In 1861 a war broke out between the northern states and eleven southern states of the United States. The southern states wished to form a country of their own. Slavery was one of the causes of the war. Most of the people of the South believed in slavery. Many of them owned slaves. Most of the people of the North were against slavery. There were not many slaves in the North. Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States when the war broke out. On September 22, 1862, he took a very important step. He proclaimed that on the next New Year's Day the slaves of the southern states were to be set free. The proclamation meant the freeing of about three million slaves. It is called the Emancipation Proclamation.
