feb 1, 1863 - Emancipation Proclamation

Description:

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in early 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation was a document that freed enslaved people by stating all enslaved people in rebelling states would now be free and could fight for the union army. Many African American men, in fact, wanted to fight, as many wanted to prove that they were more than just enslaved people.
In an excerpt from James McPherson’s essay “Who Freed the Slaves?” he uses a quote from The Black Struggle for Freedom in America Harding wrote, "While Lincoln continued to hesitate about the legal, constitutional, moral, and military aspects of the matter, the relentless movement of the self-liberated fugitives into the Union lines…took their freedom into their own hands." It shows that enslaved people have already taken steps towards getting freedom, prior to Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation.