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Abraham lincoln and emancipation.

The Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment brought about by the Civil War were important milestones in the long process of ending legal slavery in the United States. This essay describes the development of those documents through various drafts by Lincoln and others and shows both the evolution of Abraham Lincoln’s thinking and his efforts to operate within the constitutional boundaries of the presidency.

Almost from the beginning of his administration, abolitionists and radical Republicans pressured Abraham Lincoln to issue an Emancipation Proclamation. Although Lincoln personally abhorred slavery, he felt confined by his constitutional authority as president to challenge slavery only in the context of necessary war measures. He also worried about the reactions of those in the loyal border states where slavery was still legal. Lincoln is said to have summed up the importance of keeping the border states in the Union by saying "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky."

Events early in the war quickly forced Northern authorities to address the issue of emancipation. In May 1861, just a month into the war, three slaves (Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend) owned by Confederate Colonel Charles K. Mallory escaped from Hampton, Virginia, where they had been put to work on behalf of the Confederacy, and sought protection within Union-held Fortress Monroe before their owner sent them further south. When Col. Mallory demanded their return under the Fugitive Slave Law, Union General Benjamin F. Butler instead appropriated the fugitives and their valuable labor as "contraband of war." The Lincoln administration approved Butler's action, and soon other fugitive slaves (often referred to as "contrabands") sought freedom behind Union lines.

The increasing number of fugitives and questions about their status eventually prompted action by the United States Congress. On August 6, 1861, Congress passed the First Confiscation Act, which negated owners' claims to escaped slaves whose labor had been used on behalf of the Confederacy.  In 1862 Congress also acted against slavery in areas under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Congress abolished slavery in the federal District of Columbia on April 16 with a compensated emancipation program. This action must have been particularly satisfying to President Lincoln, who as Congressman Lincoln had in the late 1840s drafted a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Finding the measure lacking support, Lincoln never introduced it. Congress further outlawed slavery in federal territories in June 1862.

Some Union commanders took matters into their own hands, declaring emancipation by proclamation. In September 1861, General John C. Frémont attempted to address the "disorganized condition" in the Department of the West by declaring martial law and proclaiming free the slaves of active Confederate sympathizers in Missouri. Frémont failed to inform first President Lincoln, who requested Frémont amend his proclamation to conform to the 1861 Confiscation Act. When Frémont refused, Lincoln publicly ordered him to do so, which helped calm anxiety expressed from the border states , but angered those who supported Frémont's actions. Although he knew Frémont had exceeded his authority in freeing slaves in Missouri, Lincoln continued to urge the border slave states to explore legal emancipation measures of their own. He also remained hopeful that voluntary colonization options for former slaves would address the concerns of many white Americans about where emancipated slaves would go. While several pieces of emancipation-related legislation included funds for colonization outside of the United States, the few actual attempts at colonization during the Civil War failed . Furthermore, most former slaves had no interest in leaving their homeland.

Like Frémont, General David Hunter also tried his hand at emancipation when in May 1862 he declared slaves free in his Department of the South, which included Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Once again, Lincoln felt compelled to overrule a commander who overstepped his authority with regard to emancipation. Although in revoking Hunter's action, Lincoln suggested that the power to determine such military necessities belonged to the president.

In principle, Lincoln approved of emancipation as a war measure, but he postponed executive action against slavery until he believed he had both the legal authority to do so and broader support from the American public. Two pieces of congressional legislation passed on July 17, 1862, provided the desired signal. The Second Confiscation Act included provisions that freed the slaves of disloyal owners, authorized the president to employ African Americans in the suppression of the rebellion, and called for exploring voluntary colonization efforts.  The Militia Act authorized the employment of African Americans in the military, emancipated those who were enslaved, and freed their families, if owned by those disloyal to the Union. Not only had Congress relieved the administration of considerable strain with its limited initiative on emancipation, but it also had demonstrated an increasing public acceptance of emancipation as a military act.

By July 1862 Lincoln had written what he termed his "Preliminary Proclamation." He discussed his thoughts for an emancipation proclamation with cabinet secretaries William H. Seward and Gideon Welles on July 13, 1862, while sharing a carriage ride from the funeral of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton's infant son James. Welles later recalled External that neither he nor Seward were prepared to offer opinions on a subject that Seward thought "involved consequences so vast and momentous," but he agreed with Seward's initial impression that the measure was both "justifiable" and perhaps "expedient and necessary."

Nine days later, on July 22, Lincoln again raised the issue of emancipation in a cabinet meeting, at which he read the content of his preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation . In addition to reiterating his support for gradual emancipation in the loyal states, the draft proclamation declared that as of January 1, 1863, "all persons held as slaves within any state or states, wherein the constitutional authority of the United States shall not then be practically recognized, submitted to, and maintained, shall then, thenceforward, and forever, be free." Whereas the Confiscation Acts freed the slaves of individual owners who demonstrated disloyalty, Lincoln's proclamation freed slaves of all owners residing in geographic areas engaged in rebellion as "a fit and necessary military measure."

The reaction of Lincoln's cabinet members was mixed. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, correctly interpreting the proclamation as a military measure designed both to deprive the Confederacy of slave labor and bring additional men into the Union army, advocated its immediate release . Attorney General Edward Bates, a conservative, opposed civil and political equality for blacks but gave his support. Welles feared the unintended consequences of emancipation, but remained silent, as did Interior secretary Caleb Smith. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair foresaw defeat in the fall elections and opposed the proclamation. Treasury secretary Salmon P. Chase supported the measure, which he noted in his diary went further than his own recommendations, but his tepid enthusiasm for the proclamation was surprising given his history as an outspoken opponent of slavery. Secretary of State Seward expressed concern about the diplomatic implications of emancipation and noted the lack of recent Union military victories, which might cause the proclamation to be interpreted as an act of desperation. Better to wait for success on the battlefield, Seward counseled, and issue the proclamation from a position of strength. Lincoln agreed, and the course was set.

While Lincoln waited for his generals to secure a victory, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley provided Lincoln with an opportunity to test public reaction to emancipation as a war measure. In an open letter to President Lincoln published on August 20 under the heading " The Prayer of Twenty Millions ," Greeley urged Lincoln to recognize slavery as the root cause of the war and act boldly with regard to emancipation. Although he already had a draft emancipation proclamation prepared, Lincoln responded with his own open letter to Greeley, which he published in the National Intelligencer in Washington, D.C. Lincoln stated plainly that the goal of his administration's policies, including those related to slavery, was to save the Union. "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." Lincoln carefully noted that this represented his official position. He intended "no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free."

The bloodiest single day of the Civil War occurred on September 17, 1862, as Confederates in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia battled the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Union General George B. McClellan, at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland. While the Battle of Antietam was not quite the decisive Union triumph Lincoln hoped for, Lee's retreat was victory enough for Lincoln to issue the emancipation proclamation on which he had continued to labor since July. Lincoln read the revised proclamation to his cabinet on September 22, 1862. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles recorded in his diary that the president was open to criticism of the document itself, but that "he was satisfied it was right . . . his mind was fixed—his decision made" regarding the issuance of the proclamation.

The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862, stated that the slaves in all areas designated as being in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would "be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The preliminary proclamation also reiterated Lincoln's support for compensated emancipation and voluntary colonization of "persons of African descent." Newspapers in the Confederate states predictably denounced the proclamation. The Memphis (Tenn.) Daily Appeal labeled it unconstitutional and "plainly a proposition to incite domestic insurrection." The Charlotte, North Carolina, Western Democrat carried the briefest of notices of the proclamation and brushed aside its significance. "No one in the South cares for that—Lincoln might as well proclaim to the moon." Some in the North thought the preliminary proclamation more serious, but still ill conceived. The Indiana State Sentinel deemed it a "blunder" and "disastrous" in promoting colonization schemes that would deprive the United States of valuable labor and leave loyal taxpayers to foot the bill. But others were elated by Lincoln's proclamation. The Chicago Tribune reprinted laudatory responses from newspapers across the North. Lincoln retained among his papers a number of letters of support for the proclamation, including one from B. S. Hedrick , who identified himself as a Southerner and formerly a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina. "In my opinion the whole question of the War is reduced to this. Can the power of the United States Gov't either conquer or exterminate slavery?" Hedrick asked.  "If it can, then that should be done, and the sooner the better. If not—we fight with no object."

In anticipation of the January 1, 1863, deadline of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln provided the cabinet on December 30 with the text of the revised Final Emancipation Proclamation, soliciting opinions and necessary alterations. The Final Emancipation Proclamation differed significantly from the previous versions. It designated the areas considered to still be in rebellion, but also those under Union control and thus exempted from the proclamation. The exempted areas included parishes in Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, several cities and counties in Virginia, and all of the counties in what would become the new state of West Virginia. Slaves living in those Union-occupied exempted areas were considered outside of the president's war powers, and would remain enslaved after January 1. Lincoln urged those freed by the proclamation to "abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense" and to "labor faithfully for reasonable wages." Unlike the previous preliminary proclamations, the final proclamation announced that African-American men would "be received into the armed service of the United States." And unlike the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, gone was any mention of compensated emancipation or colonization. Lincoln also incorporated Secretary Chase's suggestion of closing the document with an acknowledgment of the proclamation as an "act of justice" and invoking God and the "judgment of mankind" in supporting the effort.

