On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, setting a date for the freedom of more than 3 million wrongfully enslaved African Americans.
This proclamation would recast the Civil War as a fight against slavery. After Lincoln’s inauguration as America’s 16th president and the war broke out, the President maintained that was war was about restoring the Union, not slavery. Lincoln was urged by abolitionists and radical Republicans to issue an anti-slavery proclamation immediately. He moved cautiously until he could seek wide public support for such a measure.
In July 1862, Linclon told his cabinet he would issue an emancipation proclamation but it would exempt the border states, which had slaveholders but were loyal to the Union. He was persuaded not to make an announcement until after a Union victory. In September of 1862 after the win at the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln had the opportunity, and on September 22, he announced that enslaved people in areas still in rebellion within 100 days would be free.
Civil War Battles
https://www.americanantiquarian.org/Freedmen/Intros/emancproc.html
Distribution of the Slave Population of the Southern States of the United States Compiled from the Census of 1860
The evolution of Lincoln's thoughts on Slavery
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/emancipation-proclamation
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