This day in history from the American Civil War takes us to the The Emancipation Proclamation.

The document which is divided into two separate segments of two executive orders set forth by President Abraham Lincoln.

The first order came to bear just after September 17th 1862 which is when the horrible battle took place near the town of Sharpsburg MD. The battle has become known as the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln visited General McClellan after that fray to view the devastation of places where men died by the score such as the Bloody Lane and Miller’s Cornfield. Over 23,000 men fell on that horrid September day.

The first decreeing order was issued September 22, 1862. The order declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863.

The second order, issued January 1, 1863, stated ten particular states where it would apply.

The Proclamation was condemned by many folks for freeing slaves over which did not fall under the auspice of the Union.

Most slaves were not freed, the Proclamation brought freedom to thousands of slaves on the day it went into effect in parts of nine of the ten states to which it applied.

Texas was the tenth state that ended up being the exception to the Proclamation.

The Proclamation set forth an official structure for the liberation of virtually  four million slaves. This committed the Union to the termination of the slave trade in America.

Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, were four states that had not declared secession, so the slaves that existed in these states were not covered under the Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

"Slavery is an atrocious debasement of human nature."

Ben Franklin