HISTORY IN BRIEF
On September 23rd, 1862 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring slaves free in states that chose to contest the legitimacy of the Union. The measure did not apply to slave states such as Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, parts of Virginia and Louisiana that were occupied by Northern troops. It was not until December 1865 (when the Thirteenth Amendment passed and was ratified), that slavery was finally abolished nationwide. The interactive 1865 Co.
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