Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, during the US Civil War. The order declared all enslaved people inside the Confederacy to be free, effective immediately. It promised them protection by the US military, and it invited them to join the Union Army in the fight against the Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation was widely celebrated as a major turning point in the movement for abolition, though the Union had no means of enforcing it inside the Confederate states where it applied. Upon its release, the document was published in newspapers and, later, often read aloud by Union soldiers to enslaved people when they were freed. It paved the way for the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, and for decades after its release, the Emancipation Proclamation was celebrated each January 1 in towns across the nation. This study guide refers to the transcript of the proclamation at the website of the US National Archives.

Content Warning: This guide discusses the enslavement of Black people and the US Civil War.

Lincoln was initially reluctant to make emancipation or abolition an important part of his wartime agenda. Although he personally abhorred slavery and campaigned on an anti-slavery platform, he recognized that he had no constitutional authority to abolish it.