Emancipation Proclamation

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a proclamation providing for the emancipation of the slaves in certain parts of the Confederate States, issued as a war measure by President Lincoln, Jan. 1, 1863. The number of slaves emancipated by this proclamation was, taking the census of 1860 as a basis, as follows: Alabama 435,080 Arkansas 111,115 Florida 61,745 Georgia 462,198 Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Texas 182,566 Virginia Total. The number of slaves not affected by its provisions was about 832,000. The full text of the proclamation is as follows: "Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and sixtytwo, 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 State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforth and forever free, and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval officers 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 shall 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 wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State 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 Goverment of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said. rebellion, 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 proclaim for the full period of one hundred days from the day of the 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, Terre Bonne, 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; and that the Executive Government of the United 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 recom- 247,715 mend to them that, in all cases, when allowed, 436,631 they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 331,059 And I further declare and make known, that 402,046 such persons, of suitable conditions, will be received into the armed service of the United 450,000 States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in 3,120,155 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 testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. [L. S.] 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 the eighty-seventh. By the President ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.