January 1, 1863, was a " mild and bright day " in Washington. Lincoln had sent the manuscript of the proclamation to the State Department in the morning for copying, and Secretary Seward brought the official version to the White House for Lincoln's signature. Lincoln noticed an error in the document that required amending, which was not accomplished before the annual New Year's reception at the White House, at which Lincoln shook hundreds of hands. Seward and his son Frederick brought the corrected proclamation to the White House later in the day for the president's signature. Frederick Seward recalled External Lincoln saying "I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." Lincoln steadied his tired arm as signed the document, telling witnesses that any sign of a tremor in his handwriting would be interpreted as a mental reservation about the proclamation. And with a signature that was "clear, bold, and firm," Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

With the issuance of the Final Emancipation Proclamation the war for the Union also became a war to free the slaves. As was the case with the preliminary proclamation in September, the issuance of the final proclamation received a mixed reception, especially in the North. Abolitionists greeted the news with jubilation. Eliza Quincy wrote to Mary Lincoln that "the thought of the millions upon millions of human beings whose happiness was to be affected & freedom secured by the words of President Lincoln, was almost overwhelming." Benjamin Rush Plumly could not remember a more "devout ‘Thanksgiving'" as he witnessed the celebration of African Americans in Philadelphia at the news of the proclamation. Hamilton Gray of Kentucky, however, warned Lincoln that Kentuckians loyal to the Union did not accept the Emancipation Proclamation as a military necessity, and there was word that the Kentucky legislature urged the governor to reject the proclamation. The New York Herald considered the proclamation "unnecessary, unwise and ill-timed, impracticable, outside the constitution and full of mischief," noting that Lincoln freed slaves only in areas where he exerted little practical authority. "But let us hope that this proclamation will prove nothing worse than a nullity and a harmless tub to the abolition whale," the Herald's editors opined. Emancipation, even as a war measure, faced continued opposition months later in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln understood that many of his neighbors supported the Union, but resented fighting for the cause of freedom. "You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you, then exclusively to save the Union," Lincoln urged his neighbors in a statement he sent to his friend James Conkling to be read at a Union meeting in September. "I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistence to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes."

The president still found it necessary in 1864 to explain and defend his actions with regard to emancipation, which remained unpopular with many Northerners. In an April 4, 1864 letter to Albert G. Hodges , editor of the Commonwealth newspaper in Frankfort, Kentucky, Lincoln was careful to distinguish his own opinions from the actions he felt constitutionally justified in taking. "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel," he began. "And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling." His presidential oath bound him to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States," and each step in the process of emancipation was in the interest of preserving the nation, and thus preserving the Constitution. To highlight this, Lincoln used the word "indispensable" six times to distinguish the criteria on which he acted, until emancipation became militarily an "indispensable necessity." In his letter to Hodges, Lincoln also credited a higher power in determining the events of the war. "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." Lincoln's clear explanation of his presidential evolution on emancipation even won praise from a frequent critic, Horace Greeley. "We are known not to favor his renomination," Greeley's April 29 editorial in the New York Tribune began, but "few men who have ever lived who could have better explained and commended his course and attitude with regard to Slavery than he has done in his late letter to Mr. Hodges of Kentucky."

Greeley's editorial demonstrated that Abraham Lincoln's popularity was not universal even within the Republican Party as the 1864 presidential campaign got underway. With the Union military effort stalled on several fronts, with the Democrats' delay in naming a candidate and platform, and with emancipation being interpreted as a primary obstacle to a negotiated peace with the Confederates, some political advisors feared Lincoln's chances for reelection and suggested in August that he consider other options . In response, Lincoln even went so far as to draft instructions for a proposed peace conference, at which "remaining questions" like slavery would be "left for adjustment by peaceful modes." Ultimately Lincoln and his cabinet determined that this course would be, as Lincoln's secretary John G. Nicolay noted , "worse than losing the Presidential contest—it would be ignominiously surrendering it in advance." As it was, Lincoln's concern about reelection prompted him to write a secret memorandum pledging to cooperate with the president-elect to save the union before the March 4, 1865, inauguration, and discussed with Frederick Douglass plans to help slaves in the Confederacy escape while there was still time.

The despair of August turned to hope in September as William T. Sherman's troops captured Atlanta, Georgia, Philip H. Sheridan advanced in the Shenandoah Valley, and the Democrats faced their own divisions in the candidacy of George B. McClellan and a controversial party platform. Lincoln triumphed in the November election. Although the dire plans and pledges made in August could now be abandoned, the process of ending slavery was not complete. As a wartime measure, the status of the Emancipation Proclamation would be in question after the war, and slavery still remained legal in Union-controlled areas in the Confederacy as well as the border slave states in the United States. Only an amendment to the United States Constitution could end slavery irrevocably.

The United States Senate had passed a joint resolution on April 8, 1864, calling for an amendment to the Constitution that ended slavery, but the House of Representatives had failed to pass it. Pressure on Republican leadership in the House to pass the resolution intensified, and the resolution finally succeeded on January 31, 1865. The proposed amendment stated that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction," and authorized Congress to enforce the amendment with appropriate legislation. Although not legally required to do so, Lincoln personally signed the joint resolution, signaling the importance he placed on the amendment. He also signed several ceremonial copies of the resolution produced in honor of the occasion. The amendment was sent to the states for ratification on February 1, and Abraham Lincoln's home state of Illinois became the first state to ratify the proposed Thirteenth Amendment.

Abraham Lincoln did not live to see the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. Nineteen states had ratified it when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865. Lincoln died the following morning. On December 6, 1865, Georgia became the twenty-seventh state to ratify the amendment, achieving the three-fourths of the states necessary to validate the amendment, which Secretary of State William H. Seward did on December 18.

The Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment brought about by the Civil War were important milestones in the long process of ending legal slavery in the United States. Defining the meaning of freedom, however, continued long after the war ended.

Where Are the Documents Now?

Many of the key manuscripts that record the progression of the Emancipation Proclamation from the first known draft in July 1862 to the final version of January 1, 1863 survive today.

Abraham Lincoln's handwritten draft Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of July 22, 1862 is part of the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter imagined the scene of President Lincoln first introducing the document to his cabinet in the 1864 painting First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation , which now hangs over the west staircase of the Senate Wing in the United States Capitol. Carpenter worked on the painting at the White House for several months in 1864, and was able to consult with and observe President Lincoln. More information about the painting is available online on the United States Senate website. The painting was reproduced in numerous engravings, including those produced by A.H. Ritchie in 1866 (see LC-DIG-pga-02502 and LC-DIG-pga-03452 ).

Lincoln's handwritten manuscript copy of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation External of September 22, 1862, is held by the New York State Library in Albany, New York.  Abraham Lincoln donated the manuscript for a raffle held at the Albany (N.Y.) Relief Bazaar sponsored by the Albany Army Relief Association in 1864, where it was won by abolitionist Gerrit Smith. The New York State Legislature purchased the manuscript in 1865, and placed it in the New York State Library. More information on the provenance of this document is available online External .

The official engrossed copies of both the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862, and the Final Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, are held by the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., as part of Record Group 11, General Records of the U.S. Government. A reproduction of the official engrossed copy of the Final Emancipation Proclamation is included in the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.

Several documents containing comments and corrections on the Final Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln solicited from his cabinet members in December 1862 can be found in the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. These include the memoranda provided to President Lincoln by Attorney General Edward Bates , Postmaster General Montgomery Blair , Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase , and Secretary of State William H. Seward .

The handwritten manuscript of the Final Emancipation Proclamation no longer exists. In October 1863, Mary A. Livermore wrote to Abraham Lincoln requesting that he donate the manuscript to the Northwestern Sanitary Fair in Chicago, where it would be sold to raise money for soldiers' aid provided by the Northwestern Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission. Mrs. Livermore hoped that the document ultimately would be donated to the Chicago Historical Society for preservation. Her request was echoed by Lincoln's associates Isaac N. Arnold and Owen Lovejoy . Lincoln thought that his name would be most remembered for having issued the proclamation, and as he explained to the ladies planning the fair, "I had some desire to retain the paper."  "But if it shall contribute to the relief or comfort of the soldiers," he concluded, "that will be better," and he sent the precious manuscript. The manuscript copy of the Final Emancipation Proclamation was purchased at the Northwestern Sanitary Fair by Thomas Bryan, who presented it to the Soldiers' Home in Chicago, rather than the Chicago Historical Society. Unfortunately, the manuscript was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. Fortunately, before sending the original manuscript proclamation, Lincoln wisely had the document photographed for posterity, and a lithographic copy is part of the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Surviving photographs of the document show it primarily in Lincoln's own hand. The superscription and ending are in the hand of a clerk, and the printed insertions were cut from the September draft .

