No, Lincoln destroyed the "illusion" of "free and independent states", one that kept one american in 10 in bondage to the South.
You do realize that slavery was legal in the North during the war, right? Most of the states that remained in the Union had ended slavery, but Maryland, Deleware and Kentucky remained slaveholding states throughout the war. Missouri ended slavery a few months before the South surrendered in April of 1865.
You may be right. It is also irrelevant.
We righteously destroyed the slave South for its crimes against humanity, at a very high price to everyone involved, north included.
Maryland ended slavery on November 1, 1864. Kentuck and Delaware remained slave states until December 1865.