The Emancipation Proclamation: 150 Years

January 1^st marks the 150^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, the proclamation declared that all persons held as slaves in the rebellious states were forever free.  The proclamation also authorized the acceptance of freed slaves into the U.S. military.

For more, go to the following sources:

• Library of Congress Online Exhibition – Emancipation Proclamation
• Panel discussion on “The Emancipation Proclamation as a Legal Document”
• Video of how curators at the National Archives preserved the original document
• Act of Justice: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War