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On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all enslaved people in Confederate states should be freed as of Jan. 1, 1863, if the states did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union.

Two months earlier, Lincoln had told his cabinet and adviser he would issue the proclamation after the Union Army had achieved a substantial military victory.

It was a calculated move, because the Civil War’s outcome was not yet determined. In fact, there was some indication that Britain and France were set to recognize the Confederacy as a separate nation.

So on Sept. 22, 1862, after a victory at Antietam, he publicly announced a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,

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