This Day in History:
Lincoln Issues the
Emancipation Proclamation.
September 22, 1862.
Issued after the Union victory
at Antietam, this preliminary
proclamation granted freedom to
more than 3 million slaves in the South.
The proclamation exempted
the border states, which, though
faithful to the Union, continued
to harbor slaveholders.
In addition, it expanded
the political focus of the Civil
War to include not only the preservation
of the Union, but also the abolition of slavery.
This isolated the South from
anti-slavery nations such as
France and Great Britain, who had
once been conciliatory toward the Rebel states.
The presidential order also
led to the creation of black
military forces in the army and navy.
Three years later in 1865 —
just weeks before Lincoln's
assassination — the 13th Amendment
abolishing slavery in the U.S. was passed