Antietam & the Moral Clarity of the Emancipation Proclamation

The gift of Antietam is moral clarity for the nation. Lincoln’s decision solidified the war as one to free the slaves and not just to preserve the Union. On the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Martin Luther King placed the document alongside the Declaration of Independence as an imperishable contribution to Western civilization. And this achievement – the liberation of enslaved people – came at great cost. After Antietam, the war would drag on for over two more years and cost nearly 750,000 American lives, but like the will of America’s soldiers at Antietam, the nation in all its beauty and complexity, emerged unbreakable.