Illustration: The first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation
to President Lincoln's cabinet.
On New Year's Day, 1863, cheering crowds
filled the streets in northern cities. They were celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President
Abraham Lincoln. It freed all the slaves in states rebelling against the federal government. In reality it freed
no one right away, since Lincoln had no control over the Confederacy. But it gave great moral force to the North's
war effort and pointed the way to the eventual freedom of all slaves
Lincoln, "The Great Emancipator," did not live to see the end of slavery. But 8 months after his
death in 1865, the states ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing slavery throughout the U.S.
DID YOU KNOW...During the last years of the Civil War, 500,000 slaves escaped from the South. Many of them joined
the Union army.
For additional information on the Civil War...Slavery...President Lincoln
and much much more CLICK
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On New Year's Day, 1863, cheering crowds
filled the streets in northern cities. They were celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President
Abraham Lincoln. It freed all the slaves in states rebelling against the federal government. In reality it freed
no one right away, since Lincoln had no control over the Confederacy. But it gave great moral force to the North's
war effort and pointed the way to the eventual freedom of all slaves