According to this idea, the black slaves were to be shipped back to Africa after being liberated. However, the freed slaves were not to be given any choice in the matter. As a result, Lincoln's plan for "colonization" was almost as bad as slavery itself.
With the Emancipation Proclamation, however, Lincoln indicated a change in his attitude toward the black slaves. He still did not care whether the institution of slavery was abolished or not. Nevertheless, he made it clear that emancipation would be an important factor in the future course of the Civil War. There are many reasons why Lincoln decided to favor emancipation was a war strategy. For one thing, the Emancipation Proclamation made a direct stab against the economic and social structures of the South. In the South, slavery was a cherished institution which made the agricultural plantation system profitable. By attacking slavery, Lincoln hoped to destroy the South's will to fight. In addition, Lincoln decided to favor emancipation because he realized that the Northern war effort would gain the support of certain European allies as a result.
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation sparked a great deal of controversy when it was first issued. Some people were in favor of it and praised it as a humanitarian effort. For example, the Radical Republicans in Congress had always been behind the "push for emancipation" as a war issue (Ibid.). On the other hand, there were many Democrats and others who were opposed to emancipation as well as to the war in general. Some of these critics of emancipation were worried that all the freed slaves would move to the North and thereby create new problems for Northerners. In contrast to this point of view, Lincoln argued that it was more likely that "once slavery was abolished, blacks in the North would choose to return to the South" (Batty and Parish 105-107).
Some people were opposed to the Emancipation Proclamation because ...