Existing comment:
The Official Emancipation Proclamation
This document represents the transformation of the Emancipation Proclamation from intent to action. Only after this document was signed by Lincoln on January 1, 1863, and the Seal of the United States was affixed, did the Proclamation go into effect. Other signed versions of the Proclamation exist, but only this copy had legal force. The Emancipation Proclamation is among the more than 9,000 Presidential proclamations preserved by the National Archives. |