jan 1, 1863 - Emancipation Proclimation

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After the Battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation freed only freed slaves in rebel territories, not border states or states the Union already had control of. This was because Lincoln didn’t want to upset the slave-holding Union states. Legally, the proclamation didn’t do anything because the Union didn’t have jurisdiction in the rebel territories, however it did set a precedent that slavery wouldn’t exist in the new Union.

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