50 Fun Facts About Emancipation Proclamation

On what date did the final Emancipation Proclamation take effect?

The final Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863; officially Proclamation 95, it declared slaves in the rebelling states free.

Roughly how many days separated the Preliminary Proclamation from the final one?

Roughly 100 days passed after the preliminary order of September 22, 1862, giving the rebelling states that window to return to the Union before the final proclamation.

Roughly how many enslaved people had their legal status changed by the Emancipation Proclamation?

About 3.5 million enslaved people in the Confederate states were declared free; the loyal border states and certain Union-held districts were excluded.

The Emancipation Proclamation applied only to states in rebellion; how many states did it name?

Eleven states had seceded, but one already under a Union military government was left off the list.

Which seceded state did the Proclamation omit because a Union military government ran it?

Tennessee was omitted; a Union military governor had run it from Nashville since 1862, and the state abolished slavery by its own amendment in February 1865.

Which of these was one of the four border slave states left untouched by the Proclamation?

Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware had not seceded, so Lincoln's war powers gave him no authority over slavery there.

About how many enslaved people in the border states were left out of the Proclamation?

Nearly 500,000 enslaved people in the four loyal border states were untouched, because those states had not seceded and lay outside Lincoln's war powers.

Which Louisiana city, deemed loyal, was exempted from the Proclamation with 13 nearby parishes?

New Orleans, held by Union forces since spring 1862, was exempted along with 13 Louisiana parishes; 48 Virginia counties about to become West Virginia were likewise carved out.

Under what constitutional authority did Lincoln say he was issuing the Proclamation?

Lincoln acted as Commander-in-Chief in wartime, calling the order 'a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion', which is why it could not reach the loyal slave states.

Which battle gave Lincoln the Union victory he wanted before announcing the Preliminary Proclamation?

He called his cabinet together five days after the fighting in Maryland and issued the preliminary order.

The Maryland battle that preceded the Preliminary Proclamation holds what grim distinction?

It was the bloodiest single day in American history, with some 22,700 men killed, wounded or missing near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862.

Who advised Lincoln to delay the Proclamation until a victory so it would not look like a 'last shriek of retreat'?

Secretary of State William Seward made the point at the cabinet meeting of July 22, 1862, and Lincoln put the draft aside until a victory.

Which newspaper editor's 1862 piece 'The Prayer of Twenty Millions' demanded faster emancipation?

Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, published the open letter on August 20, 1862; Lincoln had already drafted the Proclamation in secret.

In his August 1862 reply to a New York editor, what did Lincoln call his 'paramount object' in the war?

'My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union,' Lincoln wrote on August 22, 1862, adding he would free all, some or none of the slaves to do it.

Which Union general declared escaped slaves 'contraband of war' in May 1861 and refused to return them?

Benjamin Butler, commanding Fort Monroe, Virginia, refused to return three escaped men in May 1861, telling the owner's agent he owed nothing to 'a foreign country, which Virginia now claims to be'.

The Second Confiscation Act of July 1862 declared 'forever free' the enslaved people belonging to whom?

It declared forever free the slaves of anyone engaged in rebellion once they came within Union lines; Lincoln signed the act on July 17, 1862.

Besides freeing slaves, what did the Proclamation newly allow former slaves to do?

Tens of thousands of formerly enslaved men took up the offer and served in the Union Army.

Roughly how many black men joined the Union Army during the Civil War?

Nearly 200,000 black men served: about 179,000 in the Union Army and 19,000 in the Navy. Grant called arming them 'the heavyest blow yet given the Confederacy'.

How did the Confederacy respond in May 1863 to the Union's use of black soldiers?

The statute demanded 'full and ample retaliation' and treated slave insurrection as a capital offence.

Which Confederate general called the Emancipation Proclamation a 'savage and brutal policy'?

Robert E. Lee wrote to the Confederate war secretary in January 1863 that the 'savage and brutal policy' left the South 'no alternative but success or degradation worse than death'.

Which abolitionist called the Proclamation 'the greatest event of our nation's history' at Cooper Union in 1863?

Frederick Douglass said it in a Cooper Institute speech in February 1863; in 1876 he gave the keynote at the Emancipation Memorial's dedication, calling Lincoln 'preeminently the white man's President'.

On New Year's Eve 1862, African Americans gathered for what became known as which ceremonies?

Watch Night services, also called 'Freedom's Eve', gathered worshippers to await midnight, when the Proclamation was due to take effect.

Which preacher introduced the New Year's Eve church tradition behind 'Freedom's Eve' in England?

John Wesley adopted the late-night vigil from the Moravian Brethren, who had reached England in the 1730s, and Methodists were holding such services by the early 1740s.

Roughly how many people were immediately freed by the Proclamation in areas the U.S. Army already held?

Perhaps 25,000 to 75,000 people in Union-held districts such as the Sea Islands and parts of North Carolina were freed at once; more gained freedom as the army advanced.

What effect did the Proclamation have on the chances of Britain and France recognising the Confederacy?

It effectively ended them: after the Proclamation and the failed Confederate offensive into Maryland, no European government would side with a slaveholding power against emancipation.

Workers from which English city wrote to Lincoln to 'joyfully honor' the Proclamation despite the cotton famine?

