On what date did Abraham Lincoln issue the final Emancipation Proclamation?

Abraham Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

The proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved people in the Confederate states and regions still in rebellion against the United States. It also authorized Black men to join the Union armed forces.

Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation on September 22, 1862, after the Union victory at Antietam. That document announced that emancipation would take effect on January 1 unless the rebellious states returned to the Union. The final proclamation followed as promised.

The order did not immediately abolish slavery everywhere. It excluded loyal border states and certain Union-controlled areas, and its enforcement depended heavily on advancing Union forces. Nationwide abolition required the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865. The proclamation nevertheless transformed the Civil War’s goals and strengthened the Union war effort.