The Final Emancipation Proclamation has been reproduced numerous times and in many different styles and formats. At the Great Central Sanitary Fair held in Philadelphia in June 1864, forty-eight limited-edition prints of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Lincoln, Seward, and John G. Nicolay, were offered for ten dollars apiece to raise money for soldiers' aid. At that price, however, not all of these Leland-Boker edition prints sold. The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, and the Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress offer many examples of printings of the Emancipation Proclamation produced during and after the Civil War.

On December 25, 1862, Massachusetts historian George Livermore asked Senator Charles Sumner if he might procure the pen that Lincoln would use to sign the Final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Sumner, a well-known abolitionist, put the request to President Lincoln, who agreed. In thanking Sumner for his efforts, Livermore explained his desire for the pen: "No trophy from a battlefield, no sword red with blood, no service of plate with an inscription, as complimentary as the greatest rhetorician could compose, would have been to me half as acceptable as this instrument which will forever be associated with the greatest event of our country and our age." The pen External is now held by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

To read more about Lincoln and Emancipation, consult the "African Americans, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment" section on the Related Resources page of the Abraham Lincoln Papers online presentation.

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Emancipation Proclamation

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that as of January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in the states currently engaged in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

Lincoln didn’t actually free all of the approximately 4 million men, women and children held in slavery in the United States when he signed the formal Emancipation Proclamation the following January. The document applied only to enslaved people in the Confederacy, and not to those in the border states that remained loyal to the Union.

But although it was presented chiefly as a military measure, the proclamation marked a crucial shift in Lincoln’s views on slavery. Emancipation would redefine the Civil War , turning it from a struggle to preserve the Union to one focused on ending slavery, and set a decisive course for how the nation would be reshaped after that historic conflict.

Abe Lincoln's Developing Views on Slavery

Sectional tensions over slavery in the United States had been building for decades by 1854, when Congress’ passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened territory that had previously been closed to slavery according to the Missouri Compromise . Opposition to the act led to the formation of the Republican Party in 1854 and revived the failing political career of an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln, who rose from obscurity to national prominence and claimed the Republican nomination for president in 1860.

Lincoln personally hated slavery, and considered it immoral. "If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that 'all men are created equal;' and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another," he said in a now-famous speech in Peoria, Illinois, in 1854. But Lincoln didn’t believe the Constitution gave the federal government the power to abolish it in the states where it already existed, only to prevent its establishment to new western territories that would eventually become states. In his first inaugural address in early 1861, he declared that he had “no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery in the States where it exists.” By that time, however, seven Southern states had already seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America and setting the stage for the Civil War.

First Years of the Civil War

At the outset of that conflict, Lincoln insisted that the war was not about freeing enslaved people in the South but about preserving the Union. Four border slave states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri) remained on the Union side, and many others in the North also opposed abolition. When one of his generals, John C. Frémont, put Missouri under martial law, declaring that Confederate sympathizers would have their property seized, and their enslaved people would be freed (the first emancipation proclamation of the war), Lincoln directed him to reverse that policy, and later removed him from command.

But hundreds of enslaved men, women and children were fleeing to Union-controlled areas in the South, such as Fortress Monroe in Virginia, where Gen. Benjamin F. Butler had declared them “contraband” of war, defying the Fugitive Slave Law mandating their return to their owners. Abolitionists argued that freeing enslaved people in the South would help the Union win the war, as enslaved labor was vital to the Confederate war effort.

In July 1862, Congress passed the Militia Act, which allowed Black men to serve in the U.S. armed forces as laborers, and the Confiscation Act, which mandated that enslaved people seized from Confederate supporters would be declared forever free. Lincoln also tried to get the border states to agree to gradual emancipation, including compensation to enslavers, with little success. When abolitionists criticized him for not coming out with a stronger emancipation policy, Lincoln replied that he valued saving the Union over all else.

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery,” he wrote in an editorial published in the Daily National Intelligencer in August 1862. “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

From Preliminary to Formal Emancipation Proclamation 

At the same time however, Lincoln’s cabinet was mulling over the document that would become the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln had written a draft in late July, and while some of his advisers supported it, others were anxious. William H. Seward, Lincoln’s secretary of state, urged the president to wait to announce emancipation until the Union won a significant victory on the battlefield, and Lincoln took his advice.

On September 17, 1862, Union troops halted the advance of Confederate forces led by Gen. Robert E. Lee near Sharpsburg, Maryland, in the Battle of Antietam . Days later, Lincoln went public with the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which called on all Confederate states to rejoin the Union within 100 days—by January 1, 1863—or their slaves would be declared “thenceforward, and forever free.”

On January 1, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which included nothing about gradual emancipation, compensation for enslavers or Black emigration and colonization, a policy Lincoln had supported in the past. Lincoln justified emancipation as a wartime measure, and was careful to apply it only to the Confederate states currently in rebellion. Exempt from the proclamation were the four border slave states and all or parts of three Confederate states controlled by the Union Army. 

Impact of the Emancipation Proclamation

As Lincoln’s decree applied only to territory outside the realm of his control, the Emancipation Proclamation had little actual effect on freeing any of the nation’s enslaved people. But its symbolic power was enormous, as it announced freedom for enslaved people as one of the North’s war aims, alongside preserving the Union itself. It also had practical effects: Nations like Britain and France, which had previously considered supporting the Confederacy to expand their power and influence, backed off due to their steadfast opposition to slavery. Black Americans were permitted to serve in the Union Army for the first time, and nearly 200,000 would do so by the end of the war.

Finally, the Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for the permanent abolition of slavery in the United States. As Lincoln and his allies in Congress realized emancipation would have no constitutional basis after the war ended, they soon began working to enact a Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. By the end of January 1865, both houses of Congress had passed the 13th Amendment , and it was ratified that December.

"It is my greatest and most enduring contribution to the history of the war,” Lincoln said of emancipation in February 1865, two months before his assassination. “It is, in fact, the central act of my administration, and the great event of the 19th century."

HISTORY Vault: Abraham Lincoln

A definitive biography of the 16th U.S. president, the man who led the country during its bloodiest war and greatest crisis.

The Emancipation Proclamation, National Archives

10 Facts: The Emancipation Proclamation, American Battlefield Trust

Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (New York: W.W. Norton, 2010)

Allen C. Guelzo, “Emancipation and the Quest for Freedom.” National Park Service . 

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Emancipation Proclamation

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• National Museum of African American History and Culture - The Emancipation Proclamation: Striking a Mighty Blow to Slavery
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What is the Emancipation Proclamation?

The Emancipation Proclamation was an edict issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union.

When was the Emancipation Proclamation signed?

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863.

Emancipation Proclamation , edict issued by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that freed the slaves of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union. It took more than two years for news of the proclamation to reach the slaves in the distant state of Texas . The arrival of the news on June 19 (of 1865) is now celebrated as a national holiday — Juneteenth or Emancipation Day.

(Read Charles Blow’s Britannica essay on the Juneteenth holiday.)

Before the start of the American Civil War , many people and leaders of the North had been primarily concerned merely with stopping the extension of slavery into western territories that would eventually achieve statehood within the Union. With the secession of the Southern states and the consequent start of the Civil War, however, the continued tolerance of Southern slavery by Northerners seemed no longer to serve any constructive political purpose. Emancipation thus quickly changed from a distant possibility to an imminent and feasible eventuality. Lincoln had declared that he meant to save the Union as best he could—by preserving slavery, by destroying it, or by destroying part and preserving part. Just after the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862) he issued his proclamation calling on the revolted states to return to their allegiance before the next year, otherwise their slaves would be declared free men. No state returned, and the threatened declaration was issued on January 1, 1863.

As president, Lincoln could issue no such declaration; as commander in chief of the armies and navies of the United States he could issue directions only as to the territory within his lines; but the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to territory outside of his lines. It has therefore been debated whether the proclamation was in reality of any force. It may fairly be taken as an announcement of the policy that was to guide the army and as a declaration of freedom taking effect as the lines advanced. At all events, this was its exact effect.

Its international importance was far greater. The locking up of the world’s source of cotton supply had been a general calamity , and the Confederate government and people had steadily expected that the English and French governments would intervene in the war. The conversion of the struggle into a crusade against slavery made European intervention impossible.

The Emancipation Proclamation did more than lift the war to the level of a crusade for human freedom. It brought some substantial practical results, because it allowed the Union to recruit Black soldiers. To this invitation to join the army the Blacks responded in considerable numbers, nearly 180,000 of them enlisting during the remainder of the war. By August 26, 1863, Lincoln could report, in a letter to James C. Conkling, that “the emancipation policy, and the use of colored troops, constitute the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion.”

Two months before the war ended—in February 1865—Lincoln told portrait painter Francis B. Carpenter that the Emancipation Proclamation was “the central act of my administration, and the greatest event of the nineteenth century.” To Lincoln and to his countrymen it had become evident that the proclamation had dealt a deathblow to slavery in the United States, a fate that was officially sealed by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.

