Who issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War?

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War.

Lincoln issued the final proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the United States fought the Confederate states that had seceded. It declared enslaved people in areas still in rebellion to be free, although it did not apply to loyal slave states or Confederate areas already under Union control.

The document changed the war’s stated purpose by making emancipation a central Union objective. It also authorized formerly enslaved men to join the Union Army and Navy. By the end of the war, nearly 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors had served in Union forces.

The proclamation did not by itself abolish slavery everywhere in the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, permanently abolished slavery nationwide. Another common mix-up is confusing Lincoln’s preliminary proclamation, issued on September 22, 1862, with the final version that took effect on New Year’s Day 1863.