What is the Emancipation Proclamation?
By the President of the United States of America: A PROCLAMATION Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: “That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, 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.
Following the Battle of Antietam (September 1862), Lincoln published the Preliminary Emancipation Declaration, announcing the intention to declare slaves free within 100 days. Lincoln signed the final Declaration on 1 January 1863, declaring that all enslaved persons in the seceded states would be freed, making the ending of slavery the central war aim of the Union during the American Civil War.
On the momentous day of Jan 1 1863 President Abraham Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation. This Proclamation stated that all slaves in Rebel territory were free men and emphasized the enlisting of African Americans in the army. The Proclamation was a thunderbolt to the South which sent shockwaves in many ways, which will decisively be discussed on this page.
