The Emancipation Proclamation The emancipation proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War, declaring all "slaves within any State, or designated part of a State... then... in rebellion,... shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The states affected were enumerated in the proclamation; specifically exempted were slaves in parts of the South then held by Union armies. Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation marked a radical change in his policy. After out break of the Civil War, the slavery issue was made acute by the flight to Union lines of large numbers of slaves who volunteered to fight for there freedom and t