Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation was a declaration by United States President Abraham Lincoln announcing that all slaves in Confederate territory still in rebellion were freed. The Proclamation exempted slaveholding border states which had not seceded from the Union, and those states already under Union control. While it immediately freed only a small number of slaves (see below), it did authorize their freedom as Union forces took control of former Confederate territory — and it set the stage for slavery's ultimate abolition in the United States.

Historical impact

After the outbreak of the Civil War, numerous slaves volunteer to fight for their freedom on the Union side, and there were also conflicting viewpoints about what to do with slaves in conquered territories. A strict application of existing policy could have required return of fugitive slaves to their Confederate masters, but on March 13, 1862, the federal government forbade all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. On April 10, 1862, Congress declared that the federal government would compensate slave owners who freed their slaves. All slaves in the District of Columbia were freed in this way on April 16, 1862. On June 19, 1862, Congress prohibited slavery in United States territories, thus nullifying the 1857 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott Case, which had ruled that Congress was powerless to regulate slavery in the territories.

Related Topics:
March 13 - 1862 - Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 - April 10 - District of Columbia - April 16 - June 19 - 1857 - Supreme Court of the United States - Dred Scott Case

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The Emancipation Proclamation itself had limited immediate effect upon slavery, except as territory in Confederate states came under Union control. Slaves in the border states (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and West Virginia) which remained loyal to the Union were not affected. Secretary of State William Seward commented on this by remarking, "We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free." Had any seceding state rejoined the Union (or simply returned its congressmen to Washington) before it took effect, it would have been in the same position as the border states and could have kept slavery, at least temporarily (although Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and West Virginia all went on to abolish slavery by their own internal political processes even before the ratification in 1865 of the Constitution's 13th amendment which outlawed slavery uniformly throughout the entire nation).

Related Topics:
Border states - Delaware - Kentucky - Maryland - Missouri - West Virginia - William Seward - 1865 - Constitution's - 13th amendment

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