The Proclamation changed the purpose of the war into one of freeing slaves completely, making the long war into one about wether or not slavery would remain in place . The South claiming that they needed slaves to work on their plantations and needed slaves to help around was a major part of the war . They wanted to continue on this racist act of holding “different” people under their feet. Many say now that the this was not a reason for the war nor the separation between the north and south but when looking back at every statement made by every southern state slavery is mentioned for their uprising .