What is the emancipation proclamation?

Find out more about the history of Emancipation Proclamation, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com. read more

The Emancipation Proclamation, or Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. read more

The Emancipation Proclamation was a document signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 freeing the slaves then held in the states in rebellion to the United States. read more