Why was Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation important to the North during the Civil War?

Why was Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation important to the North during the Civil War?|||Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation right after the battle of Antietam, which pushed the Army of Northern Virginia back into Confederate territory. Lincoln believed this victory gave him enough leverage to demand that the South lay down its arms and return to the Union before 1 January 1863 or else lose its slaves. The South didn't go for it, so the war lasted another two years.





However, the Emancipation Proclamation gave the North some moral authority with England and France, two nations that had flirted with the idea of recognizing the CSA. With the North becoming more formidable in military strength and abolitionist sentiment, Europe eventually ramped down its support of the South.|||Two big impacts: added a strong social revolutionary reason for the conflict AND started the biggest involuntary transfer of property ( slaves ) of our history ( if we do not count taxes, LOL). Technically , it freed somewhere around 4 million slaves and devalued the southern economy by about 3 billion dollars. ( site 1) Its actual effect was a bit chaotic and of mixed success, but it established a new interpretation of "all men created equal" which we are still struggling with today. Just think, if not done at that time, then would it have been appropriate? I doubt that the South would soon do it voluntarily. Great depression? WWI ? WWII? I shudder to think of a modern economy based upon slavery.