Issued on 1 January 1863 during the American Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in designated Confederate states and territories to be free. Lincoln presented the order as an exercise of his authority as commander-in-chief and as a necessary military measure for suppressing the rebellion.

The proclamation did not abolish slavery throughout the United States. It excluded loyal slaveholding border states and specified areas of the Confederacy then under Union control. The federal government, including its military and naval authorities, was instructed to recognise and maintain the freedom of those covered by the order.

Lincoln urged the newly freed population to avoid violence except in self-defence and to work for reasonable wages when permitted. He also authorised suitable Black men to enter the United States armed forces. The proclamation made emancipation a stated Union war aim and prepared the way for slavery’s nationwide abolition through the Thirteenth Amendment.