Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation, decree issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, abolishing slavery in the rebelling Confederate states. A shrewd military and political maneuver designed principally to deprive the Confederacy of its economic base, slavery, the proclamation also boosted the abolitionist cause, and 3 years later the 13th Amendment brought slavery in the U.S. to an end.

See also: Lincoln, Abraham.