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18631 January 1863 · Washington, D.C.

Emancipation Proclamation

President Lincoln's cottage at the Soldiers' Home in Washington, where he worked on the Emancipation Proclamation
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Abraham Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation in the summer of 1862, partly while staying at his family's cottage at the Soldiers' Home in Washington. It declared enslaved people in Confederate-held areas free and opened the Union army to Black men, about 180,000 of whom served. It made the Civil War a war against slavery, which the 13th Amendment abolished in 1865.

Sites

  1. Site 1: President Lincoln's CottageSummer house where Lincoln worked on the proclamation.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Emancipation Memorial, Lincoln Park1876 statue paid for by freed people, now much debated.Map ↗

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