What if Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated during the Civil War and never signed the Emancipation Proclamation?

In this timeline, Lincoln is killed before issuing or enforcing emancipation. How does this affect the outcome of the Civil War and the postwar United States?

Some questions to consider:

• Does the Union still win the war, and if so, under what terms?

• What happens to slavery without the Emancipation Proclamation as a wartime measure?

• Does emancipation come later through Congress, the courts, or not at all?

• How would Reconstruction, race relations, and U.S. politics evolve in the decades after?

• How might this change America’s position globally?

Curious to hear how people think this alternate timeline unfolds.