How effective were the abolitionists by 1860?

As slavery rapidly increased between 1790 and 1860 by 3 million people in the United States of Amereica to a total of 4 million, so did support for the abolitionist movement, a group that sought to end the enslavement of blacks within the South. Though they did help to free thousands of slaves and moved whites towards the idea of equal rights, were they really that sucessful and did they really contribute that much to the final Emancipation Proclamation …

…to decide the issue of slavery. This pressure moved the southern states to become more separated from the North and led them to secede from the Union, initiating the start of the Civil War in 1861. The abolitionists work continued during the war and contributed to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The outcome of the war with the defeat of the South brought the end of slavery but not the end of racism, that continues even today.