History of The Emancipation Proclamation

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 States.

The Emancipation Proclamation
January 1, 1863
A Transcription

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United 
States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-three, 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; and the Executive Government of the United States, 
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom 
of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in 
any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate
the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then 
be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, 
shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by 
members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such 
State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, 
be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then 
in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the 
power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United 
States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the 
United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, 
do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the 
full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate
as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day 
in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson,
St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary,
St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, 
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties 
designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, 
Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and 
Portsmouth), and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this
proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that 
all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and 
henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including 
the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, 
unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, 
they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be 
received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, 
and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, 
upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious 
favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the 
United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

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