HCS Inc. - Information Databases - Freedom Documents

        The Emancipation 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 where in a majority of the qualified
voters of such States 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 rebellio, 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 Berkeley, 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; 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-defense; 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 thereof, 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.
 
                                              ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By the President:
 
                WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
                Secretary of State

Return to HCS databases