slavery at all at the time the it was first issued. The North could not enforce it since the North was already at war with the Confederacy, in part, over this very issue. If the Confederacy had won, the Proclamation would have had no effect. The Proclamation did not abolish the institution of slavery nationwide. It freed slaves only in specific states and counties of other states the were identified in ithe Proclamation as being in rebellion against the United States. It did not free slaves who might possibly exist in places that were not specifically declared to be in rebellion. The irony of it all is that it was an edict that affected only an area which it did not control (the South), but had no effect over the areas it did control (the North). President Lincoln recognized that the Proclamation would be rendered useless if the South won the war, so he waited until the North finally won a significant battle. Only when the North won