United States
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect during the Civil War. It declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territories to be free, altering the war’s aims from solely preserving the Union to also ending slavery. The order encouraged formerly enslaved people to seek freedom behind Union lines and authorized the enlistment of Black soldiers in the U.S. Army and Navy. While it did not immediately free all enslaved people, it paved the way for broader abolition. The measure reshaped international opinion, reducing the chance of foreign recognition of the Confederacy. It set the stage for the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery nationwide in 1865.
