Which United States president issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War?

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.

Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, after the Union victory at Antietam. The final proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. It declared enslaved people in areas still in rebellion against the United States to be free.

The proclamation used Lincoln’s wartime powers as commander in chief. It did not immediately abolish slavery everywhere in the country: it exempted loyal slave states and certain Union-controlled areas. Its legal and practical impact expanded as Union armies occupied Confederate territory.

The proclamation also authorized Black men to serve in the Union Army and Navy. Nearly 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors ultimately served the Union cause. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in December 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States and completed the constitutional change beyond the proclamation’s wartime scope.