jan 1, 1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation

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President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

=> while the proclamation did not actually free any slaves, it helped to shift the Union's goals in the war towards the ultimate abolition of slavery

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