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Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95,[2][3] was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation had the effect of changing the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. As soon as slaves escaped the control of their enslavers, either by fleeing to Union lines or through the advance of federal troops, they were permanently free. In addition, the Proclamation allowed for former slaves to "be received into the armed service of the United States". The Emancipation Proclamation played a significant part in the end of slavery in the United States.

This article is about United States history. For emancipation proclamations in other countries, see Abolition of slavery timeline.

Other short titles

Emancipation Proclamation

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Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862 (September 22, 1862)

1 January 1863

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.[4] Its third paragraph begins:


On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation.[5] After quoting from the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, it stated:


Lincoln then listed the ten states[6] still in rebellion, excluding parts of states under Union control, and continued:


The proclamation provided that the executive branch, including the Army and Navy, "will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons".[7] Even though it excluded states not in rebellion, as well as parts of Louisiana and Virginia under Union control,[8] it still applied to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. Around 25,000 to 75,000 were immediately emancipated in those regions of the Confederacy where the US Army was already in place. It could not be enforced in the areas still in rebellion,[8] but, as the Union army took control of Confederate regions, the Proclamation provided the legal framework for the liberation of more than three and a half million enslaved people in those regions by the end of the war. The Emancipation Proclamation outraged white Southerners and their sympathizers, who saw it as the beginning of a race war. It energized abolitionists, and undermined those Europeans who wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy.[9] The Proclamation lifted the spirits of African Americans, both free and enslaved. It encouraged many to escape from slavery and flee toward Union lines, where many joined the Union Army.[10] The Emancipation Proclamation became a historic document because it "would redefine the Civil War, turning it [for the North] from a struggle [solely] to preserve the Union to one [also] focused on ending slavery, and set a decisive course for how the nation would be reshaped after that historic conflict."[11]


The Emancipation Proclamation was never challenged in court. To ensure the abolition of slavery in all of the U.S., Lincoln also insisted that Reconstruction plans for Southern states require them to enact laws abolishing slavery (which occurred during the war in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana); Lincoln encouraged border states to adopt abolition (which occurred during the war in Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia) and pushed for passage of the 13th Amendment. The Senate passed the 13th Amendment by the necessary two-thirds vote on April 8, 1864; the House of Representatives did so on January 31, 1865; and the required three-fourths of the states ratified it on December 6, 1865. The amendment made slavery and involuntary servitude unconstitutional, "except as a punishment for a crime".[12]

Background

Military action prior to emancipation

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required individuals to return runaway slaves to their owners. During the war, in May 1861, Union general Benjamin Butler declared that three slaves who escaped to Union lines were contraband of war, and accordingly he refused to return them, saying to a man who sought their return, "I am under no constitutional obligations to a foreign country, which Virginia now claims to be".[40] On May 30, after a cabinet meeting called by President Lincoln, "Simon Cameron, the secretary of war, telegraphed Butler to inform him that his contraband policy 'is approved.'"[41] This decision was controversial because it could have been taken to imply recognition of the Confederacy as a separate, independent sovereign state under international law, a notion that Lincoln steadfastly denied. In addition, as contraband, these people were legally designated as "property" when they crossed Union lines and their ultimate status was uncertain.[42]

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 made indirect reference to the Proclamation and the ending of slavery as a war goal with the phrase "new birth of freedom". The Proclamation solidified Lincoln's support among the rapidly growing abolitionist elements of the Republican Party and ensured that they would not block his renomination in 1864.[131]

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863)

In December 1863, Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which dealt with the ways the rebel states could reconcile with the Union. Key provisions required that the states accept the Emancipation Proclamation and thus the freedom of their slaves, and accept the Confiscation Acts, as well as the Act banning slavery in United States territories.[132]

History of slavery in Alabama

History of slavery in Arkansas

District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act

History of slavery in Florida

History of slavery in Georgia

1866 Georgia State Freedmen's Conventions

History of slavery in Kentucky

History of slavery in Louisiana

History of slavery in Maryland

History of slavery in Missouri

History of slavery in Mississippi

History of slavery in North Carolina

History of slavery in South Carolina

History of slavery in Tennessee

History of slavery in Texas

Juneteenth

History of slavery in Virginia

Archived December 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

A zoomable image of the Leland-Boker authorized edition of the Emancipation Proclamation held by the British Library

Lesson plan on Emancipation Proclamation from EDSITEment NEH

Text and images of the Emancipation Proclamation from the National Archives

Online Lincoln Coloring Book for Teachers and Students

Emancipation Proclamation and related resources at the Library of Congress

Archived June 23, 2008, at the Wayback Machine

Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Emancipation Proclamation

First Edition in 1862 Harper's Weekly

Emancipation Proclamation

Archived October 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

Chronology of Emancipation during the Civil War

chronology of Abraham Lincoln and emancipation

American Abolitionists and Antislavery Activists

"Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation"

– images and transcript of Lincoln's original manuscript of the preliminary proclamation

Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation at the New York State Library

The role of humor in presenting the Proclamation to Lincoln's Cabinet

– Sketch of its History by Lincoln's portrait artist

1865 NY Times article

. New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

"Emancipation, Proclamation of" 

with Pulitzer Prize-winning author James McPherson and James Cornelius, Curator of the Lincoln Collection in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum about the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

Webcast Discussion

public domain audiobook at LibriVox

The Emancipation Proclamation