Emancipation Proclamation

People

Abraham Lincoln

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all enslaved people in states still in rebellion against the United States "are, and henceforward shall be free." The proclamation was a war measure issued under Lincoln's authority as Commander-in-Chief and changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states from enslaved to free. Lincoln had first presented the idea to his cabinet in July 1862, but Secretary of State William Seward advised him to wait for a Union military victory before announcing it. Following the Union's success at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, giving Confederate states 100 days to rejoin the Union or have their slaves declared free. The Emancipation Proclamation had significant limitations. It applied only to the ten Confederate states still in rebellion and explicitly exempted the four border states (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky) that had remained loyal to the Union, as well as Union-controlled areas of Louisiana, Virginia, and Tennessee. These exemptions left approximately 800,000 enslaved people in bondage. Critics noted that Lincoln only declared slaves free in areas where he lacked the immediate power to enforce their freedom. However, the proclamation fundamentally transformed the war's character: every Union military advance now expanded the domain of freedom. The proclamation's most immediate practical impact was authorizing the enlistment of Black soldiers into the Union Army and Navy. By the war's end, more than 185,000 Black men had served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT), comprising about 10% of the Union Army. These soldiers fought in more than 400 battles, and 16 earned the Medal of Honor. The proclamation also ended any possibility of European intervention on behalf of the Confederacy, as Britain and France could not support a war to preserve slavery. On the night of December 31, 1862, enslaved and free Black Americans gathered in churches across the nation in what became known as "Watch Night" or "Freedom's Eve," praying until midnight for the proclamation to take effect. Lincoln himself considered the Emancipation Proclamation his greatest legacy, saying, "I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper."