Emancipation Proclamation

American  

[ih-man-suh-pey-shuhn prok-luh-mey-shuhn] / ɪˈmæn səˌpeɪ ʃən ˈprɒk ləˌmeɪ ʃən /

noun

U.S. History.

1. the proclamation issued by President Lincoln on September 22, 1862, that freed the people held as slaves in those territories still in rebellion against the Union from January 1, 1863, forward.

---

Emancipation Proclamation Cultural  

1. A proclamation made by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that all slaves under the Confederacy were from then on “forever free.”

---

Usage

What was the Emancipation Proclamation? The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by US President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War that ordered the freeing of enslaved peoples in Confederate states not yet captured by Union forces. How is Emancipation Proclamation pronounced?[ ih-man-suh-pey-shuhn prok-luh-mey-shuhn ]

Discover More

In itself, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves, because it applied only to rebellious areas that the federal government did not then control. It did not affect the four slave states that stayed in the Union: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Yet when people say that Lincoln “freed the slaves,” they are referring to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Example Sentences

Soskin’s great-grandmother, Leontine Breaux Allen, was born into slavery in Louisiana and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2025

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863—declaring enslaved people in the rebellious states “forever free” and opening the Union Army to black enlistment—Douglass and other skeptics were electrified.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025

The proclamation recognized slavery as an “inhumane practice” and the Emancipation Proclamation as having “ended its evil stain on American democracy.”

From Slate • Feb. 12, 2025

The news came two months after the end of the Civil War and about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

From Seattle Times • May 20, 2024

When word of Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation reached the Hermitage, all of the newly freed people were told they must legalize their marriages.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis