Emancipation Proclamation

[ ih-man-suh-pey-shuhn prok-luh-mey-shuhn ]

noun

, U.S. History.

1. the proclamation issued by President Lincoln on September 22, 1862, that freed the people held as slaves in those territories still in rebellion against the Union from January 1, 1863, forward.

Emancipation Proclamation

1. A proclamation made by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that all slaves under the Confederacy were from then on “forever free.”

Notes

In itself, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves, because it applied only to rebellious areas that the federal government did not then control. It did not affect the four slave states that stayed in the Union: Delaware , Maryland , Kentucky , and Missouri . Yet when people say that Lincoln “freed the slaves,” they are referring to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Example Sentences

As many Americans commemorate Juneteenth this week – a day marking when the promises of the Emancipation Proclamation were finally delivered and the last enslaved people were freed, a day that Black Americans have celebrated for years that Biden recently made a federal holiday – we must shine a light on the shameful exception that allows forced labor to continue in new forms.

From Salon

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued during the Civil War.

From Seattle Times

The news came two months after the end of the Civil War and about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

From Seattle Times

When he first announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln officially ended the enslavement of people halfway through the Civil War.

From National Geographic Kids

That’s one reason why Granger and his Union army came to Texas more than two months after the end of the war—and over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation—to make sure slave owners were following the new law and letting enslaved people go free.

From National Geographic Kids