Emancipation Proclamation
Americannoun
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 ]
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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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Soskin’s great-grandmother, Leontine Breaux Allen, was born into slavery in Louisiana and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.
From Los Angeles Times
Most important, the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment freed millions of enslaved people.
Abbe, a committed Republican, probably had endorsed the Emancipation Proclamation.
In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people in the states that had rebelled.
From Literature
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“This is where the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation took place in the South,” I’d tell the girls in a voice I’d lower to a whisper to reflect my reverence of the place.
From Literature
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.