On This Day: Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Issued

September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This document was issued by Lincoln after the Battle of Antietam, threatening to free all slaves in the Confederate states if those states did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. Legally, it was binding only in territory not under the control of Union forces.

The original hand-written copy of this document has been part of the New York State Library’s collections since 1865. The library has published an online exhibit that visitors anywhere can access here.

The online edition of the Atlantic Monthly features a transcript that visitors may access here.

The Memory Project of the Library of Congress features an online site with copies of the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation dated July 22, 1862, the preliminary version dated September 22, a photograph copy of the Emancipation Proclamation dated January 1, 1863, and a letter from President Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges, editor of the Frankfort, Kentucky Commonwealth, dated April 4, 1864.