Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in designated Confederate areas

The Supreme Court ruled that Black people descended from enslaved Africans could not be citizens under the federal Constitution and that Congress could not bar slavery in federal territories. The...

Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter after slaveholding states seceded to protect slavery. Enslaved people escaped to Union lines and pressed the conflict toward emancipation. Their actions...

Congress ended slavery in the federal district and paid compensation to enslavers, while formerly enslaved residents received no comparable payment. Black Washingtonians had petitioned and organized...

The act declared enslaved people held by people engaged in rebellion against the United States to be free and empowered the president to employ Black men in military service. Its reach depended on...

Lincoln announced that enslaved people in areas still rebelling on January 1, 1863 would be declared free. The warning gave Confederate states a period to return to the Union and preserved slavery...

General Orders No. 143 established a bureau to organize Black regiments in the Union Army. Black men had already pressed to fight, and their military service became a direct struggle for freedom and...

The Dutch emancipation law took effect in Suriname and the Caribbean colonies. Many formerly enslaved people in Suriname were compelled to work under state supervision for another ten years, a measure...

The Senate approved a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, sending it to the House for consideration. Passage reflected the Civil War, decades of antislavery struggle, and Black military...

The House passed the amendment abolishing slavery, which was later ratified by the states. Black activists had long demanded abolition and continued to press for equal rights and protection after...

Union troops arrived in Galveston and announced that enslaved people in Texas were free under federal policy. The announcement came more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and...