About This Document
- Author
- Abraham Lincoln
- Date
- 1 January 1863
- Type
- Proclamation
- Rights
- Public domain in the United States (a work of the federal government, 1863).
Historical Context
On 22 September 1862 President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation warning that on 1 January 1863 all persons held as slaves in any state or part of a state still in rebellion would be declared free. The final proclamation, issued on that date and quoting the earlier one, did exactly that, naming the states and parts of states to which it applied and justifying the act as “a fit and necessary war measure” under Lincoln’s authority as commander in chief.
The proclamation was limited. It applied only to the states in rebellion, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states, and it expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy already under Union control, among them thirteen Louisiana parishes including New Orleans, the counties that became West Virginia, and several Virginia counties and cities. Its promise of freedom depended on Union military victory. Yet after 1 January 1863 every advance of federal troops widened the territory of freedom, and the proclamation announced that Black men would be received into the Army and Navy. By the end of the war nearly 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors had served the Union.
Enslaved people had been seizing their own freedom since the first months of the war, and the proclamation confirmed what they had insisted on: that a war for the Union had become a war for freedom. Because it rested on war powers, it could not by itself end slavery everywhere or guarantee that emancipation would survive the peace. That work fell to the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in December 1865. The signed original, five pages once tied with red and blue ribbon, is held by the National Archives.
The Document
Full text, as transcribed by the National Archives. The bracketed parenthesis in the list of exempted Virginia counties is the transcriber’s.
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.
Transcription: National Archives and Records Administration, “Transcript of the Proclamation,” Emancipation Proclamation, 1 January 1863; Presidential Proclamations, Record Group 11, General Records of the United States Government. View the source
Questions for Discussion
- Lincoln justifies the proclamation as “a fit and necessary war measure.” Why might he have grounded emancipation in military necessity rather than in moral principle, and what were the costs of that choice?
- Read the list of places excepted from the proclamation. Why would Lincoln leave slavery in place in the border states and in Union-held parts of the South?
- The proclamation freed almost no one on the day it was signed. Why, then, do historians call it a turning point in the war?
- What does the proclamation ask of the people it declares free, and what does it offer them? How would you judge that exchange?
- Why was a constitutional amendment still necessary after the proclamation? Compare this text with the Thirteenth Amendment.
Sources
- National Archives, “Transcript of the Proclamation,” Emancipation Proclamation, 1 January 1863. Link
- National Archives, “The Emancipation Proclamation,” featured document. Link
- National Archives, “13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865),” Milestone Documents. Link
Related on Black-History.com
Cite this page
- MLA
- “The Emancipation Proclamation.” Black-History.com, 30 Sept. 2026, https://black-history.com/primary-sources/emancipation-proclamation/.
- APA
- Black-History.com Editors. (2026, September 30). The Emancipation Proclamation. Black-History.com. https://black-history.com/primary-sources/emancipation-proclamation/
- Chicago
- Black-History.com Editors. “The Emancipation Proclamation.” Black-History.com. September 30, 2026. https://black-history.com/primary-sources/emancipation-proclamation/.
By the Black-History.com editors. Last reviewed 30 September 2026. To suggest a primary source or a correction, write to editors@black-history.com or use our corrections form.