The purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation issued during the American Civil War was primarily to declare the freedom of enslaved individuals in Confederate-held territories. Issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, it aimed to weaken the Confederate war effort by encouraging enslaved people to escape and join the Union Army. While it did not end slavery in the border states or rebel areas already under Union control, it transformed the Civil War’s goals by adding the abolition of slavery as a key objective. This shift helped redefine the moral basis of the war.