Point of Divergence ... Thomas Jefferson was a complicated man. As a wealthy landowner, Thomas Jefferson owned many slaves on his plantations. And to all accounts, he treated his slaves rather well at the time, only using the whip in rare and extreme cases of fighting and theft. He made sure his slaves did not work on Christmas and had Sundays off as well, and provided financial incentives for doing good work as well. He also felt the relationship between slave and master was harmful. Jefferson did at one point propose phasing out slavery entirely in the States, but it was shut down numerous times. Jefferson eventually stopped discussing the prospect entirely, and mentioned it very seldom in his presidency. He wrote to a friend as follows, ""I have long since given up the expectation of any early provision for the extinguishment of slavery among us."
Lets for argument's sake say that Jefferson during his tenure as President was able to issue an earlier version of the Emancipation Proclamation 60 or so years before Abraham Lincoln took office. How would this earlier proclamation change the US as we know it today, and would we be experiencing an earlier civil war as a result?