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Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring enslaved Blacks in rebellious territories free.
1863 (Jan 1)
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln, went into effect on January 1, 1863. This proclamation declared that "all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of the state, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." With this proclamation more than three-quarters of all enslaved Blacks were set to be free. And, while certainly a move towards the ending of slavery, the proclamation only applied to those enslaved Africans in states that had seceded from the Union, and not to enslaved Blacks living in the four slave states that remained a part of the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation was, in part, a military tactic by the President. The document notes that emancipation was "an act of justice, warranted by the constitution upon military necessity." The issuing of the proclamation helped to rally support among abolitionists. Enslaved Blacks set to be free by the proclamation could join the union army. Moreover, it gave the union the moral high ground, helping the union to gain support from other nations. It took time for the message of emancipation to spread. It would not be until June 19, 1865, after the end of the Civil War, that word of emancipation would reach the slaves of Galveston, Texas. Ultimately, the Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for the abolition of slavery at the end of the Civil War. And it earned Abraham Lincoln the nickname of The Great Emancipator.
References:
- • United States. President (1861-1865 : Lincoln). The Emancipation Proclamation. Bedford, Mass. :Applewood Books, 1998.
- • Franklin, John Hope and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans New York: McGraw Hill, 2011.