President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring enslaved people in Confederate states to be free.
The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States.
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Juneteenth, June 19, marks the day in 1865 when news of freedom reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.
A New Birth of Freedom
These milestones transformed the meaning of liberty in America and remain central to the nation’s history.