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President
Abraham Lincoln
issued the
Emancipation
Proclamation on
January 1, 1863,
as the nation
approached its
third year of
bloody civil
war. The
proclamation
declared "that
all persons held
as slaves"
within the
rebellious
states "are, and
henceforward
shall be free."
Despite this
expansive
wording, the
Emancipation
Proclamation was
limited in many
ways. It applied
only to states
that had seceded
from the Union,
leaving slavery
untouched in the
loyal border
states. It also
expressly
exempted parts
of the
Confederacy that
had already come
under Northern
control. Most
important, the
freedom it
promised
depended upon
Union military
victory.
Although the
Emancipation
Proclamation did
not immediately
free a single
slave, it
fundamentally
transformed the
character of the
war. After
January 1, 1863,
every advance of
federal troops
expanded the
domain of
freedom.
Moreover, the
Proclamation
announced the
acceptance of
black men into
the Union Army
and Navy,
enabling the
liberated to
become
liberators. By
the end of the
war, almost
200,000 black
soldiers and
sailors had
fought for the
Union and
freedom.
| From
the first days of
the Civil War,
slaves had acted to
secure their own
liberty. The
Emancipation
Proclamation
confirmed their
insistence that the
war for the Union
must become a war
for freedom. It
added moral force to
the Union cause and
strengthened the
Union both
militarily and
politically. As a
milestone along the
road to slavery's
final destruction,
the Emancipation
Proclamation has
assumed a place
among the great
documents of human
freedom. The
original of the
Emancipation
Proclamation of
January 1, 1863, is
in the National
Archives in
Washington, DC. With
the text covering
five pages the
document was
originally tied with
narrow red and blue
ribbons, which were
attached to the
signature page by a
wafered impression
of the seal of the
United States. Most
of the ribbon
remains; parts of
the seal are still
decipherable, but
other parts have
worn off.
The document was
bound with other
proclamations in a
large volume
preserved for many
years by the
Department of State.
When it was prepared
for binding, it was
reinforced with
strips along the
center folds and
then mounted on a
still larger sheet
of heavy paper.
Written in red ink
on the upper
right-hand corner of
this large sheet is
the number of the
Proclamation, 95,
given to it by the
Department of State
long after it was
signed. With other
records, the volume
containing the
Emancipation
Proclamation was
transferred in 1936
from the Department
of State to the
National Archives of
the United Stat |
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