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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." This lithograph is a portrait of President Lincoln within the text of the proclamation. His image was produced by writing boldly in the darker sections. Designed by W.H. Pratt, of Davenport, Iowa, this was published in 1865, probably after Lincoln's assassination.

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