Manchester's cotton workers adopted the address at a Free Trade Hall meeting on December 31, 1862, and Lincoln's reply of January 19, 1863, thanked them for their 'sublime Christian heroism'.

Which phrase in the Gettysburg Address indirectly referred to the Proclamation and ending slavery as a war aim?

'A new birth of freedom' pointed to emancipation as a war aim; Lincoln spoke at the Gettysburg cemetery dedication on November 19, 1863.

Which amendment permanently abolished slavery throughout the United States?

The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in December 1865, bans slavery and involuntary servitude 'except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted'.

The House of Representatives passed the abolition amendment on January 31, 1865, by what vote?

The vote was 119 to 56, just clearing the two-thirds threshold after an earlier House attempt had failed in June 1864 and the Lincoln administration lobbied hard.

Which state's ratification on December 6, 1865, gave the abolition amendment the 27 states it needed?

Georgia's legislature ratified on December 6, 1865, making 27 of the 36 states; the amendment was certified on December 18. Illinois had been first, on February 1.

Which state did not ratify the abolition amendment until 1995, with the paperwork certified only in 2013?

Mississippi's legislature voted to ratify in 1995 but never sent the paperwork; it was filed with the Federal Register in 2013, completing ratification by every state of 1865.

Which two border states kept slavery legal until the abolition amendment took effect in 1865?

Delaware and Kentucky alone kept slavery legal until the amendment took effect in December 1865; Maryland, Missouri and West Virginia had abolished it on their own earlier.

Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when emancipation was finally enforced in which state?

The order read out in Galveston came 900 days after the Proclamation had taken effect.

Which Union general arrived at Galveston on June 19, 1865, to enforce emancipation?

Gordon Granger landed with about 2,000 federal troops and issued General Order No. 3, announcing that 'all slaves are free'; other orders voided the state's wartime legislation.

Juneteenth became a U.S. federal holiday in which year?

President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17, 2021, creating the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

Nine months before the Proclamation, Lincoln signed a law ending slavery where, with compensation for loyal owners?

The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of April 16, 1862, freed about 3,100 people in Washington, D.C., and set aside $1 million to pay loyal owners up to $300 each.

On June 19, 1862, Lincoln signed a law prohibiting slavery where?

The ban covered current and future territories but not the states themselves.

Carpenter's 1864 painting of the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation hangs where?

The painting hangs in the U.S. Capitol, over the Senate's west staircase, after Elizabeth Thompson bought it and gave it to Congress in 1878; Carpenter had painted it in the White House's State Dining Room.

Which room of the modern White House was Lincoln's office, where Carpenter set his painting?

The Lincoln Bedroom: Lincoln's second-floor office doubled as the Cabinet Room, and he showed Carpenter where each member had sat at the first reading.

Whose $5 gift began the drive that funded the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park?

She gave her first earnings in freedom on the day she heard of Lincoln's death; the statue was erected in 1876.

The kneeling freedman on the Emancipation Memorial was modelled on which man?

Archer Alexander, a fugitive from slavery in Missouri, was the model; William Greenleaf Eliot sent his photograph to Thomas Ball, who re-carved the freedman's face to match.

Which phrase in King's 1963 'I Have a Dream' speech recalls the Emancipation Proclamation's signing?

'Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation,' King said from the Lincoln Memorial steps on August 28, 1963.

Which president invoked the Proclamation's centennial in a June 1963 address calling civil rights 'a moral issue'?

John F. Kennedy's televised address of June 11, 1963, said 'one hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves'; he sent Congress a civil rights bill on June 19.

Who designed the 1963 US commemorative stamp for the Emancipation Proclamation's centennial?

Georg Olden, the first African American to design a U.S. stamp, drew the broken chain link; the 5-cent stamp was issued in Chicago on August 16, 1963.

Which vice president tied the Emancipation Proclamation's centennial to civil rights at Gettysburg in May 1963?

Lyndon Johnson said it at Gettysburg's Memorial Day ceremony on May 30, 1963, adding that 'the Negro today asks justice' and that the nation must answer.

Which Union general's August 1861 order freeing Missouri rebels' slaves did Lincoln revoke?

John C. Frémont proclaimed the slaves of Missouri rebels free on August 30, 1861; Lincoln, fearing the loss of the border states, ordered it modified and soon removed him.

Which two 1862 statutes did the Preliminary Proclamation direct 'attention' to?

It cited the additional Article of War of March 1862, which barred the army from returning fugitives, and the Confiscation Act of July 1862; the final Proclamation cited no statute at all.

Which cabinet member heard Lincoln's emancipation plan during a carriage ride on July 13, 1862?

Gideon Welles, the Navy Secretary, rode with Lincoln to the funeral of Stanton's infant son and recorded in his diary that the President had decided emancipation was a military necessity.

What controversial step did Lincoln take two days after issuing the Preliminary Proclamation?

On September 24, 1862, Lincoln issued a proclamation suspending habeas corpus nationwide for anyone hindering the war effort; opponents paired it with emancipation to call him a despot, and Democrats gained seats that autumn.

Which 1857 Supreme Court opinion was effectively repudiated by the June 1862 law banning slavery in the territories?

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) held that Congress had no power to bar slavery from the territories; the June 1862 act simply legislated the opposite.