The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal,” but it did not deal with the difficult issue of slavery in the United States. The differences between the North and the South on slavery eventually led to the Civil War (1861-1865). …

The Emancipation Proclamation stated that slaves in the Confederate states (the states that wanted to separate from the United States) were free, and that the Union military would fight to preserve that freedom. It only applied to states that were “in …

The Emancipation Proclamation invited former slaves to join the Union military. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 newly freed African-American soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union. The original Emancipation Proclamation is now at the National …

The Gettysburg Address was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery (now called the Gettysburg National Cemetery) at Gettysburg, PA. The dedication of the cemetery was an important …

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address begins with the words, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Lincoln's statement refers …