This Day in History: <br />Lincoln Issues the <br />Emancipation Proclamation.<br />September 22, 1862.<br />Issued after the Union victory <br />at Antietam, this preliminary <br />proclamation granted freedom to <br />more than 3 million slaves in the South.<br />The proclamation exempted <br />the border states, which, though <br />faithful to the Union, continued <br />to harbor slaveholders.<br />In addition, it expanded <br />the political focus of the Civil <br />War to include not only the preservation <br />of the Union, but also the abolition of slavery.<br />This isolated the South from <br />anti-slavery nations such as <br />France and Great Britain, who had <br />once been conciliatory toward the Rebel states.<br />The presidential order also <br />led to the creation of black <br />military forces in the army and navy.<br />Three years later in 1865 — <br />just weeks before Lincoln's <br />assassination — the 13th Amendment <br />abolishing slavery in the U.S. was passed
