Today Is February 1

National Freedom Day is a United States observance on February 1 honoring the signing by Abraham Lincoln of a joint House and Senate resolution outlawing slavery that later became the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

By proclamation in 1862 Abraham Lincoln emancipated all the slaves within reach of his northern armies, thereby interpreting the American Civil War as a crusade against slavery. The picture below shows Abraham Lincoln presenting the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet.

Painted by Francis Bicknell Carpenter in 1864.

President Lincoln signed the Amendment outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865. The amendment was passed by the required three-quarters of the states, and became law on December 6, 1865.

From 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa to the Americas with only about 10.7 million surviving the journey.

Mississippi became the last US State to ratify the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution (abolition of Slavery), passed in 1865 on March 16, 1995. It was later discovered the state authorities failed to complete the proper documentation to officially carry this through until 2013.