Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation is a pre-War document that has been preserved in the Capitol Preservation Society in Rivet City in 2277.

Background
The document consists of two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. The first one, issued September 22, 1862, declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. The second order, issued January 1, 1863, named the specific states where it applied.

The Emancipation Proclamation was widely attacked at the time as freeing only the slaves over which the Union had no power. In practice, it committed the Union to abolishing slavery, which was a controversial decision in the North. The proclamation did not free any slaves of the border states (Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia), or any southern state (or part of a state) already under Union control. It first directly affected only those slaves who had already escaped to the Union side. Hearing of the Proclamation, more slaves quickly escaped to Union lines as the Army units moved South. As the Union armies conquered the Confederacy, thousands of slaves were freed each day until nearly all (approximately four million, according to the 1860 census) were freed by July 1865.

After the war, abolitionists were concerned that since the proclamation was a war measure, it had not permanently ended slavery. Several former slave states passed legislation prohibiting slavery; however, some slavery continued to exist until the institution was ended by the sufficient states' ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865.

Behind the scenes

 * Originally, this document was not in Abraham Washington's possession, and could be found as an item by the Lone Wanderer in the National Archives. It could later be sold to Leroy Walker or Hannibal Hamlin.

Appearances
The Emancipation Proclamation appears only in Fallout 3.