This paper critically examines the Emancipation Proclamation and contemplates its effect through the cases of Plessey v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education and questions whether President Lincoln’s motive of issuing the Emancipation Proclamation was a pure moral objection to slavery. Although the Proclamation is and forever will be a progressive and positive development in American history given the abolition of slavery; I believe that the intention of issuing it was to do more with the defeating the rising Southern military rather than ending slavery due to moral reasons as hugely believed. After the Southern states ultimately withdrew from the Union, he made it clear that the United States Army was fighting to put the Union back together.

President Lincoln restated this motivation in the Proclamation itself, describing it as "a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing the rebellion (of the Southern states)." The goal was to force the South to return to the Union, as they were being stripped of their labor force without which survival would become difficult for the Southerners. The events of that particular time period further illuminate the motives behind the Proclamation, as it wasn’t drafted until the latter half of 1862; which was when the Union troops had driven out the Confederate Army out of Maryland. At that point the Confederate leaders were negotiating with France and Great Britain for military aid in exchange of cotton. And they were gaining support