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Course: US history   >   Unit 5

• Slavery and the Missouri Compromise
• Increasing political battles over slavery in the mid-1800s
• Start of the Civil War - secession and Fort Sumter
• Strategy of the Civil War
• Early phases of Civil War and Antietam

The Emancipation Proclamation

• Significance of the battle of Antietam
• The battle of Gettysburg
• The Gettysburg Address - setting and context
• Photographing the Battle of Gettysburg, O'Sullivan's Harvest of Death
• The Gettysburg Address - full text and analysis
• Later stages of the Civil War - 1863
• Later stages of the Civil War - the election of 1864 and Sherman's March
• Later stages of the Civil War - Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination
• Big takeaways from the Civil War
• The Civil War

Slavery and the Civil War

Lincoln's dilemma, towards emancipation, interpreting the proclamation, significance of the proclamation.

• Abraham Lincoln, quote from first inaugural address, delivered March 4 1861.
• Historian Richard Hofstader make this comparison in The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1948).

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34a. The Emancipation Proclamation

Americans tend to think of the Civil War as being fought to end slavery. Even one full year into the Civil War, the elimination of slavery was not a key objective of the North. Despite a vocal Abolitionist movement in the North, many people and many soldiers, in particular, opposed slavery, but did not favor emancipation. They expected slavery to die on its own over time. — Union states that still permitted slavery — the situation was full of problems. When a Union officer in Kentucky freed local slaves after a major victory, Union soldiers threw down their arms and disbanded. Lincoln intervened and "unfreed" those slaves. He did this to prevent a military backlash.-->

Click here for the full text of the Emancipation Proclamation

The emancipation proclamation.

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St.Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

By mid-1862 Lincoln had come to believe in the need to end slavery. Besides his disdain for the institution, he simply felt that the South could not come back into the Union after trying to destroy it. The opposition Democratic Party threatened to turn itself into an antiwar party. Lincoln's military commander, General George McClellan, was vehemently against emancipation. Many Republicans who backed policies that forbid black settlement in their states were against granting blacks additional rights. When Lincoln indicated he wanted to issue a proclamation of freedom to his cabinet in mid-1862, they convinced him he had to wait until the Union achieved a significant military success.

That victory came in September at Antietam. No foreign country wants to ally with a potential losing power. By achieving victory, the Union demonstrated to the British that the South may lose. As a result, the British did not recognize the Confederate States of America, and Antietam became one of the war's most important diplomatic battles, as well as one of the bloodiest. Five days after the battle, Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863. Unless the Confederate States returned to the Union by that day, he proclaimed their slaves "shall be then, thenceforward and forever free."

It is sometimes said that the Emancipation Proclamation freed no slaves. In a way, this is true. The proclamation would only apply to the Confederate States, as an act to seize enemy resources. By freeing slaves in the Confederacy, Lincoln was actually freeing people he did not directly control. The way he explained the Proclamation made it acceptable to much of the Union army. He emphasized emancipation as a way to shorten the war by taking Southern resources and hence reducing Confederate strength. Even McClellan supported the policy as a soldier. Lincoln made no such offer of freedom to the border states.

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The Emancipation Proclamation: Striking a Mighty Blow to Slavery

The year 2023 marks the 160th anniversary of one of the most important documents in the nation’s history, the Emancipation Proclamation. The Executive Order issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War provided freedom to enslaved Black people in the rebelling states. Though slavery continued to legally exist in the nation, in slave-holding states that had not left the union, the Emancipation Proclamation marked a major turning point in the hard fought battle to end slavery nationwide.

Well before the creation of the Emancipation Proclamation African Americans, enslaved and free, understood the meaning and importance of freedom. They resisted the bondage of slavery and sought freedom by any means, through thought, word, and deed. Faith provided a foundation for Black people to seize moments of meditation to envision freedom. Through oral and written traditions of speeches, sermons, and printed publications, including news articles and abolitionist pamphlets, Black people forced the discussion on freedom and its inclusive application. They seized freedom through their actions including running away from enslavement and towards freedom.

We use the video player Able Player to provide captions and audio descriptions. Able Player performs best using web browsers Google Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. If you are using Safari as your browser, use the play button to continue the video after each audio description. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The museum commemorates the 160th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation by publishing a video featuring NMAAHC historians and staff reading the Emancipation Proclamation in its entirety and reflecting on its significance today. The video also includes footage from the museum’s galleries and the Searchable Museum.

The 1820s and 1830s saw a growth in interracial alliances that formed the small but mighty Abolitionist Movement to end slavery. By the 1850s the country was heading toward war as states fought over whether the expanding nation would be bound by slavery or live up to the ideal of liberty, indeed freedom for all. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act required everyone in the nation to enforce enslavement by turning in all Black freedom-seekers. Federal officials were bound to returning human property to enslavers. Additionally, the Supreme Court majority opinion also known as the “Dred Scott decision” – declared Black people were not citizens and that “a Black man has no rights which a white man must respect.”

The Case of Dred Scott in the United States Supreme Court

Large group of slaves standing in front of buildings on Smith's Plantation, Beaufort, South Carolina

Membership certificate to the American Colonization Society

Gallery Modal

In November 1860, Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. Though Lincoln was an advocate for ending the spread of slavery, he strategically prioritized keeping the Union together in the splintering nation. He favored gradual emancipation and colonization of free African Americans.

Just one month after Lincoln was elected to the highest office in the nation, the slave-holding state of South Carolina seceded from the Union. Other states soon followed. The states’ secession documents clearly indicate that slavery was at the heart of the matter:

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. . . a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.

The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates, and the world, the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slaveholding confederate States, with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property. Georgia Declaration of Secession

“She [Texas] was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining, and protecting the institution known as negro slavery--the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits--a relation . . . which her people intended should exist in all future time.” A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union.

By February 1861, the seceding states formed the Confederate States of America and appointed Jefferson Davis as the provisional President. Two months later the Civil War began as the Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter in S.C. Lincoln’s battle to keep the Union together was spurred on by the seceding Southern states demand that the institution of slavery be upheld.

Frederick Douglass and other influential Black men and women used their influence, as they urged President Lincoln to emancipate all enslaved people in the nation. Abolitionist Frederick Douglas declared “Fire must be met with water, darkness with light, and war for the destruction of liberty must be met with war for the destruction of slavery.” He also advocated for Black men to serve in the military and join the fight for freedom. Douglass saw military service to ensure a Union success and a pathway to citizenship for the formerly enslaved.

In April 1862, President Lincoln successfully worked with Congress to pass a bill for the emancipation of African Americans enslaved in the nation’s capital. Washington, D.C. was not only the seat of political power, but it was also a hub for slave trading activity, home to many fugitive enslaved people and in close proximity to many sites of rebellion. The Act required a form of reparations for former enslavers as they were granted ninety days to file claims for compensation for their loss of human property. A few months later, Lincoln issued the Confiscation Act of 1862, expanding the Union’s ability to seize enemy property, including human property enslavers in the seceding states. A surge of enslaved Black men, women and children seized their freedom and fled to Union Army lines.

Tintype of a Civil War soldier

No. 2594: "Contrabands" made happy by employment as army teamsters. This shows a glimpse of their first "free" home; being their winter quarters near City Point, Va.

Read an Introduction to the Emancipation Proclamation, Smithsonian Edition, written by NMAAHC curator Paul Gardullo.

Following the success of the Union Army at Antietam, on Sept. 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Under his wartime authority as Commander-in-Chief, he ordered that, as of Jan. 1, 1863, all enslaved individuals in all areas still in rebellion against the United States “henceforward shall be free.”

On December 31st, 1862, African Americans both free and enslaved, along with others who supported the end of slavery, waited for the midnight hour for the Emancipation Proclamation to go into effect. They gathered in churches across the nation praying their way to freedom. The occasion came to be known as “Watch Night,” a New Year’s Eve ritual still practiced among Black church congregations today. President Lincoln signed the Executive Order on January 1, 1863, granting freedom to enslaved African American men, women, and children in the rebelling states. Pastor John C. Gibbs of Philadelphia’s First African Presbyterian Church declared, “The Proclamation has gone forth, and God is saying to this nation by its legitimate constitute head, Man must be free.”

The Proclamation also enabled African American men to enlist in the Union Army and stand on the frontlines in the battle for freedom. They fought to liberate themselves, their loved ones, and their community.

Waiting for the Hour

Emancipation Day, Richmond, Va.

The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect immediately freeing enslaved Black people in the rebelling states, but it took the Civil war to enforce the order. The Union secured victory in April 1865 when the Confederates surrendered at Appomattox. On June 19th, 1865, the Union Army arrived in Galveston, TX, the rebelling state farthest west, enforcing the freedom guaranteed over two years earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation. The moment is known as Juneteenth .

The Civil War was the battle cry for the country to define itself once and for all as an enslaving or free nation. Though the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery throughout the nation, it struck a mighty blow to the system of slavery. The passage of the 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865, declared the legal end of slavery in the United States.

Ambrotype of three women in dotted calico dresses

Through great sacrifice many American men and women fought for and supported the Union victory.

Black people, enslaved and free, held on to their humanity and fought for freedom from as early as the Colonial period. They pushed the country to fulfill the highest ideal of liberty, by ensuring a more inclusive manifestation of freedom. Their unyielding efforts brought the country out of the bondage of enslavement.

