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The Emancipation Proclamation
By Abraham Lincoln

A Proclamation by the

President of the United States of America
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.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State

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
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 government 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 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 Berkley, 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-defence; 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 whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.