Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862. The author, President Abraham Lincoln, stated that the proclamation declared all slaves held within states of rebellion against the United States government be freed on January 1, 1863. On July 2, 1862 a preliminary draft was read to Lincoln's cabinet members. The final and explicit draft of the emancipation proclamation, issued January 1, 1863, took the United and Confederate states by storm.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln was very reluctant to issue any decree that would free slaves. Abolitionists and protesters of slavery consistently urged Lincoln to emancipate slaves in the Confederate South. Lincoln truly believed that the only reason the Civil War was being fought was to preserve the Union. He wanted no part in pushing away the slaveholding border states that had remained faithful to the Union during the war.…