Sources: Rothman, Adam. Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South. 3/31/07 ed., Harvard UP, 2007.

Holt, Michael. The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War. First, Hill and Wang, 2005.

Foner, Eric. Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. Illustrated, Vintage, 2006.

Jones, Martha. Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (Studies in Legal History). Cambridge UP, 2018.

Bois, Du W. E. B., et al. W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Reconstruction (LOA #350): An Essay Toward A History of The Part whichBlack Folk Played in The Attempt to ReconstructDemocracy in America, 1860–1880 (Library of America, 350). Library of America, 2021.

Jay, Bethany, et al. Understanding and Teaching American Slavery (the Harvey Goldberg Series for Understanding and Teaching History). 1st ed., University of Wisconsin Press, 2016.

Daniel R. Biddle, and Murray Dubin. “‘God Is Settleing the Account’: African American Reaction to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 137, no. 1, Project Muse, 2013, p. 57. https://doi.org/10.5215/pennmaghistbio.137.1.0057.

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This essay was written for our catalog for one of the rare-authorized edition Lincoln-signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation that sold at auction on June 26, 2012. If you ’ re specifically interested in this printing, see Appendix I . I. An Evolving Stance on Emancipation II. The Myth of Non-Emancipation III. The Proclamation and Black Troops IV. The Political Risk of Emancipation V. Lincoln, Slavery, and the Declaration of Independence: Toward Resolution VI. Affirming Slavery’s Role in Precipitating the War VII. Appendix I: The Leland-Boker “Authorized Edition” of the Emancipation Proclamation VIII. Appendix II: Manuscripts and Other Signed Editions of the Emancipation Proclamation IX. Appendix III: Slavery and Emancipation in American History X. References “All persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free…” Historical Background The Emancipation Proclamation was the single most important act of Lincoln’s presidency. Its text reveals the major themes of the Civil War: the importance of slavery to the war effort on both sides; the courting of border states; Lincoln’s hopes that the rebellious states could somehow be convinced to reenter the Union; the role of black soldiers; Constitutional and popular constraints on emancipation; the place of African Americans in the United States, and America’s place in a worldwide movement toward the abolition of slavery. In sounding the death knell for slavery and the “Slave Power,” the president took a decisive stand on the most contentious issue in American history. In addition to the moral impact of this “sincerely believed…act of justice,” the Proclamation aided the Union cause tangibly and decisively. Because it focused on territory still held by the Confederacy, only small numbers of slaves (compared to the total slave population) were immediately freed. However, the Proclamation deprived the South of essential labor by giving all slaves a reason to escape to Union lines. Failing that, it freed slaves immediately on the Union Army’s occupation of Confederate territory. The Proclamation also encouraged the enlistment of black soldiers, who made a crucial contribution to the Union war effort. Moreover, England and France, which had already abolished slavery, were constrained from supporting the Confederacy, even though doing so would have been in their own economic interests. Lincoln summed up the Proclamation’s importance in 1864: “no human power can subdue this rebellion without using the Emancipation lever as I have done.” As historian John Hope Franklin wrote, Lincoln’s Proclamation “was a step toward the extension of the ideal of equality about which Jefferson had written” in the Declaration of Independence. And in time, “the greatness of the document dawned upon the nation and the world. Gradually, it took its place with the great documents of human freedom.” Next Page: An Evolving Stance on Emancipation Library of Congress Research Guides Main Reading Room Emancipation Proclamation: Primary Documents in American History Digital resources. Introduction External Websites Print Resources History, Humanities & Social Sciences : Ask a Librarian Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help. Chat with a librarian , Monday through Friday, 12-4pm Eastern Time (except Federal Holidays). The Library of Congress website contains a variety of digital materials related to the Emancipation Proclamation, including manuscripts, government documents, pamphlets, printed ephemera, sheet music, and newspaper articles. Abraham Lincoln Papers Emancipation Proclamation Major documents in this collection bearing on the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, are as follows: Abraham Lincoln to Congress, [February-March 1862] (Draft of Message to Congress on federally compensated emancipation) Address to Border State Representatives, [July 12, 1862] Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, July 22, 1862 (Preliminary Draft of Emancipation Proclamation) Abraham Lincoln, Monday, September 22, 1862 (Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation) William H. Seward to Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, December 30, 1862 (Recommended alterations to Emancipation Proclamation) Montgomery Blair, Wednesday, December 31, 1862 (Notes on the Emancipation Proclamation) Salmon P. Chase to Abraham Lincoln, Wednesday, December 31, 1862 (Recommended alterations to the Emancipation Proclamation) Edward Bates, Wednesday, December 31, 1862 (Memorandum on Emancipation Proclamation) Salmon P. Chase, [December 30-31, 1862] (Proposed Revision of Emancipation Proclamation) Abraham Lincoln, [December 30, 1862] (Final Emancipation Proclamation--Preliminary Draft) Abraham Lincoln, [December 30, 1862] (Final Emancipation Proclamation--Preliminary Draft with Suggested Changes) Abraham Lincoln, [December 30, 1862] (Final Emancipation Proclamation,--Preliminary Draft, with Suggested Changes by William Henry Seward) Abraham Lincoln, [December 30, 1862] (Final Emancipation Proclamation--Preliminary Draft with Changes suggested by Edward Bates, with copies: Made for Members of the Cabinet) Salmon P. Chase, [December 31? 1862] (Memorandum on Emancipation) Abraham Lincoln, Thursday, January 01, 1863 (Final Emancipation Proclamation--Final Draft [Lithograph Copy]) Abraham Lincoln, Thursday, January 01, 1863 (Final Emancipation Proclamation, Official Copy) Search the Abraham Lincoln Papers using the phrase " Emancipation Proclamation " to find additional items related to the Emancipation Proclamation. The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana Selected highlight from this collection: The first edition of Abraham Lincoln's preliminary emancipation proclamation. The first edition of Abraham Lincoln's final emancipation proclamation. The National Archives' reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation. Emancipation: song and chorus. Congressional Publications A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875 This collection contains congressional publications from 1774 to 1875, including debates, bills, laws, and journals. In addition, the collection includes the Journals of the Confederate Congress . Emancipation Proclamation A printed copy of the final version of the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863, as it appears in the United States Statutes at Large . Jefferson Davis's response to the Emancipation Proclamation, January 12, 1863 The Journals of the Confederate Congress contain a message written by Jefferson Davis in response to the Emancipation Proclamation. The Retaliatory Act, Confederate Congress, May 1, 1863 The Journals of the Confederate Congress contain the Retaliatory Act passed by the Confederate Congress in response to the Emancipation Proclamation. Exhibitions American Treasures of the Library of Congress - Emancipation Proclamation This online exhibition contains Lincoln’s first and final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as the final version issued on January 1, 1863. Also included is a letter that Lincoln wrote to Albert G. Hodges in which he states “if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition This online exhibition commemorates the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the nation’s revered sixteenth president and includes a section on the Emancipation Proclamation. Historic Newspapers  A selection of articles includes: "The Proclamation," The National Republican . (Washington, D.C.), September 30, 1862. "The Army and the Proclamation," Belmont Chronicle . (St. Clairsville, Ohio), October 9, 1862. "The Rebels Squirming Under the Emancipation Proclamation," The Nashville Daily Union . (Nashville, Tenn.), November 21, 1862. "The Proclamation," Daily National Republican . (Washington, D.C.), January 2, 1863. In addition, the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room has created a series of topics guides to the newspapers included in Chronicling America, including a guide on the Emancipation Proclamation . Freedom national: the Emancipation Proclamation vindicated! The Emancipation Proclamation: speeches of the Hon. Albert Andrus, of Franklin, and Hon. William H. Brand, of Madison, delivered in the Assembly, on the evening of March 4th, 1863... Prints & Photographs Collections with Photos, Prints, Drawings Pictorial materials are found in many units of the Library of Congress. The Prints & Photographs Division, alone, holds more than 15 million items, including photographs, prints, drawings and architectural and engineering designs; more than 1 million of the items are available in digital form. Search the Library's collections of photos, prints, and drawings to find images related to the Emancipation Proclamation . Selected images include: The first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the cabinet / painted by F.B. Carpenter ; engraved by A.H. Ritchie. President Lincoln and his cabinet: in council, Sept. 22nd 1862. adopting the Emancipation Proclamation, issued Jany. 1st 1863. Today in History April 16, 1862 President Lincoln signed an act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia on April 16, 1862. September 22, 1862 The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862. << Previous: Introduction Next: External Websites >> Last Updated: Jun 20, 2024 8:51 AM URL: https://guides.loc.gov/emancipation-proclamation Juneteenth and the Emancipation Proclamation The emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. took place over a protracted period. The articles in this curated list dig into the complicated history. The end of chattel slavery in the United States took place over a protracted period. Celebrations—sometimes called Juneteenth , Emancipation Day, and Jubilee Day—were held on a variety of dates at different historical moments and regions. The following is a small selection of articles that dig into this complicated history. As the public historian Amber Bailey notes, “It is important to note that virtually all of [the written history] from these Emancipation Day celebrations comes through reports printed in white-owned newspapers. Thus, any understanding of these events is necessarily filtered through the lens of a white press whose views ranged from being sympathetic to black suffering, as typified in early Chicago Tribune articles, to unabashedly racist, as reflected in later Chicago Times articles.” The alternative press coverage of Juneteenth celebrations from the 60’s and 70s–adds some interesting perspective. (Note: All links to scholarship below are freely available to all readers.) “When Peace Come”: Teaching the Significance of Juneteenth” (includes a Juneteenth lesson plan) By: Shennette Garrett-Scott, Rebecca Cummings Richardson, Venita Dillard-Allen Black History Bulletin 76, no. 2 (2013): 19-25 “In the early 1890s, blacks began using “Juneteenth” to describe Jubilee Day. By the early 1900s, Juneteenth celebrations in Texas, southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, and parts of Louisiana rivaled Independence Day celebrations. To the casual observer, these celebrations seemed like jubilant, spiritual celebrations on one special day of the year. However, they were also civic celebrations that, according to historian Elizabeth Turner Hayes, “took on broader implications for citizenship.” During the celebrations, Blacks discussed voting rights and encouraged attendees to participate in the political process. Freedom included the right to vote, which was slowly being taken away by the last decade of the nineteenth century and completely compromised bythe first decade of the twentieth century.”  “Freedom’s Revolutions: Rethinking Emancipation and Its History” By: O’Donovan, Susan. Tennessee Historical Quarterly 72, no. 4 (2013): 245-54 “The historical record tells a much bigger and more complicated story. By taking advantage of an astonishingly rich body of archival materials, scholars have found that emancipation was a profoundly revolutionary process beginning long before the first shots crashed into Fort Sumter. Archival sources reveal that the pantheon of actors involved in emancipation was far more diverse than the modern American public tends to understand. Most critically, they tell us that enslaved Americans were the chief protagonists in a national story.” “How Abe Lincoln Lost the Black Vote: Lincoln and Emancipation in the African American Mind” By: Allen C. Guelzo Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 25, no. 1 (2004): 1-22. “In the jubilation that surrounded the arrival of emancipation, free blacks in the North and enslaved blacks in the South rejoiced at the sound of Lincoln’s name and ignored that the proclamation was limited by Lincoln only to slaves in the Confederate states—not to Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, or Delaware—and even then only to those areas not occupied by the Union.” “For more than a half-century after the proclamation, African Amer icans turned its anniversary into an emancipation holiday. There was no uniformity in the exact date, since there had been no uniformity to when news of the proclamation reached the ears of many slaves. In the North, September 22, July 4, August 1, April 6, and November 1 were all celebrated for their connections with some aspect of emancipation; in Texas, blacks chose June 19—”Juneteenth”—as their Emancipation Day, since the news of the proclamation was not offi cially read to Texas slaves until June 19, 1865. What was probably the first of these jubilees occurred on New Year’s Day in 1866, when over ten thousand blacks crowded the Charleston race-course to hear speeches from white Union army generals and African-Americanministers. Over the years, emancipation festivals included parades, barbecues, prayer-meetings, sermons, speeches, and invariably, readings of the Emancipation Proclamation.” “Days of Jubilee: Emancipation Day Celebrations in Chicago, 1853 to 1877” By: Amber Bailey Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998-) 109, no. 4 (2016): 353-73 “January 1 was just one of many dates black Chicagoans celebrated as critical moments in the struggle for universal emancipation. The festivities held on these dates came to be known as Emancipation Day celebrations or jubilees. Before and even after the Civil War, black Chicagoans observed Emancipation Day on August 1, which marked the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834. Beginning in 1860s, Emancipation Day festivities were organized around two dates: September 22 and January 1.” Bailey suggests further reading: “ In recent years, Emancipation Day celebrations have begun to attract more attention from scholars of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African American history. The scholarship of three particular scholars has been most helpful in understanding the magnitude and multiple dimensions of Emancipation Day celebrations. First, Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie situates the festivities surrounding British emancipation in the context of  the Black Atlantic. … Second, Mitch Kachun has argued compellingly that Emancipation Day celebrations functioned as sites where black communities across the United States could bridge social gaps, construct a usable past, and voice political opinions, or as sites to “congregate, educate, and agitate” as he so succinctly put it. … Third, Leslie Schwalm echoes much of Kachun’s analysis in her discussion of commemorative events organized by African American communities in the Upper Midwest. Schwalm adds an incisive interpretation of gender dynamics and the role of women in Emancipation Day celebrations, challenging the notion that sexism rendered black women invisible in public commemorations. JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. Get Our Newsletter Get your fix of JSTOR Daily’s best stories in your inbox each Thursday. Privacy Policy   Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. More Stories Endangered: North American Cricket Reclaiming a Coal Town Printing Anarchy Gonna Make You a ( Bangsawan ) Star Recent posts. Eisenhower and the Real-Life Nautilus How Renaissance Art Found Its Way to American Museums Lessons in Mannerism at the Palazzo del Te Breakdancing, Animal Pandemic, and Cutting-Edge Steel Support JSTOR Daily Sign up for our weekly newsletter. History Cooperative Emancipation Proclamation: Effects, Impacts, and Outcomes There is one document from the American Civil War that is considered to be one of the most important, valuable and impactful of all documents. That document was known as the Emancipation Proclamation. This executive order was drafted and signed by Abraham Lincoln on January 1 st , 1863, during the Civil War. Many people believe that the emancipation proclamation effectively ended slavery but the truth is far more complicated than that. Recommended Reading US History Timeline: The Dates of America’s Journey How Old Is the United States of America? The Emancipation Proclamation was a momentous occasion in the history of the United States . It was created by Abraham Lincoln as a way to try and take advantage of the rebellion that was currently underway in the south. This rebellion was known as the Civil War, with the North and the South divided due to ideological differences. The political situation of the Civil War was relatively dire. With the South in a state of outright rebellion, it was on Abraham Lincoln’s shoulders to try and preserve the Union at all costs. The war itself was still not recognized by the North as a war, because Abraham Lincoln refused to recognize the South as its own nation. While the South prefer to call itself the Confederate States of America, to the north they were still states of the United States of America. Civil War Biographies Ann rutledge: abraham lincoln’s first true love, the paradoxical president: re-imagining abraham lincoln, the right arm of custer: colonel james h. kidd, nathan bedford forrest: life and service of the military genius, william mckinley: life and death of the 25th president of the united states. The Emancipation Proclamation’s entire purpose was to free the slaves in the South. In fact, the Emancipation Proclamation had nothing to do with slavery in the North. The Union would still be a slave nation during the war, despite the fact that Abraham Lincoln would y be laying the ground for a greater abolitionist movement. When the proclamation was passed, it was aimed at the states that were currently in rebellion; the entire purpose was to disarm the South. During the Civil War, the Southern economy was primarily based on slavery. With the majority of men fighting in the Civil War, slaves were used primarily for reinforcing soldiers, transporting goods, and working in agricultural labor back home. The South did not have the same level of industrialism without slavery, as the North did. Essentially, when Lincoln passed to the Emancipation Proclamation it was actually an attempt to weaken the Confederate states by removing one of their strongest methods of production. This decision was primarily pragmatic; Lincoln was focused entirely on disarming the South. However, regardless of intentions, the Emancipation Proclamation signaled a shift in the purpose of the Civil War. The war was no longer simply about preserving the state of the union, the war was more or less about ending slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation was not a well-received action. It was a strange political maneuver and even most of Lincoln’s cabinet was hesitant to believe that it would be effective.  The reason that the Emancipation Proclamation is such a curious document is because it was passed as under the President’s war-time powers. Normally, the American Presidency has very little power of decree. Lawmaking and legislative control belongs to Congress. The President does have the ability to issue what is known as an executive order. Executive orders have the full backing and force of a law, but for the most part they are subject to control from Congress. The president himself has very little power outside of what Congress allows, except in wartime. As the commander-in-chief, the president has the ability to use wartime powers to enforce special laws. The Emancipation Proclamation was one of those laws that Lincoln had used his military powers to enforce. Originally, Lincoln believed in the progressive elimination of slavery in all states. He believed that it was primarily up to the states to oversee the progressive abolition of slavery in their own individual power. Regardless of his political position on the matter, however, Lincoln had always believed that slavery was wrong. The Emancipation Proclamation served more as a military maneuver than a political maneuver. At the same time, this action cemented Lincoln as being a staunchly aggressive abolitionist and would ensure that slavery would eventually be removed from the entire United States. One major political effect that the Emancipation Proclamation had was the fact that it invited slaves to serve in the Union Army. Such an action was a brilliant strategic choice. The decision to pass a law that told all slaves from the South that they were free and encouraging them to take up arms to join in the fight against their former masters was the brilliant tactical maneuver. Ultimately with those permissions, many freed slaves joined the Northern Army, drastically increasing their manpower. The North by the end of the war had over 200,000 African-Americans fighting for them. The South was more or less in a state of turmoil after such an announcement. The proclamation had actually been publicized three times, the first time as a threat, the second time as a more formal announcement and then the third time as the signing of the Proclamation. When the Confederates heard the news, they were in a state of severe disrepair. One of them primary issues was that as the North advanced into territories and seized control of Southern land, they would often capture slaves. These slaves were simply restricted as contraband, not returned to their owners – the South. When the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, all current contraband, i.e. the slaves, were freed at the stroke of midnight. There was no offer of compensation, payment, or even a fair trade to the slave-owners. These slave-holders were suddenly deprived of what they believe to be property. Combined with the sudden loss of a large number of slaves, and influx of troops that would provide the North with additional firepower, the South found itself in a very tough position. Slaves were now able to escape from the South and as soon as they made it into the North, they would be free. Yet as important as the Emancipation Proclamation was to America’s history, its actual impact on slavery was minimal at best. If nothing more, it was a way to solidify the president’s position as an abolitionist and