What was the Emancipation Proclamation? Who wrote it?
Emancipation Proclamation #EmancipationProclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a significant executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. It was announced on 1 January, 1863, and declared that all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory were to be set free.
The date, now celebrated as Juneteenth, dates back to 19 June, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and issued General Order No. 3. This order proclaimed the freedom of enslaved people in Texas and informed them that the Civil War had ended and slavery was abolished.
“It was not a perfect solution,” a White House statement from January said. “But it began the active pursuit of perfection, the quest that persists to this day to realize the full promise of democracy in America.”
Slavery was not abolished in the entirety of the US until 31 January, 1865 with the 13th amendment to the consititution being ratified on December 6, 1865.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln had long been an opponent of slavery, but the Emancipation Proclamation was a strategic wartime measure as well. By declaring that enslaved people in Confederate states were free, Lincoln aimed to weaken the Confederacy by undermining its economy, as slave labor was the vital aspect of its agricultural system.
It only applied to those held in Confederate territory that was not yet under Union control. Slavery continued in the border states and in regions under Union control until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865, which officially abolished slavery throughout the entire country.
The original of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1 January, 1863, is in the National Archives in Washington, DC. Juneteenth has been a federal holiday since 2021.