Hulton Getty Picture Collection

Abraham Lincoln, President (1861-1865), at the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which gave slaves their freedom

This is the text of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation 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 be then, thenceforward and forever, free, and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof; will recognise and act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any effort they may make for their active freedom. That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States, and the fact that any State, and 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 stong 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 the said rebellion, do, on this, the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and, in accordance with my purpose so do to, publicly proclaim for the full period of one hundred days from the first day 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. James, Ascension, Assumption. Terrebonne, Lafourche, 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 the 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 the 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 recognise 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 labour 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 the 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 judgement of mankind, and the gracious favour of Almighty God.

. . In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the united States of the affixed (L.S.) Done at the city of Washington, this, the 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.

A. Lincoln