After the battle of Antietam on September 17th, President Abraham Lincoln asked to visit the battlefield when it was safe to do so. He made his way to the battlefield about two weeks later. Between that time though, Lincoln issued a new proclamation that would be reviewed through the end of the year. This new proclamation announced that enslaved people, which were mainly in the South, would be declared free. This article would be ending slavery in the South.
However, the Emancipation Proclamation took affect on January 1st, 1863, but it was signed in September. Lincoln hoped that this would inspire and make all Black people in the southern Confederate states that were enslaved-free. Because of the Civil War occurring, it was limited. It only applied to states that had seceded from the Union, and it depended on a Union military victory within the Civil War.
By the end of the war, almost 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.