What was the name of Abraham Lincoln’s January 1, 1863, order concerning enslaved people in the Confederacy?

Abraham Lincoln’s January 1, 1863, order concerning enslaved people in the rebelling Confederate states was the Emancipation Proclamation. Officially called Proclamation 95, it changed the legal status of enslaved people in areas still in rebellion against the United States.

Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation on September 22, 1862, after the Union claimed victory at the Battle of Antietam. The final proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. It declared freedom for enslaved people in Confederate-held areas, while excluding loyal slave states and certain regions already under Union control.

The proclamation did not immediately end slavery everywhere in the country. Its practical reach depended on Union military advances, and it did not apply to all enslaved people. It also authorized Black men to join the Union armed forces, helping transform the Civil War and the Union war effort.

The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States. That amendment completed the nationwide legal change that the wartime proclamation had begun.