a gesture of defiance, disrespect, or derision. Idioms. 2. cock a / one's snook, to thumb the nose: a painter who cocks a snook at traditional techniques.
Effect on the Civil War. The importance of the Emancipation Proclamation is that it altered the cause and reasons for the Civil War. At the onset, it was about the Unionâs attempt to bring the Confederates back into the fold. With the proclamation, things changed.
A key part of the Emancipation Proclamation was its invitation to freed slaves and other African American men to enlist in the Union Army. Arming former slaves was truly a revolutionary step, as controversial as emancipation itself.