1863
Washington, DC, DC · On map
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring all enslaved people in Confederate states to be free. This executive order transformed the Civil War into a fight against slavery and authorized the recruitment of Black soldiers into the Union Army. It applied to approximately 3 million enslaved people in rebelling territories, though it did not immediately free those in Union-held areas.
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