to ensure the fact that slavery would be ended. Slavery wasn’t officially ended in the United States of America until the 13 th Amendment was passed, in 1865. One of the issues with the Emancipation Proclamation was that it was passed as a wartime measure. As stated before, in the United States, laws are not passed through the president, they are passed by Congress. This left the actual freedom status of the slaves up in the air. If the North were to win the war, the Emancipation Proclamation would not continue to be a constitutionally legal document. It would need to be ratified by the government in order to stay in effect. The purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation has been muddled over the course of history. The basic line of though is that it freed the slaves. That is only partially correct, it merely freed the slaves in the South, something that wasn’t particularly enforceable due to the fact South was in a state of rebellion. What it did do however was ensure that if the North won, the South would be forced to free all of their slaves. Ultimately that would lead to the freedom of 3.1 million slaves. However, most of those slaves were not free until after the war had concluded. Latest US History Articles Who Invented the Assembly Line? Henry Ford and the History of the Assembly Line Who Invented the Cotton Gin? Eli Whitney and Cotton Gin Impact on America The Most Famous Outlaws of the Wild West: Jesse James to Robert Leroy Parker The Emancipation Proclamation was criticized on all sides of the political spectrum. The proslavery movement believed that it was wrong and immoral for the president to inflict such a thing, but their hands were tied due to the fact that they wanted the Union to be preserved. The North had originally tried to use the Emancipation Proclamation as a threat to the South. The terms were simple, return to the Union or face the dire consequences of having all slaves freed. When the South refused to return, the North decided to unleash the document. This left Lincoln’s political opponents in a bind because they didn’t want to lose their slaves, but at the same time it would be a disaster if United States were to divide up into two different nations. There was a lot of flak in the abolitionist movement as well.  Many of the abolitionists believed that it wasn’t a sufficient document because it did not totally eradicate slavery and in fact was barely enforceable in the states that it did authorize such release. Since the South was in a state of war, there wasn’t much impetus for them to comply with the order. Lincoln was criticized by many different factions, and even among historians there is a question as to what his motives were in his decisions. But it is important to remember that the success of the Emancipation Proclamation hinged on the victory of the North. If the North was successful and was able to seize control of the Union once again, reunifying all the states and putting the South out of its state of rebellion, it would have freed all of their slaves. There was no going back from this decision. The rest of America would be forced to follow suit. This meant that Abraham Lincoln was well aware of the ramifications of his actions. He knew that the Emancipation Proclamation was not a permanent, final solution to the problem of slavery but rather it was a powerful opening salvo to an entirely new type of war. This changed the purpose of the Civil War as well. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, the North was engaged in military action against the South due to the fact of the South was trying to secede from the Union. Originally, the war as seen by the North, was a war to preserve the unity of America. The South was trying to secede because of a myriad of reasons. There are a lot of simplistic reasons offered for why the North and the South were divided. The most common reason stated is that the South wanted to have slavery and Lincoln was purely a staunch abolitionist. Another theory was that the Civil War was started because the South wanted a greater level of states’ rights, whereas the current Republican Party was pushing for a more unified type of government. The reality is that the motivations of the South’s secession is a mixed bag. It was most likely a collection of all the above ideas. To say there was a single reason for the Civil War is a massive underestimation of how politics works. Regardless of the South’s purpose for leaving the union, when the North made the decision to free the slaves, it became very clear that this would become an abolitionist war. The South relied heavily on their slaves in order to survive. Their economics were based primarily on a slave economy, as opposed to the North which had been developing a primarily industrial economy. The North with higher level of education, weaponry, and production capability did not rely on slaves as much because abolition had become more prevalent.  As the abolitionists continued to chip at and reduce the right to own slaves, the South began to feel threatened and as such made the decision to break away in order to preserve their own economic strength. This is where the question of Lincoln’s intentions has come into play across history. Lincoln was an abolitionist, of that there can be no doubt. Yet his intentions were to allow states to progressively disengage slavery on their own terms. He was greatly trying to encourage each state to abolish slavery, attempting his best to offer compensation to the slave-owners in the hopes that eventually they would free their slaves. He believed in a slow, progressive reduction in slavery. This was primarily, in some opinions, a political decision. Freeing the slaves in one fell swoop would have caused massive political upheaval and probably would’ve caused a few more states to join the South. So rather, as America progressed, there were a series of laws and rules passed to slow down the strength of slavery. Lincoln, in fact, advocated for those kinds of laws. He believed in the slow reduction of slavery, not immediate abolition. This is why his intentions are called into question with the existence of the Emancipation Proclamation. The man’s approach to the Emancipation Proclamation was primarily designed to destroy the southern economy, not to free the slaves. Still, at the same time, there was no going back from this action, as said before. When Lincoln made the decision to free the slaves in the South, he was making the decision to free all of the slaves eventually. This was recognized as such and so the Civil War became a war about slavery. Explore More US History Articles Louisiana Purchase: Date, Cost, Importance, and Results The American Revolution: The Dates, Causes, and Timeline in the Fight for Independence Battle of Camden: Significance, Dates, and Results Bleeding Kansas: When, How, and Why Did It Happen? “Without a Second’s Warning” The Heppner Flood of 1903 Regardless of what Lincoln’s intentions were, it is unmistakable to see the widespread effects of the Emancipation Proclamation. Little by little, inch by inch, slavery was overcome and this is thankfully because of Lincoln’s decision to make such a bold action. Make no mistake, this was not a simple political maneuver in order to gain popularity. If anything, this would signal the destruction of Lincoln’s party if he failed in securing the Union. Even if he had prevailed and held control of the union, it very well still could have signaled his party’s destruction. But he chose to put everything on the line and made the decision to free the people from the bonds of slavery. Shortly thereafter, when the war had ended, the 13 th amendment passed and all slaves in the United States were free. Slavery was declared to be abolished forever. This was passed under Lincoln’s administration and most likely would never have existed without his bravery and courage and stepping up to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. READ MORE : The Three-Fifths Compromise Booker T. Washington The Emancipation of Abe Lincoln: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/opinion/the-emancipation-of-abe-lincoln.html A Pragmatic Proclamation: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/14/148520024/emancipating-lincoln-a-pragmatic-proclamation How to Cite this Article There are three different ways you can cite this article. 1. To cite this article in an academic-style article or paper , use: <a href=" https://historycooperative.org/effects-emancipation-proclamation/ ">Emancipation Proclamation: Effects, Impacts, and Outcomes</a> 2 thoughts on “Emancipation Proclamation: Effects, Impacts, and Outcomes” Your baby needs you. It’s the fight for their live, not Planned Parenthood’s life. Just look at those advertisements and stop and think for a second. They say “this is the fight of our life?” It’s an organization whose primary purpose is to end unborn life. People have their reasons for doing things, but make no mistake, PP is a business who profits on doing it. Withhold your money and speak against that group. From the article: “The basic line of though is that it freed the slaves.”. Probably should be: “basic line of thought..” Leave a Comment Cancel reply Online Exhibits Transcript of the Proclamation January 1, 1863 A Transcription By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States." Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh. By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. Home — Essay Samples — History — Emancipation Proclamation — A Discussion on the Significance of the Emancipation Proclamation A Discussion on The Significance of The Emancipation Proclamation Categories: Emancipation Proclamation About this sample Words: 3013 | 16 min read Published: Nov 20, 2018 Words: 3013 | Pages: 7 | 16 min read Cite this Essay Let us write you an essay from scratch 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours Get high-quality help Prof. Kifaru Verified writer Expert in: History + 120 experts online By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email No need to pay just yet! Related Essays 3 pages / 1526 words 3 pages / 1286 words 1 pages / 506 words 2 pages / 1046 words Remember! This is just a sample. You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers. 121 writers online Still can’t find what you need? Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, stands as one of the most significant documents in American history. This landmark executive order declared the freedom of enslaved people in [...] In many ways there were a range of ways we reacted to the emancipation, that many European nations saw it as putting sort of a right authority on the war and so, as an outcome of, places like England and France said well, we [...] Somebody once remarked, “No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent” (“Abraham Lincoln Quotes”). At the initial view, the Civil War was going to be won by the South. Nonetheless, all that changed [...] Juneteenth marks the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. Beyond its historical roots, this essay delves into the contemporary significance of Juneteenth, exploring its meaning and relevance for Black [...] “I felt like a bird out of a cage. Amen. Amen. Amen. I could hardly ask to feel any better than I did that day…. The week passed off in a blaze of glory” Houston H. Holloway, former slave, on the emancipation proclamation in [...] In 1917-1938, The Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. In a small New York borough called Harlem, black people were beginning to gain social, cultural, and artistic freedom. Black poets, writers, musicians, and scholars flocked [...] Related Topics By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails. Where do you want us to send this sample? By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. Be careful. This essay is not unique This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before Download this Sample Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper. Please check your inbox. We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together! Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less! We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy . Instructions Followed To The Letter Deadlines Met At Every Stage Unique And Plagiarism Free History shows the choice of vice president matters Vice presidential running mates then and now, from left, Andrew Johnson, George H. Pendleton, Tim Walz, and JD Vance. Credit: AP, Getty Images/Interim Archives, AP/Julia Nikhinson,The Washington Post/Tom Brenner This guest essay reflects the views of Sol Wachtler, former chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals and distinguished adjunct professor at Touro Law School. Donald Trump has said that his pick of JD Vance as his running mate will have “no impact on the election.” He said the vice presidential candidate does not make a difference. Trump may be correct; however, history tells us that running mates can bring victory when defeat seems inevitable. The opposite is also true. When then-President Donald Trump addressed the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2017, he referred to Abraham Lincoln as a “Great president. Most people don’t even know he was a Republican. Does anyone know? Lot of people don’t know that.” It must be assumed that most of those Republicans did “know that” — after all, their party had long been referred to as the “Party of Lincoln.” However, what “most people don’t even know” is that when Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, he did not run as a Republican. When Lincoln first ran, many who were opposed to slavery were reluctant to support the newly formed Republican Party. Although its platform provided that slavery should not be allowed to spread to other states, it also provided that slavery should be allowed to continue in the states where it existed. In order to garner the support of Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists who wanted an immediate end to slavery, the Republicans chose Sen. Hannibal Hamlin, a strong abolitionist from Maine, as Lincoln’s running mate. Although the GOP only received 39% of the vote, it was a winner. The Republican base was held together by having Hamlin on the ticket. It was through the efforts of Hamlin that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1862. However, the abolitionists and Republicans remained unhappy with Lincoln’s overriding concern of keeping the Union together instead of equality for enslaved black Americans. After three years of Civil War, with the morale of the Union army in decline, the Republicans abandoned Lincoln and along with the abolitionists, formed the new Radical Democracy Party. From our Editorial Board, get inside the local, city and state political scenes. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy . Lincoln, determined to be reelected to keep the Union together, created the National Union Party. Lincoln dropped Hamlin from the ticket and replaced him with Andrew Johnson, a slave-owning Southerner from Tennessee. Lincoln’s opponents were the “War Democrats” who want to continue fighting to keep the Union together and the “Peace Democrats” who wanted to stop the war with the Confederate States and allow them to continue slavery. The Republicans branded the “Peace Democrats” as venomous snakes — “Copperheads” who wanted a return to the “Know Nothing” bigoted politics of the 1850s. The “War Democrats” nominated General George McClellan, a West Point graduate who had led the Union army to several victories. McClellan wanted someone who was young and would help him win the large and populous border state of Ohio and chose a 39-year-old senator from Ohio named George H. Pendleton. JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, is also a 39-year-old senator from Ohio. It is too early to predict whether Vance’s newfound conservatism will help or hurt Trump’s candidacy, but the choice of Pendleton by McClellan turned out to be a fatal political error. Pendleton, as one of the leaders of the “Copperhead” movement, had voted against the 13th Amendment which ended slavery. McClellan must have known all that but still thought that Pendleton’s presence on the ticket would help him win Ohio and thus the presidency. Instead, Pendleton became an easy target for the Lincoln campaign. The Democratic ticket lost in a landslide to Lincoln and Johnson. McClellan didn’t even carry Ohio. Former President Trump has said that he could beat Abraham Lincoln in a hypothetical election. Perhaps that is true; however, I would be curious to know whom he would have chosen as his hypothetical running mate. It would make a difference. Stay logged in. The Newsday app makes it easier to access content without having to log in. Unlimited Digital Access Only 25¢ for 5 months 205 IMAGES Brief analysis of the emancipation proclamation history essay Significance of the Emancipation Proclamation Abraham Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation Speech The Emancipation proclamation Essay Example The Emancipation Proclamation Abraham Lincoln COMMENTS Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation The Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment brought about by the Civil War were important milestones in the long process of ending legal slavery in the United States. This essay describes the development of those documents through various drafts by Lincoln and others and shows both the evolution of Abraham Lincoln's thinking and his efforts to operate within the constitutional ... Emancipation Proclamation ‑ Definition, Dates & Summary Issued after the Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation carried moral and strategic implications for the ongoing Civil War. While it did not free a single ... Emancipation Proclamation Emancipation Proclamation, edict issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that freed the slaves of the Confederate states during the American Civil War. Besides lifting the war to the level of a crusade for human freedom, the proclamation allowed the Union to recruit Black soldiers. The Emancipation Proclamation (article) The Emancipation Proclamation, with its whereofs, thenceforwards, and hereuntos is anything but elegant. One historian famously joked that the proclamation had "all the moral grandeur of a bill of lading." So why is the Emancipation Proclamation such a dense, inelegant piece of writing? 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 ... The Emancipation Proclamation [ushistory.org] The Proclamation itself freed very few slaves, but it was the death knell for slavery in the United States. Eventually, the Emancipation Proclamation led to the proposal and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolished slavery throughout the land. Emancipation Proclamation: An Introduction On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Under his wartime authority as commander-in-chief, he ordered that as of January 1, 1863, enslaved individuals in all areas still in rebellion against the United States "henceforward shall be free." The Emancipation Proclamation This essay is based on a talk given by John Hope Franklin at the National Archives, January 4, 1993, on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. * The Emancipation Proclamation (Garden City, NW: Doubleday and Company, 1963; reprint, Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1994). Emancipation Proclamation (1863) That changed on September 22, 1862, when President Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that enslaved people in those states or parts of states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be declared free. One hundred days later, with the rebellion unabated, President issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within ... The Emancipation Proclamation: Annotated Abraham Lincoln proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in America on January 1, 1863. Today, we've annotated the Emancipation Proclamation for readers. The Emancipation Proclamation: Striking a Mighty Blow to Slavery The year 2023 marks the 200th anniversary of one of the most important documents in the nation's history, the Emancipation Proclamation. The Executive Order issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War provided freedom to enslaved Black people in the rebelling states. Though slavery continued to legally exist in the nation, in slave-holding states that had not left the union, the ... The Emancipation Proclamation: The Document that Saved America This essay was written for our catalog for one of the rare-authorized edition Lincoln-signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation that sold at auction on June 26, 2012. Emancipation Proclamation: Primary Documents in American History The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 20,000 documents, including an essay on Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation. Emancipation Proclamation Major documents in this collection bearing on the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, are as follows: Juneteenth and the Emancipation Proclamation The emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. took place over a protracted period. The articles in this curated list dig into the complicated history. The Emancipation Proclamation Enlarge The Emancipation Proclamation (page 1) Record Group 11 General Records of the United States View in National Archives Catalog Español President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and ... Emancipation Proclamation Essays The Emancipation Proclamation was a historic document issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. On January 1, 1863, it declared that all slaves in Confederate states were to be "forever free" and would no longer be subject to enslavement or involuntary servitude. It also encouraged freed slaves to enlist in the ... Emancipation Proclamation: Effects, Impacts, and Outcomes The Emancipation Proclamation was a momentous occasion in the history of the United States. This is the story of how this important changed the course of history. The Emancipation Proclamation: [Essay Example], 762 words The Emancipation Proclamation. Somebody once remarked, "No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent" ("Abraham Lincoln Quotes"). At the initial view, the Civil War was going to be won by the South. Nonetheless, all that changed when Abraham Lincoln constructed the Emancipation Proclamation because it did ... Essays on Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, stands as one of the most significant documents in American history. This landmark executive order declared the freedom of enslaved people in Confederate-held territory during the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation Summary Emancipation Proclamation. PDF Cite. Article abstract: In an effort to preserve the Union, President Lincoln declares all slaves in rebel states to be free. Summary of Event. The cabinet met at ... Transcript of the Proclamation Transcript of the Proclamation. January 1, 1863. A Transcription. By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the ... Emancipation Proclamation Essay The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by the President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 when the country entered the third year of Civil War. A Discussion on the Significance of the Emancipation Proclamation In this essay, I will give a brief overview of the Civil War, what life was like for the slaves before the war, the events that led up to this historical incident, the Emancipation Proclamation and its significance, the life of a slave after the Emancipation Proclamation, and what slavery means to our society today. History shows the choice of vice president matters By Sol WachtlerGuest essay August 14, 2024 5:31 pm. Share. ... It was through the efforts of Hamlin that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1862. However, the abolitionists and ... essay homework paper phd project resume review study thesis