Emancipation Proclamation

Find out more about the history of Emancipation Proclamation, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

Learn more about the Emancipation Proclamation

Watch a video biography of Abraham Lincoln and learn about the Emancipation Proclamation, his executive order that granted freedom to slaves in 10 states.

ssued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation declared "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." Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, it did change the basic character of the Civil War.

Emancipation Proclamation: Examination of the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln's edict freeing slaves in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Full Text, preliminary and final, of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863

As early as 1849, Abraham Lincoln believed that slaves should be emancipated, advocating a program in which they would be freed gradually.

President Lincoln read the first draft of this document to his Cabinet members on July 22, 1862. After some changes, he issued the preliminary version on September 22, which specified that the final document would take effect January 1, 1863.

Wikipedia