This Day in History: September 22

(WKYT) - In the lead-up to America turning 250 years old, we are looking back at every day in ‘This Day In History.’

On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

The document set a date for the freedom of more than 3 million enslaved in the United States and recast the Civil War as a fight against slavery.

Lincoln informed his cabinet that he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation, but that it would exempt the so-called border states in July 1862.

Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on New Year’s Day in 1863.