Emancipation

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 made emancipation a Union war aim, challenging slavery and threatening the labour system on which plantation owners relied. Emancipation means being freed from slavery. For enslaved people, it concerned personal freedom, not simply employment; for slaveholders, it challenged their control over people and the basis of plantation wealth.

Parliament legislated to end colonial slavery in 1833, with full emancipation following in 1838. These were different stages, not a single event.

Women supported the war through nursing, intelligence work and other roles. Their actions helped make emancipation—the release of people from slavery—a central part of the conflict.