Emancipation Proclamation

presidential proclamation by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln, primary source

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History

Emancipation Proclamation, edict issued by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that freed the enslaved people of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union. It took more than two years for news of the proclamation to reach the enslaved communities in the distant state of Texas. The arrival of the news on June 19 (of 1865) is now celebrated as a national holiday—Juneteenth or Emancipation Day. (Read Charles Blow’s Britannica essay on...