The main consequence of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, was the freedom of enslaved people in the Confederate states. While it did not immediately free all enslaved individuals, it transformed the Civil War's focus into a battle against slavery. It allowed African Americans to join the Union Army, bolstering its numbers significantly. The Proclamation changed the war's moral trajectory, making the abolition of slavery a clear aim of the Union effort and paving the way for the eventual passage of the 13th Amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States.