Effects of the Battle of Antietam
A picture of Bloody Lane after Antietam. Click to enlarge
The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederacy's hope for aid from Britain or France. The Confederate policy, also known as the "King Cotton" policy, withheld cotton from the British until the British would aid the Confederacy. This policy was "a rigid and inflexible policy based on economic coercion and force" (Hubbard 7). Davis' Secretary of War, George W. Randolph, and Secretary of State, Judah P. Benjamin, encouraged him to give Britain the cotton it needed and then Britain would stand by the Confederacy, but Davis remained rigid on his stand not to sell to Britain until Britain gave the Confederacy the help it needed. The British would not give into Davis' threats. The British realized that the Northern army was strong enough to stop Southern aggression into the Northern territory and were able to protect the nation's capital, Washington, DC.
This is a picture of the Emancipation Proclamation, that was used to abolish slavery. Click to enlarge
The victory at Antietam Creek enlarged the focus of the Civil War from unity of the states to the abolition of slavery. Lincoln was finally able to announce the emancipation of slaves in all rebel areas. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation laid the groundwork for the abolishment of slavery in the United States and led to the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.
"...all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people of whereof, shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then thenceforward, and forever, free..."
"...all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people of whereof, shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then thenceforward, and forever, free..."