Brooks Kraft/Corbis via Getty Images

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Brooks Kraft/Corbis via Getty Images

The Emancipation Proclamation on display at the National Archives in Washington in 2006.

Michel Martin

Michel Martin

Stephen Voss/NPR

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Stephen Voss/NPR

Michel Martin

Stephen Voss/NPR

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

Noel King

Noel King

Sandy Honig/NPR

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Sandy Honig/NPR

Noel King

Sandy Honig/NPR

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free;

Sam Sanders

Sam Sanders

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and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

Morgan Noelle Smith/NPR

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States;