On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that enslaved people in the rebelling Southern states were free. It also allowed African Americans to join the Union army. As a result, many escaped slaves, former slaves, and free Black men joined the Union forces, helping to strengthen the army. The Emancipation Proclamation was important because it changed the goal of the Civil War—from just saving the Union to also freeing enslaved people.