On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Attempting to stitch together a nation mired in a
bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln made a last-ditch, but carefully calculated, decision regarding the institution of slavery in America.
On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which set a date for
the freedom of more than 3 million enslaved in the United
States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.
On August 20, 1619, “20 and odd” Angolans, kidnapped by
the Portuguese, arrived in the British colony of Virginia and
are then bought by English colonists.
The arrival of the enslaved Africans in the New World marked
the beginning of two and a half centuries of slavery in North
America.
July 28, 1868: Following its ratification by the necessary three-
quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship
to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including formerly enslaved people—was officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Secretary of State William Seward issues a
proclamation certifying the amendment.
William Henry Seward
(May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872)
The movement that would create the anti-slavery party first
met here in Ripon, Wisconsin.
The former members of the Whig Party met to establish a new
party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories.
The Whig Party, which was formed in 1834 to oppose the “tyranny”
of President Andrew Jackson, had shown itself incapable of
coping with the national crisis over slavery.
