“The Emancipation Proclamation, as we know it today, was issued on January 1, 1863,” writes Laurent Ross. “September 22 (9/22 Labor History) is the anniversary of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation which announced that all slaves held in states that had seceded from the Union would be legally considered free as of January 1, 1863. So consider it more like a press release than the actual Emancipation Proclamation.”