📅 16 April 1862
The District of Columbia Emancipation Act ended slavery in Washington. The law compensated loyal enslavers and encouraged voluntary emigration. Its provisions illustrate the limits of reform that...
📅 22 September 1862
Abraham Lincoln announced that enslaved people in territories still in rebellion at the start of the following year would be declared free. Enslaved people’s flight and abolitionist pressure had...
📅 1 January 1863
The proclamation declared freedom for enslaved people in designated Confederate territory and opened military service to Black men. It did not abolish slavery everywhere. Freedom seekers and Black...
