When the Civil War began, President Lincoln said its purpose was to save the Union, not to end slavery. But after a year, he changed his mind. That is when he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in secret. To “emancipate” means to set free, and a proclamation is an order to do something. Therefore, the Emancipation Proclamation was an order that freed the slaves in all the states that had left the Union. President Lincoln thought the freed slaves would join the Union army. Lincoln’s advisors asked him to wait for a victory in a battle before telling everyone about his new plan, so it would not look like the government needed the extra army power to save the Union.
President Lincoln waited three months until the Union army won an important victory at the Battle of Antietam. In 1862, Lincoln warned the Confederate States that he would free their slaves if they did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. The Confederates ignored him, so on New Year’s Day in 1863, President Lincoln enacted the Emancipation Proclamation. He declared the slaves in all Confederate areas to be “forever free.” It took 2.5 years for all of the slaves to be free. On June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas – the last, farthest Confederate state – to free the remaining slaves. This day is now nationally celebrated as “Juneteenth.”