Title: The Emancipation Proclamation 1863 < Abraham Lincoln < Presidents < American History From Revolution To Reconstruction and beyond
Headings: 
Abraham Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation 1863
By the President of the United States of America:
A PROCLAMATION

Content: But the proclamation did show Americans-- and the world--that the civil war was now being fought to end slavery. Lincoln had been reluctant to come to this position. A believer in white supremacy, he initially viewed the war only in terms of preserving the Union. As pressure for abolition mounted in Congress and the country, however, Lincoln became more sympathetic to the idea. On Sept. 22, 1862, he issued a preliminary proclamation announcing that emancipation would become effective on Jan. 1, 1863, in those states still in rebellion. Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in America--this was achieved by the passage of the 13TH Amendment to the Constitution on Dec. 18, 1865--it did make that accomplishment a basic war goal and a virtual certainty. DOUGLAS T. MILLER
Bibliography: Commager, Henry Steele, The Great Proclamation  (1960); Donovan, Frank, Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation (1964); Franklin, John Hope, ed.,