In many ways we reacted to Emancipation in various ways, many European nations saw it as a sort of right of authority over war and so, as As a result of , places like England and France have said well, we will stay put. We will not support the Confederacy. But these were places that made a lot of money from cotton produced by slaves. It was therefore feared that France or England would recognize the Confederation and give it legitimacy. So emancipation, on the one hand, removed that opportunity, because otherwise it would seem that they would approve of slavery. But the other thing is that while many abolitionists have really rallied around this - and especially the free black community, say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay. But the other thing is that even though many abolitionists really rallied around this issue - and particularly the free black community - they felt that it was really the beginning of the end of slavery, many others wondered why did Lincoln wage this war against slavery? Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves, it was an important turning point in the war, transforming the fight for the preservation of the nation into a battle for human freedom. And there were many in the American Army, in the Northern Army, who thought that we weren't really committed to freeing the slaves. So there were various contradictory notions. But what I think is very powerful is that Lincoln knew that his actions were going to begin to transform the country on this issue and that was his genius. Because in a way, what Lincoln had to do wasn't just for the public. He had to present an intellectual argument about why he did this and what the benefits were to the North. That's why you see it exposes which areas of the country are influenced by this or under the impact, which are not. But I think for me what's so powerful - and this is where Lincoln the wordsmith comes in - is very early in the document that he's talking about that they would be free forever. And to me, that's the most powerful part of the Emancipation Proclamation, which essentially gives the power to the United States government to say that ultimately these individuals will be free forever. From the earliest days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to secure their own territory. freedom. The Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for liberty. This added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically. As a milestone on the path to the final destruction of slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation has taken a place among the great documents of human freedom. There is no doubt that Lincoln was both pulled and pushed and had his own dynamics. So it's not necessarily that Lincoln said this is something I want to do for my entire career. But I think it's important to understand that this document is so important because of the doors that it opened, the possibilities that it opened. And I think the debates around this topic are really fascinating because I think in some ways what's changed now, hopefully around the sesquicentennial rather than the centenary, is the taking of awareness that Lincoln not only freed the slaves, that the enslaved population took an important role in..