The Proclamation of Emancipation, by the President of the United States, to take effect on January 1st, 1863

On September 22, 1862, five days after the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It said that slaves in rebel states not under Union control would become free on January 1, 1863. To spread the word among those held in slavery that the president had declared them free, 50,000 miniature copies of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation were printed. These copies were given to African Americans by Union soldiers as they marched throughout the South.