LINCOLN ISSUES PRELIMINARY EMANCIPATION
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The executive order, which declared "all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward, shall be free," came five days following the Battle of Antietam.
The Emancipation, which was to take effect on the first day of January 1863, applied only to states that had left the Union as well as parts of the Confederacy that had come under the control of the Union army.
"The scene was wild and grand. Joy and gladness exhausted all forms of expression, from shouts of praise to joy and tears."
The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation provided that if the South did not end the war and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in the Confederacy would be free. The second Executive Order specified the states to which the order applied.
*The copy was on loan from the Smithsonian Institution.
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The executive order, which declared "all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward, shall be free," came five days following the Battle of Antietam.
The Emancipation, which was to take effect on the first day of January 1863, applied only to states that had left the Union as well as parts of the Confederacy that had come under the control of the Union army.
Frederick Douglass described the moment when the words of the Emancipation came over the telegraph wires...
"The scene was wild and grand. Joy and gladness exhausted all forms of expression, from shouts of praise to joy and tears."
The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation provided that if the South did not end the war and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in the Confederacy would be free. The second Executive Order specified the states to which the order applied.
President Obama Displays a Copy
of the Emancipation Proclamation*
January 18, 2010
Photo by Pete Souza
*The copy was on loan from the Smithsonian Institution.
