USPS on 1 January 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln signed on 1 January 1863 with a first day commemorative stamp.
Renowned graphic designer Gail Anderson partnered with art director Antonio Alcalá to design the stamp. It prominently features the phrase, “Henceforward Shall Be Free,” which is taken from the historic document. It also notes Abraham Lincoln’s name and the year the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
In the summer of 1862, the Confederates scored one victory after another. President Lincoln believed freeing slaves would weaken the South by greatly reducing its labor force. He prepared a proclamation that would free slaves in the Rebel states, but needed a Union victory to win support in the North. That chance came in September, when Northern forces stopped a Confederate invasion at Antietam, Maryland.
Within weeks, Commander-in-Chief Lincoln gave the Rebel states the choice to rejoin the Union before the new year or their slaves “henceforward shall be free.” The focus of the Civil War changed from restoring the Union to ending slavery.
On the first day of 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The order only applied to slaves in Confederate states, but thousands of black refugees, or “contrabands of war,” at Union-held forts in the South celebrated their liberty. Young black men tasting freedom for the first time joined the U.S. Army and Navy in its fight to restore the Union and grant liberty to those still in bondage.
Lincoln’s proclamation had no effect on the daily life of many slaves. Their freedom came two years later, when the 13th Amendment was ratified, ensuring “slavery nor involuntary servitude” would never again “exist within the United States.”
Source: Mystic Stamps
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