The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR.

In the third year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 declaring that all people held as slaves in those states “in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”.

JSTOR Daily Membership AdJSTOR Daily Membership Ad

It did not free all the slaves held throughout the US: those people held in border states (loyal to the North) and Southern states already controlled by the Union were not included in the proclamation’s manumission.

Those set free by the proclamation were now able to join the Union Army, resulting in over 100,000 formerly enslaved men eventually fighting for the cause of their own freedom, and that of fellow Americans. It also changed the tenor of the war: each time the North advanced into Confederate territory, more people were freed.

In this second document in our Annotations series, we’ve collected scholarship around Lincoln’s progress toward issuing the Proclamation (including his deliberations between decision and Proclamation), his concerns about the Constitutionality of, and possible challenges to it, the responses of Americans to the decree, and how views of Lincoln held by lay people (and historians) have changed through time. We hope you find it a valuable resource for yourself, and for students.

_____________________________________________________________

January 1, 1863

A Transcription

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Related Content

Facsimile of the original draft of the United States Declaration of Independence with images of the signers around the border.

The Declaration of Independence: Annotated

Related links to free scholarly context on JSTOR for the foundational document in American government.

Resources

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

The American Scholar, Vol. 81, No. 4 (Autumn 2012), pp. 44-53
The Phi Beta Kappa Society
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter 2013), pp. 18-39
University of Illinois Press
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 137, No. 1 (January 2013), pp. 95-114
University of Pennsylvania Press
The North American Review, Vol. 130, No. 279 (Feb., 1880), pp. 163-185
University of Northern Iowa
OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 27, No. 2, Civil War at 150: Turning Points (April 2013), pp. 11-16
Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians
Journal of the Civil War Era, Vol. 3, No. 3 (September 2013), pp. 307-330
University of North Carolina Press
Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Fall 2017), pp. 389-403
Louisiana Historical Association
OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 27, No. 2, Civil War at 150: Turning Points (April 2013), pp. 5-10
Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998-), Vol. 106, No. 3-4 (Fall-Winter 2013), pp. 395-421
University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Illinois State Historical Society
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 137, No. 1 (January 2013), pp. 57-78
University of Pennsylvania Press
The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Jul., 1922), pp. 257-277
The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History
The Supreme Court Review, Vol. 2008, No. 1 (2008), pp. 349-387
The University of Chicago Press
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 160, No. 3 (SEPTEMBER 2016), pp. 247-253
American Philosophical Society
OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 21, No. 4, Lincoln, Race, and Slavery (Oct., 2007), pp. 14-17
Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians