FREEDOM SHRINE

Emancipation Proclamation

1863

• Perhaps the most well known executive order and presidential proclamation in United States history, the Emancipation Proclamation (also known as Proclamation 95) was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. This order declared that all slaves in states rebelling against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free” and that the federal government of the United States would “recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons.” This order did not apply to the border slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri; however, because the vast majority of slaves were in States rebelling against the Union, the proclamation applied to 3.1 million slaves out of the 4 million slaves in the country. The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed former slaves to join the military; 200,000 free blacks joined the Union army to fight the Confederacy after the executive order. Initially, the goal of the Civil War was to maintain the integrity of the Union. However, this proclamation broadened the Union’s goal of the war to abolishing slavery, which eventually occurred with the passage of the 13th amendment.