The loss of its slaves rendered the south greatly less able to produce the cotton it was selling to Britain and also stubbed the flow of weapons into the Confederacy. Twice before Lincoln 's Emancipation Proclamation, there were attempts to try something similar, first in August 1861, by General John C. Frémont in Missouri, second by General David Hunter, whose department encompassed South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, in May 1862. Hunter did not have nearly enough men to enforce his decree. Lincoln revoked both of these decrees before issuing the proclamation.
Lincoln first proposed the idea of emancipation in July of 1862 to his cabinet, but they persuaded him to wait until a victory against the south in the war to show confidence. The victory that came was that at Antietam in September 1862. Lincoln declared “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper,”. He viewed the Emancipation Proclamation as his greatest contribution and achievement as